Students' Misconception in Science at Secondary Level: A Quest of Exploration
Date
2017-09
Authors
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Publisher
Department of Science and Environment Education
Abstract
This study entitled "Students' Misconception in Science at Secondary Level: A Quest of
Exploration" was carried out with the aim of determining prevalent or dominant misconceptions
in science among secondary level students and compare the results with different variable. Both
Quan-qual research design of has been adopted. The population of the study was all the
secondary schools from Tanahun district. Purposive sampling technique was used to select the
schools from the defined population. The selected schools were more convenient for the
researcher as they were near the researcher's home.
The highest number of students with misconception was found in chemistry followed by
physics and biology. Most of the students had chosen their source of answer from their own
intrinsic knowledge. Furthermore, it examined whether the number of students having
misconception in those questions were related with gender and the type of school they study. The
comparison of number of misconception with gender in different disciplines of science suggested
that there is no significant difference between those variables. On the other hand, comparison of
number of misconception with type of school showed that there was significant difference
between the community school students' and private school students' misconception. In addition,
the correlation of the students' misconception in different disciplines of science revealed that the
correlation between physics and chemistry were very small while chemistry and biology were at
medium level and the correlation between biology and physics were negligible.
The findings of this study can be used by science teachers in designing classroom
activities and teaching strategies that could address the students' misconception. It will provide
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some suggestions to the educational practitioners to adopt new strategies to avoid
misconceptions and increase the probability of high achievement of students.
Description
Keywords
Exploration, Students' Misconception, Science