Journal of The Korean Association For Science Education (한국과학교육학회지)

The Korean Association for Science Education (한국과학교육학회)
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Use of Alternative Assessments to Rectify Common Students' Misconceptions: A Case Study of "mini-project" in GCE 'A' Level Physics in a Singapore School

  • Lim, Ai Phing (Millennia Institute, Singapore) ;
  • Yau, Che Ming (National Institute of Education, Nanyang Technological University)
  • Published : 2008.11.30
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Abstract

Students often have tenacious physics misconceptions and many studies were conducted on engendering conceptual change. Correspondingly, there is much literature on alternative assessment and its role in student learning. This is a comparison study on using alternative assessments to improve common students' misconceptions in GCE Advanced Level Physics. This research also aims to affirm alternative assessment as a valid tool for learning and promote its use. This study involved two classes with 24 students each. For four weeks, electromagnetism was taught to students using the same classroom pedagogies but with different assignments. The control group completeda standard drill-and-practice assignment while the experimental group finished an alternative assessment. From the preliminary results, students who undertook the alternative assessment and the traditional assessment both improved, however, the treatment group did not perform statistically significantly better than the control group. The reasons will be discussed and commented and it is expected to have significant improvement on rectifying misconceptionsupon next batch of experimentation groups.

Keywords

References

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