The results of national examination in matric and universities showed that African students were performing very poorly in their studies and examinations in science and in physics in particular. The objective in this study was to investigate some of the difficulties both African teachers and students, that meant African learners, had in understanding physics, specifically mechanics. The study consisted of investigation of two themes, namely, conceptual and language difficulties. Conceptual Difficulties were investigated by means of three questionnaire tasks. Task One investigated learners' understanding of the concepts of force, energy, power, momentum, speed and other related mechanics concepts in the context of boulders rolling down and up a mountain slope. Task Two investigated subjects' understanding of the force on a ball that was thrown up by the hand, went up to the highest position, and then turned and fell freely back to the ground. Task Three investigated learners' understanding of the positions where speeds, velocities, accelerations and forces were equal on a ball as it was going up and on its way down. The Pilot group, among whom the wide pilot work of this study was done through some haphazard questionnaire, consisted of pre-service and in-service teachers selected from the North East Free State Highlands which was regarded as an appropriate location with a number of institutions with the necessary research subjects, ,since it was neither much urban nor much rural. Intensive study and analysis was done on this pilot work and it led to some real research study to be conducted within a more "focussed" group, namely, the Student group. This Student group which consisted of the first year physics students on the Pietermaritzburg Campus of the University of Natal, was selected for purposes of comparison. Two kinds of Reference groups were devised: for the Conceptual Difficulties investigation the Reference group consisted of physics lecturers and professors from several universities. Their unanimous responses together were regarded as a memorandum through which to correct the responses of the study subjects. For the Language Difficulties investigation the Reference group consisted of African physicists from several universities. There was no unanimous consensus on their mechanics concepts translations into their vernaculars. Analysis of written results and interviews showed that African students experienced Conceptual Difficulties in mechanics. The Conceptual Difficulties were similar to those conducted in many other countries around the world by physics education researchers. The Language Difficulties were of two types. Firstly, a translation from a single mother tongue term into multiple English (the language of instruction) terms revealed a lack of clear concepts differentiation among the subjects. Secondly, there was no consensus, even amongst African physicists, as to which vernacular terms and English terms correspond. In addition, the interaction of the use of African vernaculars with an alternative conceptualisation seemed to have resulted to many of the research subjects believing in a quantity that is intrinsic to a person or object. This quantity had attributes of several different mechanics quantities, such as force, momentum, energy and power. Two tasks were used in the second theme where Language Difficulties were investigated. Translations of conceptual terms that were supplied in Task One and Task Three of the first theme were given and examined. The phenomenon of reverse translation from mother tongue to English was identified as a source of Language Difficulties due to the availability of limited words for these conceptual terms in the vernaculars spoken in South Africa. However, the effect language on the subjects' understanding of mechanics was not simply the result of the lack of vocabulary, the study also showed that the research subjects conceptualised physics concepts differently from physicists, this was revealed by analysing their use of both English and their vernaculars. The results of the investigations were then discussed and compared with those obtained by other research workers in similar studies around the world. Some approaches in teaching physics to African students in an endeavour to alleviate these unearthed difficulties were proposed and recommended in the conclusion. It was further encouraged that more investigations would show to appropriately and successfully instruct the African learners the physics concepts, since some institutions lately managed to produce African physicists and physics professors. / Thesis (Ph.D.)-University of Natal, Pietermaritzburg, 1998.

This study describes first and second year university physics students' understanding and reasoning of the concepts, angular speed and angular acceleration. The analysis was based on student responses to various tasks presented to them during one hour long interviews. These responses were characterized from a phenomeno graphic research perspective developed by Marton (1981) and his colleagues at Gothenburg University in Sweden. The findings of the study are described by categories of description and by categories of reasoning. Categories of description characterize; students' conceptualizations of angular speed from different frames of reference, and the ways in which students make comparisons of the angular speeds of two objects. Categories of reasoning characterize the ways in which students were thought to reason about the concepts of angular speed and angular acceleration in several task settings. Interpretation of these findings are discussed with reference to the role a typical introductory physics textbook may have had in shaping the way in which students think about these angular kinematic concepts. Finally, instructional implications and directions for future research are given. / Education, Faculty of / Curriculum and Pedagogy (EDCP), Department of / Graduate

My objective is to use the video-tape as another medium -- along with overhead projector, textbooks, guides of apprenticeship, pictures, lab equipment and suggestions from the programs and new trends in physics teaching -- being used to supplement our efforts in trying to reach more and more of our students The use of audiovisual media, and generally speaking the use of technology in education, can be constructive or destructive, can e very powerful in developing "human beings" or "robots", can increase the rate of apprenticeship, or can produce an educational catastrophe. However, it will heavily depend on the the professor, on the role that he assigns to himself in the educational process, on the goals and objectives that he foresees for himself and for "his" students. As we will see in this work and in the books and papers about educational technology mentioned in the references and in the bibliography, there exists modern apparatus or equipment with multiple uses, some of them very expensive, others with moderate price tags that we can use with an infinite gamut of possibilities. Generally speaking these apparatus are known as "multi-media". We can combine and use them as we please to produce all kinds of effects and consequences.

