Research papers
1972 · 7,491 citations
Become a more competent consumer and producer of research with INTRODUCTION TO RESEARCH IN EDUCATION with InfoTrac! Known for its exceptionally clear writing style and comprehensive coverage, this education text helps you master the basic competencies necessary to understand and evaluate the research of others. The authors familiarize you with common research problems in a step-by-step manner through examples that clarify complex concepts and strong end-of-chapter exercises. This text is a must read for anyone planning to conduct their own research or interpret the research of others.
2023 · European Journal of Education and Pedagogy · 60 citations
This study aims at presenting a literature review on four factors; attitude, instructional methods, students’ misconception, and teachers’ qualification that contribute to low academic performance of students in physics. Physics is one of the most fundamental natural sciences which involves the study of universal laws, and of the behaviors and relationships among a wide range of physical phenomena. Research has shown that both teachers and students’ attitude towards physics is a major reason for low academic performance in subjects across the globe. Naki (2018) argued that attitudes such as procrastination have a greater impact on students’ achievement. The attitudes of students towards physics, the thoughts and beliefs about the course, the habits of studying and constantly postponing tendency are very influential. Boabeng et al. (2014) opine that the quality of the teachers implementing a curriculum has a greater effect on the academic performance of students. Regardless of how well-resourced the school is or how extensive the curriculum is, teaching methods also have a significant impact on students’ academic progress as well as how easier for a misconception is to be dispelled. When the finest teaching strategies are employed, physics teachers can have a significant positive impact on students’ knowledge hence good performance.
2022 · European Journal of STEM Education · 50 citations
Globally, critical thinking skills have been acknowledged as an important goal of education and integrated STEM-based approaches have been reported to have the potential to enhance critical thinking. Therefore, this study examined integrated STEM instructional material for genetic learning to increase secondary school biology students’ critical thinking skills. The study adopted a quasi-experimental design, specifically a pre-test-post-test control group design. The sample size was made up of 112 students, two schools were randomly selected and assigned to the experimental and control group. The experimental group was made up of 58 students and the control group was 54. An integrated STEM approach module was developed for the experimental group, critical thinking skill test was used for pre-test and post-test data. The instrument yielded a reliability of between 0.71 - 0.76 for all the subskills of critical thinking skills. The pre-test results in all critical thinking subskills of inference, recognizing assumption, deduction, interpretation, and evaluation Wilks’ ˄ = .93, F (5, 94) = 1.370, p = (.24) > 0.05, indicating that the two groups were equivalent in their critical thinking skills before treatment. The findings of the within-group comparison show that the experimental group shows a significant difference between pre-test and post-test with a large effect size (d2=1.56) compared to the control group with a small effect size (d2=0.01). The between-group comparison using MANOVA shows a significant difference in students’ critical thinking skills of inference, recognizing assumption, deduction, interpretation, and evaluating arguments (Wilks’ ˄ = .31, F (5,106) = .68, p = (0.00) < 0.05). Therefore, it can be concluded that an integrated STEM approach was more effective in enhancing students’ critical thinking skills.
2021 · International Journal of Interactive Mobile Technologies (iJIM) · 16 citations
<p>This research reports on the design aspect of a bigger project which sought to design and implement information and communication technology (ICT)-based interventions for the purpose of developing pre-service teachers’ ICT competency for teaching physics in an interactive manner using a three-stage (design stage, implementation and evaluation stage, and documentation and reflection stage) design-based research approach. Using literature as a lens, this research examines the interventions that we designed in the first stage of the project with the intent to determine its features that promote interactive teaching and fit the Ghanaian senior high school physics classroom context. Findings show that the intervention with inherent features comprising of: a readily available, sustainable, context- and content-specific ICT teaching and learning environment; an ICT-oriented knowledge base for teachers’ uptake of ICT; an underlining framework for defining interactive and learner-centred teaching approach with ICT; ICT-driven interactive lesson objectives; an inquiry-driven, activity- and ICT-based learning material; and a collaborative classroom arrangement is appropriate and sensitive to the needs of the Ghanaian physics classroom context and, hence, possess the potential for promoting interactive teaching. The features of the interventions, as situated in the specific context of the research and implications of the findings are discussed.<strong></strong></p><p><strong> </strong></p>
2014 · DOAJ (DOAJ: Directory of Open Access Journals) · 16 citations
The study examined the effects of video-based multimedia instruction on secondary school students' achievement and retention in biology. In Nigeria, 120 students (60 boys and 60 girls) were randomly selected from four secondary schools assigned either into one of three experimental groups: Animation + Narration; Animation + On-screen Text; Animation + Narration + On-screen Text or a control group. The pretest, posttest experimental, and control group design was adopted. A 50-item multiple-choice objective test termed Biology Achievement Test (BAT) was used for collecting data. The validated BAT was tested for reliability using Kuder Richardson (KR20), which yielded 0.89. T-test, analysis of covariance (ANCOVA), and Scheffe’s post-hoc analysis were used in determining the significant differences among the four groups. The results showed that there was no statistically significant difference among the experimental groups. Generally, students under multimedia instruction performed better than their colleagues in the conventional teaching method. However, students in conventional teaching method had better retention than other groups.
