engleski

Influence of interactive teaching methods on students' conceptual knowledge in mechanics and electricity and magnetism

It is well known that the conventional university physics teaching, which consists of classical lectures and standard recitations, has little impact on students' conceptual understanding of physics. Conceptual understanding is however especially important for prospective physics teachers. An attempt was made at the University of Zagreb to change the type of instruction in the introductory general physics course for first year physics students who will become physics teachers. The instruction was modified to become more interactive. In lectures the amount of covered material was reduced and conceptual questions were used. At recitations cooperative group problem solving was employed as the main teaching technique accompanied by class discussion of conceptual problems. The effectiveness of instruction was measured by the Force Concept Inventory (FCI) and the Conceptual Survey of Electricity and Magnetism (CSEM), which were both used as pretests and posttests. The obtained FCI normalized gain was 0.64, which indicated a significant improvement in students' conceptual understanding of mechanics. In electricity and magnetism the difficulties of conceptual areas from CSEM were calculated and compared to the results of the previous study on Croatian and American students. The results show that the difficulty of the area which involved application of Newton's laws in the context of electricity and magnetism is significantly lower for students who received interactive instruction in mechanics. This is considered an effect of the increased level of conceptual understanding of Newton's laws acquired in mechanics. Overall results suggest that interactive teaching methods significantly improved students’ conceptual understanding of both mechanics and electricity and magnetism.

interactive teaching methods; conceptual knowledge; Force concept Inventory; Conceptual Survey of Electricity and Magnetism

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