غلبه بر تصورات غلط دانش‌آموزان در نیروهای در حالت تعادل : یک مطالعه تحقیقاتی عملی

ABSTRACT Overcoming Students’ Misconceptions on Forces in Equilibrium: An Action Research Study

Physics is introduced to upper secondary students (16 years old). However, it is a general fact that most students have a negative perspective about Physics. This is because they do not obtain high marks in examination even though they have tried their best. This phenomenon is caused by misconception and lack of understanding about basic Physics concepts. Many researchers have shown that students tend to develop the understanding about natural phenomenon before formal teaching was conducted. Ideas developed by students which differ from scientific explanation are known as misconceptions (Chambers & Andre, 1997; Hammer, 1996; Lawson, 1995) and these misconceptions are too strong to overcome and can inhibit the process of teaching and learning (Gunstone, 1995). Initial ideas held by students are very difficult to change by teacher despite being presented with scientific concepts (Tsai, 1999; Sencar & Eryilmaz, 2004). Teachers should identify students’ misconception before conducting formal teaching so that their misconception can be changed to scientific concept after the formal teaching and learning process (Wong & Seth, 2008).

Halim et al. (2009) state that to build an effective model of teaching and learning for teaching physics it should begin by exploring or identifying difficulties and misunderstanding faced by students using diagnostic tests. Several studies have found that misconception still exist even when the students have attended more Physics class. The same misconception occurs and exists at primary and up to university level. This shows that normal or regular teaching and learning process is unable to overcome misconception if the focus of the teaching is not targeted on the misconception. One of the difficulties to overcome the misconception is that the teachers themselves are not being trained to overcome the misconception. Osman et al. (2006) added, even though the role of quality Science teacher has been realized, but like many countries (e.g. Pakistan, Australia, New Zealand, United States of America and Britain), Malaysia is facing the problem of inadequate trained Science teachers especially in the teaching of Physics, Chemistry and Mathematics. As a result, teachers who are not trained in teaching Science subjects are often required to teach Science. If nothing is done to help this group of teachers, they probably are unable to implement Science curriculum effectively. The study of student misconceptions in Physics has become both an important concern for Physics education research and a valuable tool for the practicing physics teacher (Styer, 1995; Abell & Lederman, 2007). Although some misconceptions are difficult to overcome, teachers must be aware about the existence of the misconception and keep addressing to overcome students’ misconceptions so that students will have conceptual understanding.

The study of this phenomenon needs to be solved by taking specific action namely by having collaborative relationship between university professors and student teachers to plan a specific action to be implemented. This has encouraged the researchers to explore physics misconception in the topic of mechanics and forces in equilibrium.