Study of conceptual understanding of physics of grade 10 students in the district of Matale
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Date
2010
Authors
Wijeratne, K. G. H. B. Rev.Fr.
Journal Title
Journal ISSN
Volume Title
Publisher
The University of Peradeniya
Abstract
It is recognized that an important objectives of teaching and learning Physics in schools is to promote the understanding and the application of Physics principles and concepts. A student of Physics should be able to observe, to think logically, to draw conclusions, and to make the right decisions.
One of the main objectives of this project was to investigate the level of conceptual understanding of Physics of the students of grade ten, in the district of Matale. For this, four popular schools, representing all four educational zones in the district, were selected to gather information. The next part of the project was to produce an extra reading material with conceptual questions and answers to improve the knowledge of basic concepts of Physics. The effectiveness of the new reading material was tested with a sample of 116 students from the Central College, Galewela. The main sources of collecting data were interviews and test papers with conceptual questions.
The result of this project portraits that the ordinary way of teaching has done little to improve students’ understanding of the central concepts of Physics, even if the students successfully learn problem solving algorithms. Further it testifies that exposing students to various types of conceptual questions enhance their logical thinking and understanding of concepts in Physics.
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Keywords
Science education , Teaching methods