Title: Effect of conceptual change instruction on students' understanding of electricity concepts

Authors: Refik Dilber

Addresses: Department of Physics, Kazim Karabekir Education Faculty, Ataturk University, 25240, Erzurum, Turkey

Abstract: This study focuses on students| misconceptions regarding static electricity, the effectiveness of conceptual change instruction on students| understanding of static electricity and their attitudes towards physics. Conceptual change and traditional instruction methods were used as teaching methods in the study. The results showed that the students have misconceptions and the experimental group students performed better with respect to the success in eliminating the misconception compared to the control group. In addition, it has been found that there was no significant difference between the attitudes of students in the experimental and control groups both before and after teaching. Teaching strategies can be used to determine the misconceptions and enhance students| understanding.

Keywords: student misconceptions; static electricity; simulation; conceptual change; physics education; learning; student understanding.

DOI: 10.1504/IJIL.2010.032935

International Journal of Innovation and Learning, 2010 Vol.7 No.4, pp.478 - 496

Published online: 05 May 2010 *

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