International Journal of Physics and Chemistry Education
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Determining of The Achievement of Students by Using Classical and Modern Optimization Techniques
Get PDFThe purpose of this study is to investigate effects of sleeping hours and study time on students' achievement and to find at which points the minimum and maximum achievement level occurs. Participants of this study are 8th grade students who are students of a public secondary school in Isparta, Yenisarbademli. 12 students participated in this research. Results of five trial exams that students were used in order to determine achievement levels of students. The data for students sleeping hours and study time emerged from interviews. During the interview, students were asked about that their sleeping hours and study time of in a week period before each exam. Data that emerged from interview were categorized by the researcher. Data were evaluated using MATLAB 7.012. (R2011A). In this study, minimum and maximum points were identified using global optimization methods
The Impacts of Dynamic Geometry Software on Graphing Abilities of Prospective Physics Teachers: GeoGebra Sample
Get PDFDynamic geometry software is computer programs which allow one to visualize abstract concepts as figures and dynamic representations on a computer screen. The effective use of such software as classroom materials becomes possible only when teachers and students have the necessary information and skills. This study aims to identify the graphing abilities of prospective teachers and analyze the impacts of Geogebra, dynamic geometry software, on these abilities. With this aim, a study was conducted on prospective teachers taking general mathematics course. In this study, it was observed that prospective teachers had difficulty especially with drawing and interpreting the graphs of trigonometric and rational functions. However, by using Geogebra they were able to draw and recognize the graphs of functions more easily. By means of interviews with prospective teachers and observations during the performance of activities, findings which verified the same conclusion were also obtained
An Investigation into The Achievement of Junior Secondary School Students Taught Integrated Science Using the Cooperative Learning Strategy in Nigeria
Get PDFThe Instructional strategy is an important variable that affect students’ achievement in science in the classroom setting. The search for the effective strategies that would empower learners to exhibit improved science achievement is the purpose of this work. This study investigated the effect of cooperative learning strategy on the junior secondary school students’ achievement in Integrated Science in Adamawa State. Pre-test, Post-test quasi experimental research design was employed for variable matching. The population was made of all JSS III Students in Adamawa State Secondary Schools in 2011 academic session. The sample consists of 256 JSSIII Students made up of 84 Students in E1 Lecture Method group, 70 Students in E2 Cooperative Learning Strategy group alone and 72 in E3 Cooperative Learning Strategy and Lecture Method group. The treatment groups where randomly selected among selected participating schools intact classes were also randomly selected from the schools where there is more than one arm of JSSIII. Intact teachers known as research assistants after being trained by the researchers administered the treatment in order to remove teacher bias. The instruments used for Data Collection were a 50 items Integrated Science Achievement Test (ISAT). The reliability value of ISAT is 0.71. The instrument was administered before treatment (Pre-test) and after the treatment (Post-test). The data were analyzed using Analysis of Covariance (ANCOVA). Multiple Classification Analysis (MCA) was also used to detect the magnitude of Significant Variations. The results showed that: (i) There was a Significant main effect of treatment on achievement (F (2,207) = 740.95, P<.05). Results show that all the treatment groups benefitted from the treatment. The Lecture group benefitted the least followed by the Cooperative Teaching Strategy group alone; the Lecture Method combine d with Cooperative Learning Strategy group benefitted the most. These findings have implications for the Classroom teacher, students, curriculum designers, text book writers and publishers. In line with these findings it was recommended that Cooperative Learning Strategy, together with Lecture could serve as a viable alternative to the Conventional Lecture Method particularly in the teaching of Integrated Science to Secondary School Students
Editorial
Get PDFWe would like to announce that EJPCE will be published twice a year and so this is the First Issue of Volume 7. We thank for contributions of 10 authors from Thailand, Turkey, and The United States of America in this issue. As you know, EJPCE is open to all studies in any fields of physics and chemistryeducation. It gives us a great pleasure that many science educators have been following our published papers. At that point, I would like to thank all reviewers for their kind help and interest in selecting well-qualified papers for this issue. I hope the EJPCE will shed light on field education and the scientific world. Hope to stay in touch and meet in our next Issue, due to be out on 1st of October 2015
Teaching Basic Vector Concepts: A Worksheet for the Recovery of Students’ Vector Understanding
Get PDFThe investigation of high-school students’ qualitative understanding of graphical vector addition in one and two dimensions has revealed that students did not grasp the important basic concepts about vectors. Based on their misunderstanding, we had designed a worksheet in order to help them learn such topics in class more effectively. The content in the worksheet includes vector directions, magnitude, addition and subtraction. A 2-page worksheet was constructed and distributed to 3 classes of high-school students in a large public school (n=103). Students took approximately 30-40 minutes to complete the worksheet. A seven-item diagnostic quiz was applied as a pre/post-test in order to evaluate the effectiveness of the worksheet. Using paired-sample t-test, results from the diagnostic quiz showed that the students’ average post-test scores for all classes were significantly higher than their average pre-test scores (p<0.000). In addition, the class average normalized gains ranged from 0.69-0.76 which was considered as high gains that might be rarely reached by conducting classes even with active learning activities
Analysis of TSKT Questions on Science Teaching in 2013 PPSE According to Reconstructing of Bloom Taxonomy
