Dissertations and Theses @ UNI
Availability
Open Access Thesis
Keywords
Effective teaching; Physics--Study and teaching (Secondary);
Abstract
Of importance to many teachers is that students emerge from a course of study with an acceptable level of comprehension of the subject matter presented and that students' course grades reflect that understanding. The primary question of this research was, "How effective in promoting comprehension of Newtonian concepts is this teacher's use of selected interactive strategies?" Secondary questions were: 1. What modifications to instruction, if any, have to be made for implementation of interactive-engagement strategies? 2. Following instruction in mechanics, which misconceptions probed by the Force Concept Inventory (FCI) are retained by students, and which misconceptions are corrected? 3. How do semester grades correlate with FCI scores? The students (N = 96) were juniors and seniors in a suburban high school southwest of Houston, Texas. Most were concurrently taking Honors/GT/Pre-AP Physics and precalculus, 15 were classified as gifted and talented ( GT), and 23 belonged to an ethnic minority. The researcher had 12 years of experience teaching science, including one year of physics. Three interactive strategies were selected to increase student engagement: ConcepTests, ranking tasks, and online homework. Student-centered discussions increased and passive reception of material was curtailed. Consequently, fewer topics were presented than had been during the previous year. The FCI was administered in December of 1999 to obtain an objective score of student learning and to identify concepts not understood by a majority of students. Descriptive statistical analysis revealed a mean FCI score of 16.48 out of a maximum raw score of30 with a standard deviation of 5.5 and a range of30-6 correct responses. The mean semester grade was 85.16 on a 100-point scale with a standard deviation of 6.0 and a range of 97-70. Semester grades correlated with FCI scores yielded a coefficient correlation of +.6. Semester grades appeared to reasonably reflect student achievement. Constant acceleration, the Second Law, and gravitational force were not well understood. Vector addition and canceling forces were also problematic. Students performed better on questions probing the First Law, Third Law, and contact forces. Students' misconceptions include those related to impetus, active force, action/reaction pairs, and concatenation of influences.
Year of Submission
2001
Degree Name
Master of Arts in Education
Department
Department of Biology
First Advisor
Cherin Lee
Second Advisor
Roy Unruh
Third Advisor
Michael Thoresen
Date Original
2001
Object Description
1 PDF file (77 leaves)
Copyright
©2001 April Crawford Moore
Language
en
File Format
application/pdf
Recommended Citation
Moore, April Crawford, "Teaching Effectiveness in an Introductory High School Honors Physics Course as Measured by the Force Concept Inventory" (2001). Dissertations and Theses @ UNI. 2152.
https://scholarworks.uni.edu/etd/2152
Comments
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