Physics Education Research has a rich history of identifying common student ideas about specific physics topics. In the context of electric circuits, existing research on students' ideas has primarily focused on misconceptions, misunderstandings, and difficulties. In this paper, we take a resource-oriented approach to identifying common student…

Some descriptions of learning represent the process as the development of organisations of elements. Various organisations have been proposed, for example, schemata and conceptual structures. Such representations assume that mental entities, such as concepts, are sufficiently stable and differentiated to be treated as units. We discuss these…

The purpose of this research was to investigate the effect of simulation-supported inquiry-based learning on pre-service teachers' conceptual understanding of capacitors. The participants consisted of 50 pre-service teachers studying at a state university in Turkey. The participants were divided into two groups of 25 each on the basis of their…

Fostering methods that promote learners' conceptual understanding is crucial for better performance in science subjects. This study investigated how teachers of physical sciences perceive the utilization of Concept Cartoons as a formative evaluation tool. Ten Grade 11 teachers selected from secondary schools in the Nelson Mandela Bay district of…

This study examined the effect of mind mapping instructional strategy on students' retention in physics in senior secondary schools. The research is a quasi-experimental design of the pre-test, post-test, non-equivalent and non-randomized 2 X 2 X 3 factorial design. 64 students were sampled for this study out of which 28 formed the experimental…

This paper presents an intervention aiming to promote students' learning by enhancing their interest in the concept of energy. Junior high school students' learning and interest is evaluated after engaging in activities on work and energy. The intervention integrated hands-on and simulated experiments included a structured series of guided…

The aim of this study was to develop an Active Learning Based-Interactive Conceptual Instruction (ALBICI) model through PDEODE*E tasks (stands for Predict, Discuss, Explain, Observe, Discuss, Explore, and Explain) for promoting conceptual change and investigating its effectiveness of pre-service physics teachers' understanding on electric field…

A quantitative, quasi-experimental study of the effectiveness of computer-based scientific visualizations for concept learning on the part of Year 11 physics students (n = 80) was conducted in six Queensland high school classrooms. Students' gender and academic ability were also considered as factors in relation to the effectiveness of teaching…

Research on conceptual change assumes that students enter a science classroom with prior(mis-)conceptions. When being exposed to instruction, students are supposed to develop or change their conceptions to (more) scientific concepts. As a consequence, instruction typically concentrates on appropriate examples demonstrating that students'…

The intent of this project was to utilize in a unique way some of the recent thinking and research on the teaching learning process so that the lecture method might be replaced by a more effective instructional model. The area of instruction was physical science for the non-science college student. At each meeting a single concept was presented as…

The use of concept maps, diagrams indicating relationships between concepts, as a tool for evaluating student comprehension is discussed, and examples of student concept maps drawn in physics and literature courses are provided. (MSE)

Secondary and college level students were queried as to which fundamental physics concepts were the most difficult to understand. Concepts reported as most difficult included: difference between mass and weight, magnification, indirection, the idea of fields, and potential difference. (SL)

Investigates the nature of college student difficulties with negative values of velocity by using interviews. Discusses graphical representation of negative values of velocity and interpretations of graphs involving negative values of force. Suggests some instructional implications from the discussion. (YP)

Describes the implementation of a concept practical in a physics class. Uses the example of students predicting and testing what will happen to the speed and acceleration of a ball rolling down variously-sloped railings. Some evidence of conceptual development was indicated by pre- and post-test scores. Suggests that a well-conducted class…

Investigated learning of the energy concept during physics instruction in grades seven to 10, focusing on meanings of words (names of concepts) and tasks involving motion. Results indicate severe limitations of the impact of physics instruction on learning the concept. (JN)