2023 · Jurnal Inovasi Pendidikan IPA · 7 citations
Conceptual understanding and problem solving is the most crucial part of Physics Lectures. In lectures, mastery of the concept is the primary goal. This research aims to analyze students' mastery of physics concepts in the material of Force and Motion while lectures are conducted online. This study uses a mixed-method approach to explain students' answers that still need clarification. Data analysis was carried out using the Rasch model, and a questionnaire was developed based on the possibility of students' responses to the concepts of force and motion. The results of this study indicate that students' understanding of the concept of force and motion material still needs to improve, namely 64.062%, around 94% of glasses tadris students think that the force and motion material given by lecturers during exams is challenging. More than 60.94% of students believe this is because the ability of the force and motion material they have still needs to improve. These results are interpreted based on analysis through the winstep application Version 3.65.0. and for qualitative data obtained from interviews. It takes a learning model that is appropriate for use in online and offline learning.
2022 · EAST AFRICAN JOURNAL OF MANAGEMENT AND BUSINESS STUDIES · 3 citations
This study focused on developing an instrument for assessing Senior High School students Physics learning self-efficacy beliefs. An instrument known as PLSE was administered on-site and in-person. The PLSE was tested on 290 final year Senior High School Physics students. Prior to this, the initial scale was administered to 60 Senior High School Physics students after validation by seven experts of Science educators. The PCA extracted four factors with loadings ranging from 0.588 to 0.889. The four factors were Physics Practical, Every Application of concepts, High-Order Thinking Skills and Physics Content. The calculated Average Variance Extracted (AVE), and Composite Reliability of the PLSE items were also found to range from 0.540 to 0.718 and 0.823 to 0.927 respectively. The subsequent reliability results showed excellent internal reliability for each of the sub-scales with Corrected Item-total Correlation (CIC) values, ranging between 0.571 and 0.752. Validity, and reliability assessments revealed accepted threshold cut-off of Average Variance Extracted (AVE), Composite Reliability (CR,) and Cronbach's Alpha coefficient. This paper suggests that the current proposed Physics learning instrument represent a reliable research scale to measure Senior High students Physics learning self-efficacy belief.
2024 · Schrödinger Journal of Physics Education · 2 citations
Purpose of the study: The paper examines the use of Physics Education Technology (PhET) simulations to enhance the academic performance of third-year science students at Kumasi Wesley Girls' High School. Methodology: The research used teacher-made tests, questionnaires, and informal observations to collect data. Ninety candidates (90 students) were selected from the third-year science population using a cluster sampling. The questionnaire, pre-evaluation, and post-evaluation tests on vectors were analyzed using descriptive statistics. Main Findings: The study found that PhET-based teaching significantly improved the performance of third-year science students in vector resolution, with a paired mean difference of 6.30 compared to pre-treatment tests. The questionnaire analysis of 90 students revealed that 85.6% initially found vector applications difficult, and 80% felt the teaching methods were unvaried and boring. After the PhET lab simulation intervention, 89% of students were enthusiastic about using simulations in future activities, and 78% reported an improved understanding of resultant vectors. The study indicates that PhET simulations significantly enhance student engagement and comprehension compared to traditional lecture teaching methods. Novelty/Originality of this study: The study explores using Physics Education Technology (PhET) simulations in Ghanaian high school Kumasi Wesley Girls' High School to improve vector resolution learning. The interactive approach demystifies complex concepts, and the study quantifies its impact on students' academic performance. It also provides insights into students' attitudes towards physics education
2025 · Journal of Research in Education and Pedagogy. · 1 citations
In this study, the effects of 5E Instructional Model (5E), Differentiated Instruction (DI) and conventional teaching method on Senior High School (SHS) physics students’ academic performance in Thermal Physics were compared. Method: By employing a quasi-experimental pretest/posttest non-equivalent control group design, 291 SHS 2 physics students were used from six intact classes which were randomly selected from three SHSs in the Mampong Municipality and Sekyere South District. The hypotheses were tested using one-way ANCOVA and two-way ANCOVA at α=0.05. The results showed that there was a significant effect of at least one of the teaching methods on the academic performance of students (F(1,287)=150.766, p=0.001<0.05), with students taught using DI obtaining the highest adjusted mean scores of 18.978 (std. error = 0.437), followed by those taught using 5E group (adjusted mean = 16.373, std. error=0.430), and those taught using the conventional teaching method (adjusted mean score = 13.734, std. error = 0.452). Also, there was a significant interaction between gender and teaching method (F(1,284)=241.395, p=0.001<0.05) with no significant difference observed between male and female students taught using DI (mean difference=0.233, p=0.765) and 5E (mean difference=0.75, p=0.532), but a significant difference in academic performance between male and female SHS students taught using conventional teaching method (mean difference=8.284, p=0.000). It was therefore recommended, amongst others, that SHS physics teachers in Mampong Municipality and Sekyere South District should consider differentiating their students in order to tailor Thermal Physics lessons to all students, which will help them perform better.
2019 · International Journal of Innovative Research and Development · 1 citations
Technology has profound and lasting influence in classroom as being a powerful tool that can change the way lessons are taught by facilitating both teachers’ instruction practices and students’ learning processes. The purpose of this study was to explore the use of technology in teaching physics within the Cape Coast Metropolis in the Central Region of Ghana.The study employed descriptive cross-sectional survey. The population for the study was Senior High School (SHS) physics teachers and students of the Cape Coast Metropolis in Ghana. The sample size for the study was made up of 20 teachers and 100 final year students. The main instrument used for the study was a questionnaire for both the teachers and the students. Data were analyzed using means, standard deviations and frequencies. It was found that the physics teachers hardly use modern and digital forms of technology in teaching physics.