Consistency of students’ conceptions of wave propagation: Findings from a conceptual survey in mechanical waves

We recently developed a multiple-choice conceptual survey in mechanical waves. The development, evaluation, and demonstration of the use of the survey were reported elsewhere [A. Tongchai et al., Developing, evaluating and demonstrating the use of a conceptual survey in mechanical waves, Int. J. Sci...

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Autores principales:	Apisit Tongchai, Manjula Devi Sharma, Ian D. Johnston, Kwan Arayathanitkul, Chernchok Soankwan
Formato:	article
Lenguaje:	EN
Publicado:	American Physical Society 2011
Materias:	Special aspects of education LC8-6691 Physics QC1-999
Acceso en línea:	https://doaj.org/article/1fcd24ee068344478cb8268c277d371f
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spelling	oai:doaj.org-article:1fcd24ee068344478cb8268c277d371f2021-12-02T12:22:52ZConsistency of students’ conceptions of wave propagation: Findings from a conceptual survey in mechanical waves10.1103/PhysRevSTPER.7.0201011554-9178https://doaj.org/article/1fcd24ee068344478cb8268c277d371f2011-07-01T00:00:00Zhttp://doi.org/10.1103/PhysRevSTPER.7.020101http://doi.org/10.1103/PhysRevSTPER.7.020101https://doaj.org/toc/1554-9178We recently developed a multiple-choice conceptual survey in mechanical waves. The development, evaluation, and demonstration of the use of the survey were reported elsewhere [A. Tongchai et al., Developing, evaluating and demonstrating the use of a conceptual survey in mechanical waves, Int. J. Sci. Educ. 31, 2437 (2009)ISEDEB0950-069310.1080/09500690802389605]. We administered the survey to 902 students from seven different groups ranging from high school to second year university. As an outcome of that analysis we were able to identify several conceptual models which the students seemed to be using when answering the questions in the survey. In this paper we attempt to investigate the strength with which the students were committed to these conceptual models, as evidenced by the consistency with which they answered the questions. For this purpose we focus on the patterns of student responses to questions in one particular subtopic, wave propagation. This study has three main purposes: (1) to investigate the consistency of student conceptions, (2) to explore the relative usefulness of different analysis techniques, and (3) to determine what extra information a study of consistency can give about student understanding of basic concepts. We used two techniques: first, categorizing and counting, which is widely used in the science education community, and second, model analysis, recently introduced into physics education research. The manner in which categorizing and counting is used is very diverse while model analysis has been employed only in prescriptive ways. Research studies have reported that students often use their conceptual models inconsistently when solving a series of questions that test the same idea. Our results support their conclusions. Moreover, our findings suggest that students who have had more experiences in physics learning seem to use the scientifically accepted models more consistently. Further, the two analysis techniques have different advantages and disadvantages. Our findings show that model analysis can be used in more diverse ways, provides flexibility in analyzing multiple-choice questions, and provides more information about consistency and inconsistency of student conceptions. An unexpected finding is that studying waves in other contexts (for example, quantum mechanics or electromagnetism) leads to more consistent answers about mechanical waves. The suggestion is that studying more abstract topics may solidify students’ understanding of more concrete waves. While this might be considered to be intuitive, we have not actually found direct empirical studies supporting this conjecture.Apisit TongchaiManjula Devi SharmaIan D. JohnstonKwan ArayathanitkulChernchok SoankwanAmerican Physical SocietyarticleSpecial aspects of educationLC8-6691PhysicsQC1-999ENPhysical Review Special Topics. Physics Education Research, Vol 7, Iss 2, p 020101 (2011)
institution	DOAJ
collection	DOAJ
language	EN
topic	Special aspects of education LC8-6691 Physics QC1-999
spellingShingle	Special aspects of education LC8-6691 Physics QC1-999 Apisit Tongchai Manjula Devi Sharma Ian D. Johnston Kwan Arayathanitkul Chernchok Soankwan Consistency of students’ conceptions of wave propagation: Findings from a conceptual survey in mechanical waves
