AUTHOR=Bigozzi Lucia , Tarchi Christian , Fiorentini Carlo , Falsini Paola , Stefanelli Federica 

TITLE=The Influence of Teaching Approach on Students’ Conceptual Learning in Physics

JOURNAL=Frontiers in Psychology

VOLUME=9

YEAR=2018

URL=https://www.frontiersin.org/journals/psychology/articles/10.3389/fpsyg.2018.02474

DOI=10.3389/fpsyg.2018.02474

ISSN=1664-1078

ABSTRACT=<p>Physics is fundamental to secure future needs for scientific and technological competence (<xref ref-type="bibr" rid="B2">Angell et al., 2004</xref>), but many countries experience a drop in students’ performances in international assessments (<xref ref-type="bibr" rid="B38">Organisation for Economic Co-operation Development [OECD], 2018</xref>), as well as in rates of enrolment in undergraduate programs in scientific disciplines (STEM). Socio-constructivist theories have produced a reforming movement in several educational systems, in particular in the area of sciences, but teacher often consider them an idealistic view of education and do not consider themselves metacognitively competent enough to foster thinking in the classroom. In this study, we investigated the efficacy of different teaching methods on high-school students’ conceptual knowledge of physics, after the effect of science-related beliefs and critical thinking skills was controlled. We adopted a mixed-method with sequential design, in which quantitative and qualitative data flow are inter-mixed. In specific, we interviewed four high school physics teachers to identify teaching approaches (qualitative approach) and compared them in terms of efficacy on students’ performances (quantitative approach). Four teachers and 77 10th grade students participated. Teachers were interviewed during the school years and asked questions about their teaching experience, their teaching approach (<xref ref-type="bibr" rid="B24">Kang and Wallace, 2005</xref>) and their epistemic beliefs (<xref ref-type="bibr" rid="B50">Tsai, 2002</xref>). Students performances in Science-related beliefs (<xref ref-type="bibr" rid="B13">Conley et al., 2004</xref>), critical thinking (Cornell Critical Thinking Test Level X, <xref ref-type="bibr" rid="B34">Millman et al., 2005</xref>), and conceptual knowledge in physics (The Force and Motion Conceptual Evaluation, <xref ref-type="bibr" rid="B39">Ramlo, 2002</xref>) were evaluated twice, at the beginning and at the end of the school year. The independent-sample <italic>t</italic>-tests on pre-test variables did not reveal any statistically significant difference between groups. Results from the complex samples GLM revealed statistically significant differences on post-test scores in conceptual knowledge in physics, after the effect of covariates was controlled. Overall, the study contributes to our understanding on current teaching practices in school, and their effect on students’ conceptual understanding of physics concepts.</p>