Research Proposal FACTORS THAT INFLUENCE THE MISCONCEPTIONS IN PHYSICS AMONG STUDENTS

FAUZIATI AB WAHAB

BACHELOR IN EDUCATION (HONS) SCIENCE (PHYSICS) UNIVERSITI TEKNOLOGI MARA Universiti Teknologi MARA 2012
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CHAPTER 1 INTRODUCTION

1.1

Introduction

During the past few years, since Malaysia had sent first astronaut to ISS, there have been a rapidly increasing interest in physical science on the part of primary and secondary school in Malaysia. Nowadays, students are very eager to be successful and follow the roles of Dr Shiekh Muzzaffar Shukor, Malaysian first astronaut and be a person that can be proud of. Consequently, the teaching of physics principles concept is spreading rapidly thus it is very important to students not only know about the concept and theory but also need to be understand in both breadth and depth. The reality of school teaching today seem not to adequate in learning the real Physics, teachers is stress on to finish the syllabus by the school administration and this may lead teachers give only information to students not the knowledge that students can use in everyday life. In example, teachers teach about the law of Newtons motion and how to use the formula to solve the questions, but rarely teachers explain deeply the concept and theory that lies behind Newtons Law. In the end, students just know how to solve the question but didnt really know and understand about the concept and theory, consequently the students may face misconception in various physics and science theory and students may face difficulty when they learning in higher education.

There are five categories of students misconception in science physics which are preconceived notions, nonscientific belief, Conceptual misunderstanding, vernacular

misconceptions and factual misconception. This study will focus on the conceptual understanding that stretch on identify the students misconception in concept, law, definition and theory of physics by using the identification method of questioning, Observing and listening, and problem solving. Hopefully, this study may become one step to give the students opportunity to increase their learning development. 1.2 Background of study

Learning science physics is really interesting and challenging, to develop a modern country, there is no doubt that Malaysia need high qualification citizens that can be develop and invent something for the country. Thus, there is crucial need to students learn and masters in science and especially in physics. But, when the students only know how that one plus one is two and not the real understanding why one plus one is two not one plus one is 1, then the learning development can be say as failed. Know how to do it is important, but know how the that think happen also important, the students not only focus on cognitive skill (way of thinking) but also need to focus on meta cognition (thinking about the way of thinking), then at this level students can come out with the surprise result. In conjunction with that, knowing about students misconception in science physics will help teachers and students to concentrate on what they do not know instead focus on what they know. This study will identify and examine what the misconception that occur among students and how this misconception happen.

1.3

Statement of research problem

This study will focus on the conceptual misunderstanding among student by using identical method which are questioning, Observing and listening, and problem solving.

1.4

Rationale of study

The misconception in science physics theory may lead the students not understand the concept and it is wrong to interpret something wrong. The misconceptions may become worst when the students reach in high level education because it may cause of students fed up to continue the study. When the teachers know the tendency of misconception among students in particular concept and theory, the teachers can explain or make an experiment to make sure the students will not misunderstand about the concept or theory. Thus this study will help teachers and students know their misconception in science physics and amendment it.

1.5

Purpose of study

Specifically, the study is conducted to fulfill the following objective: 1) To examine the science physics misconception among students. 2) To identify the misconception by using questioning, observing and listening, and problem solving method 3) To figure out the solution to correct back the misconception among students

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Research questions 1. What is misconception in science physics? 2. What are the relationship between questioning and misconception among student? 3. What are the relationship between Observing and listening, and misconception among student? 4. What are the relationship between problem solving and misconception among student?

1.7

Limitation of study

This study only focus on misconception not the whole concept of science, the researcher will use the Newtons Law as the research matter. The students that will be investigate is the all the form five science students from Sekolah Menengah Sains Machang, one of the candidate for Sekolah Berprestasi Tinggi,

1.8

Definition of term

scientific misconceptions have their foundations in a few "intuitive knowledge domains, including folkmechanics (object boundaries and movements), folkbiology (biological species configurations and relationships), and folkpsychology (interactive agents and goal-directed behavior)",[1] that enable humans to interact effectively with the world in which they evolved (Wikipedia)

1.9

Conceptual framework

Questioning

Problem solving

Identifying student's misconception in Physics

Observing

Listening

CHAPTER 2 LITERATURE REVIEW

2.0

Introduction

In this chapter, the researcher will review any previous study and previous research regarding the topic and subtopic that have been decided. This literature review also may join all the info, ideas, thought, believe, definition, and opinion from other researcher.

