Students' perception of the mechanisms for conceptual change in physics

• Main Author: Hirschkorn, Mark A
• Format: Dissertation
• Language: English
• Subjects: science education; secondary education
• ISBN: 9780612956742; 0612956741

The purpose of this study is to examine students' perception of their conceptual change in physics. The design for this study was grounded theory, consisting of in-depth, open-ended interviews with thirteen Grade 12 physics students. It was found that the students valued: (1) Making what they were learning real to themselves by connecting their everyday worlds to what they were learning in class; (2) Being given responsibility for their own learning; (3) Repetition of the core concepts in different contexts; (4) Timely feedback from the teacher on whether their answers are right or wrong and why; and (5) The newer conceptual initiatives they were exposed to like the MAP applets and related practical work. By contrasting the relevant literature with observation of the participants, it was found that the most reasonable explanation for the students' responses and differences in conceptual understanding was differences in the students' motivation, rather than ineffective conceptual change strategies.