Get PDFThe Ministry of National Education (MoNE) in Turkey hires teachers based on the results of the Public Personnel Selection Examination (PPSE). By 2013, the MoNE has decided to do another examination which is called the Teacher Subject Knowledge Test, in 13 different fields in addition to Educational Science Test. By this decision, prospective teachers have to take 3 different sessions including General Skills Test (GST), General Culture Test (GCT), Educational Science Test (EST), and Teacher Subject Knowledge Test (TSKT). The MoNE has selected teachers based on the results of these PPSE P121 tests. Calculation of PPSE P121 has been made by the following: GST %15, GCT %15, EST %20, and TSKT %50. Science education is one of these 13 differentfields. The cognitive levels of questions on TSKT test are related to how ready prospective science teachers are to teach in their subject. The aim of this study is to analyze TSKT questions on science teaching in 2013 PPSS according to reconstructing of Bloom Taxonomy. The requested permission for the analyses of the questions had been taken from the Student Selection and Placement Center (SSPC). The study was conducted using the document analysis method in the framework of qualitative research. At the end of this study; the majority of TSKT questions were found as low cognitive level according to Bloom Taxonomy. Based on the results of this study, some recommendations have been declared for the readers of this study
Undesired Behaviors Faced in Classroom by Physics Teachers in High Schools
Get PDFThe aim of this study is to define undesired behaviors in the classroom, to better understand the reasons of these undesired behaviors, and to offer strategies to overcome these behaviors. The researchers have used a qualitative research approach in this study. For this aim, the researchers have purposefully selected 12 physics teachers who work in different high schools in Amasya, Turkey. Then, the researchers have carried out open-ended interviews with teachers. Each interview lasted around 40 minutes, was recorded and transcribed. After analyzing the collected data, the researchers have found that teachers define undesired behaviors if the behavior 1) inhibited students’ learning 2) distracted the students’ attention 3) destroyed the students’ motivation and 4) reduced students’ desire to study. Furthermore, teachers have declared that because of following reasons, students demonstrate the undesirable behaviors. These are; lack of motivation, hopelessness to learn, hopelessness to be successful, lack of ready for topic, and prejudice to physics. Teachers have also mentioned that there might be some strategies to overcome the undesired behaviors in the classroom. These are; planned ignoring, signal interference, proximity control, using humor to defuse tension, removing distracting objects, changing student places, and time out. The findings of this study show that there exist undesirable behaviors in physics classes. Unless these determined behaviors have been removed, teaching and motivating of students will be more difficult for physics teachers and it negatively affects students’ learning and academic success. In this regard, the researchers have following recommendations: 1) classroom management lessons at the pre-service education level should be taught more efficiently 2) some professional development activities regarding classroom management should be offered for physics teachers 3) physics teachers should be encouraged to collaborate with psychologists, counselors, and guidance specialists to overcome and address undesirable behaviors in classroom 4) school administration should engage parents and collaborate with them by organizing periodical meetings and 5) school administration should arrange some social activities for students in school such as basketball tournament, soccer tournament, theatre, and etc
Physics Teachers’ Views on the Content and Structure of the Physics Teaching Program
Get PDFThe purpose of this study was to explore teachers’ views about the content and structure of the 2007 Physics Teaching Program. The participants were 39 teachers working in 27 different schools in Istanbul. The study was designed as a qualitative case study. The data were collected by conducting semi-structured interviews and were analyzed by employing the constant comparative method. The data showed that 38% of the teachers held positive dispositions towards connections of content with daily life; 74% of the teachers disliked spiral sequencing of content. The teachers raised concerns about discontinuity of content between the 9th grade, in which content is superficial, and the following grades, in which content is dense. The results suggest that context based approach to presenting physics content is appreciated by the teachers, hence, continuing the emphasis on the daily life connections can be recommended. The result simplifies a necessity to differentiate the curriculum to match different student needs and to convince teachers about the necessity of multiple goals of the curriculum
A Model for CLIL in School Chemistry Classes: Combining the Aims of CLIL and Chemistry Teaching
Get PDFContent and Language Integrated Learning (CLIL) is a concept that could help reach the linguistic goal of the EU, namely that every citizen should be able to communicate in at least two languages apart from his or her mother tongue. So far in Germany, the subject chemistry is rarely taught as a CLIL subject; possibly because the goals of foreign language learning and the goals of science teaching seem to diverge. This article presents a model that integrates the aims of CLIL with the aims of science teaching, in order to show how both language competence and scientific learning goals can be promoted within one integrated concept
Teaching of Apparent Mass Increase for Understanding News Media on the Higgs Boson and Crystallized Intelligence Assessment for Community College Physics Students
Get PDFNews Media has been an obvious convenient information source for college students due to their digital experience. The recent discovery of the Higgs boson and the confirmation of the Brout-Englert-Higgs mechanism as reported in the News Media had created confusion among our community college students as they are familiar with the concept of the negative contribution of the binding energy to the mass term taught in physics as well as in chemistry classes. Related questions such as “Would a body mass come mainly from the BEH mechanism?” would become difficult to answer without some numerical illustrations at the community college level. Given this student learning challenge, examples such as a force pulling on a composite 2-block system with internal motion and a truck as a driven oscillator on a washboard road have been formulated to supplement the News Media information. The explanation of apparent mass increase for zero initial mass (via dispersion relation) and the spontaneous symmetry breaking that would support small oscillation (bosons) at the lowest energy state with non-zero field value are also included for students interested in studying physics in a community college. Physics education research assessment in terms of fluid intelligence development, crystallized intelligence practice, and one-shot versus incremental learning are discussed