2.1

What is misconception?

In the context of Socratic instruction, student misconceptions are identified and addressed through a process of questioning and listening. A number of strategies have been employed to understand what students are thinking prior, or in response, to instruction. These strategies include various forms of "real type" feedback, which can involve the use of colored cards or electronic survey systems (clickers). Another approach is typified by the strategy known as "Just in Time Teaching". Here students are asked various questions prior to class, the instructor uses these responses to adapt his or her teaching to the students' prior knowledge and misconceptions. Finally, there is a more research-intensive approach that involves interviewing students for the purpose of generating the items that will make up a concept inventory. Concept inventories require intensive validation efforts. Perhaps the most influential of these concept inventories to date has been the Force Concept Inventory (FCI). Concept inventories can be particularly helpful

in identifying difficult ideas that serve as a barrier to effective instruction. Concept Inventories in natural selection and basic biology have been developed. (Wikipedia)

2.2

Scientific misconceptions

Cognitive scientists (scientists who study how people learn) have shown that physics students come into physics class with a set of beliefs that they are unwilling (or not easily willing) to discard despite evidence to the contrary. These beliefs about motion (known as misconceptions) hinder further learning. The task of overcoming misconceptions involves becoming aware of the misconceptions, considering alternative conceptions or explanations, making a personal evaluation of the two competing ideas and adopting a new conception that is more reasonable than the previously held-misconception. This process involves self-reflection (to ponder your own belief systems), critical thinking (to analyze the reasonableness of two competing ideas), and evaluation (to select the most reasonable and harmonious model that explains the world of motion). Self-reflection, critical thinking, and evaluation. While this process may seem terribly complicated, it is simply a matter of using your noodle (that's your brain). The most common misconception is one that dates back for ages; it is the idea that sustaining motion requires a continued force. This misconception sticks out its ugly head in a number of different ways and at a number of different times. View physics as a system of thinking about the world rather than information that can be dumped into your brain without evaluating its consistency with your own belief systems.

CHAPTER 3 RESEARCH METHADOLOGY

3.0

Introduction

The aim of this research is identify students misconception in science physics. The methodology that is used in this study is both quantitative and qualitative in nature. The first part in this chapter will elaborate the research design where the researcher intends to discuss in depth the design of the methodology that is used along the study occurs. Meanwhile the second part, the researcher will state briefly about the population and sample of this study and the third part is about instrumentation that is used in this case study. Next it will be followed by the data collection as the final point in this chapter. 3.1 Research design

The researcher will use set of questionnaire that consists of the 30 question on students misconception. The questionnaire will be divided into demographic analysis, causes of misconception and factors of misconception. In demographic analysis, the study will focus on gender, age, Science students, physic highest result and students perception on physics subject. Other than that, the researcher develop several question that related to the Newtons Law of motion to figure out the what the students understand and if there is misconception among them, it continue with the simple theory to make students observe and listen to the researcher explanation and explain back in written test. Then, the researcher also constructs the problem in

Newtons Law to be solved by the student. Lastly the researcher will interview several students to be added in analysis. 3.2 Population and sample

The researcher focus on educational population that lead to the Cencus sample of students in form five at the particular school in Kelantan which id Sekolah Menengah Sains Machang. 3.3 Instrumentation

The researcher used the set of questionnaire that divided into three parts. The first part is demographic question that consists of 5 questions. The second part is causes of misconception that will be 15 questions and same as the third part which is factor of misconception among student also 15 questions. The researcher will use the SPSS to interpret the data, for the first part the descriptive analysis will be using to analyze the data. Then, the researcher will use the oneway Anova to interpret the cause and factor of the misconception with the other independent variable like gender and perception of the students. After that, for the qualitative investigation, the test and interview, the researcher will interpret and examine one by one the questions and answer by the students and make a summarization.

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