description	We recently developed a multiple-choice conceptual survey in mechanical waves. The development, evaluation, and demonstration of the use of the survey were reported elsewhere [A. Tongchai et al., Developing, evaluating and demonstrating the use of a conceptual survey in mechanical waves, Int. J. Sci. Educ. 31, 2437 (2009)ISEDEB0950-069310.1080/09500690802389605]. We administered the survey to 902 students from seven different groups ranging from high school to second year university. As an outcome of that analysis we were able to identify several conceptual models which the students seemed to be using when answering the questions in the survey. In this paper we attempt to investigate the strength with which the students were committed to these conceptual models, as evidenced by the consistency with which they answered the questions. For this purpose we focus on the patterns of student responses to questions in one particular subtopic, wave propagation. This study has three main purposes: (1) to investigate the consistency of student conceptions, (2) to explore the relative usefulness of different analysis techniques, and (3) to determine what extra information a study of consistency can give about student understanding of basic concepts. We used two techniques: first, categorizing and counting, which is widely used in the science education community, and second, model analysis, recently introduced into physics education research. The manner in which categorizing and counting is used is very diverse while model analysis has been employed only in prescriptive ways. Research studies have reported that students often use their conceptual models inconsistently when solving a series of questions that test the same idea. Our results support their conclusions. Moreover, our findings suggest that students who have had more experiences in physics learning seem to use the scientifically accepted models more consistently. Further, the two analysis techniques have different advantages and disadvantages. Our findings show that model analysis can be used in more diverse ways, provides flexibility in analyzing multiple-choice questions, and provides more information about consistency and inconsistency of student conceptions. An unexpected finding is that studying waves in other contexts (for example, quantum mechanics or electromagnetism) leads to more consistent answers about mechanical waves. The suggestion is that studying more abstract topics may solidify students’ understanding of more concrete waves. While this might be considered to be intuitive, we have not actually found direct empirical studies supporting this conjecture.
format	article
author	Apisit Tongchai Manjula Devi Sharma Ian D. Johnston Kwan Arayathanitkul Chernchok Soankwan
author_facet	Apisit Tongchai Manjula Devi Sharma Ian D. Johnston Kwan Arayathanitkul Chernchok Soankwan
author_sort	Apisit Tongchai
title	Consistency of students’ conceptions of wave propagation: Findings from a conceptual survey in mechanical waves
title_short	Consistency of students’ conceptions of wave propagation: Findings from a conceptual survey in mechanical waves
title_full	Consistency of students’ conceptions of wave propagation: Findings from a conceptual survey in mechanical waves
title_fullStr	Consistency of students’ conceptions of wave propagation: Findings from a conceptual survey in mechanical waves
title_full_unstemmed	Consistency of students’ conceptions of wave propagation: Findings from a conceptual survey in mechanical waves
title_sort	consistency of students’ conceptions of wave propagation: findings from a conceptual survey in mechanical waves
publisher	American Physical Society
publishDate	2011
url	https://doaj.org/article/1fcd24ee068344478cb8268c277d371f
work_keys_str_mv	AT apisittongchai consistencyofstudentsconceptionsofwavepropagationfindingsfromaconceptualsurveyinmechanicalwaves AT manjuladevisharma consistencyofstudentsconceptionsofwavepropagationfindingsfromaconceptualsurveyinmechanicalwaves AT iandjohnston consistencyofstudentsconceptionsofwavepropagationfindingsfromaconceptualsurveyinmechanicalwaves AT kwanarayathanitkul consistencyofstudentsconceptionsofwavepropagationfindingsfromaconceptualsurveyinmechanicalwaves AT chernchoksoankwan consistencyofstudentsconceptionsofwavepropagationfindingsfromaconceptualsurveyinmechanicalwaves
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Consistency of students’ conceptions of wave propagation: Findings from a conceptual survey in mechanical waves

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