Many pre-health students are required to take introductory physics as undergraduates, though they often struggle to see the relationship between medicine and what they learn in these courses. In order to help students make that connection, reformed curriculum was adopted that teaches physics through the context of biomedicine. This dissertation will discuss the development, implementation, and assessment of the reformed curriculum for the introductory and intermediate level physics courses that targets the needs of pre-health students. The curriculum created during this project include laboratory activities, multimedia content, and other instructional materials all of which present physics in biomedical contexts. The laboratory activities focus on exploring the physical principles behind common medical devices or concepts such as body composition analyzers or computed tomography. This often required researching, designing, and building devices for use in the classroom. Videos interviews with biomedical experts detail how physics is used in their fields. The texts written for these courses serve as a fundamental scientific introduction to the physical concepts and technical discussions of their application in biomedicine. An online homework platform allows for the implementation of a flipped classroom. Homework integrates the material, probing both conceptual understanding and problem solving. Multiple forms of assessment have been used to improve the content and clarity of the curriculum. The research for this project includes a study of the impact of these course reforms on students' attitudes toward physics. Shifts in attitudes were assessed using the Colorado Learning Attitudes about Science Survey (CLASS), course surveys, student interviews, and conceptual quizzes. Data was collected from students in the reformed course and a concurrent course taught using a traditional physics curriculum that does not have a focus on biomedicine. The results show that students' attitudes were affected by the reforms in multiple ways including students' ability to contextualize physical phenomenon through biomedical applications. Direct responses from the students indicated that they appreciated that the course included biomedically relevant content. They stated that the course had helped them to make connections with physics that they were not able to make in previous physics classes. However, a portion of the students qualified their approval of the course reforms by stating, for example, that they felt they were missing out on other topics due to the biomedical focus. There is evidence that other factors such as class meeting time could have played a role in students' attitudes as well. Students were surveyed multiple times throughout the year. Results of these surveys show that students' attitudes tend to decrease during fall term, but improve after winter and spring term. These results suggest that greater gains in favorable attitudes could be achieved by course reforms in fall term, where positive attitudes are at a minimum. Illustration-based quizzes were administered to assess students' conceptual understanding and contextualization of different physical phenomena. The quizzes featured open-ended prompts about illustrations similar to those often seen in physics instruction. Few significant differences in conceptual understanding were found between students in the reformed and traditional courses. However, students in the reformed course were more likely to cite biomedical applications of the physical phenomena. These course reforms teach physical principles through their application to biomedical technology and have positively impacted students' appreciation for the relationship between physics and biomedicine.

The aim of this study was firstly to evaluate the impact of two interactive-engagement models of instruction, namely Whole Class Discussions (WCD) and Computer Simulations (CS) on first year physics student-teachers’ conceptual understanding of Newtonian mechanics, and on their epistemological beliefs about physics. The force concept inventory was used to evaluate the impact on conceptual understanding while the Epistemological Beliefs About Physical Science questionnaire was used to evaluate the impact on their epistemological beliefs. The findings suggest that interactive engagement models had a positive impact on students’ conceptual understanding of Newtonian mechanics, and on their epistemological beliefs about physics. The study also contributed WCD and CS activities that can be used or adapted with an aim of enhancing conceptual understanding in physics. The study did not show any direct relationship between students’ conceptual understanding of Newtonian mechanics and their epistemological beliefs about physics. Key words: Interactive-engagement, Whole Class Discussion, Computer Simulations, epistemological beliefs about physics. / Physics / M.Sc. (Physics Education)

The purpose of this study was to investigate the perceptions of the physics instructors, major-physics students, and nonmajor-physics students regarding actual teaching performance and effective teaching performance. The sample consisted of a total of 56 physics instructors, 120 major-physics students, and 120 nonmajor-physics students at eight public universities in Thailand. A total of 53 physics instructors or 94.64 percent, 101 major-physics students or 84.17 percent, and 107 nonmajor-physics students or 89.17 percent responded in this study. Multivariate analysis of variance, univariate analysis, one-way analysis of variance, and multiple regression were used in the follow-up assessment, with the .05 level of significance. The physics instructors, major-physics students, and nonmajor-physics students perceived actual teaching performance in class to be significantly different from effective teaching performance. The three groups rated actual teaching performance on every factor to be less than sffective teaching. There was a significant difference between the physics instructors' perceptions and the major-physics students' perceptions regarding actual teaching performance, and also there was a significant difference between the physics instructors' perceptions and the nonmajor-physics students' perceptions regarding actual teaching performance. However, there was no significant difference between major-and nonmajor-physics students' perceptions regarding actual teaching performance. There was no significant difference among the perceptions of the physics instructors, major-physics students, and nonmajor-physics students regarding effective teaching performance. The variables of sex and the highest degree were the significant predictors of the physics instructors' perceptions regarding actual teaching performance. The variable of GPA was the significant predictor of the nonmajor-physics students' perceptions regarding actual teaching performance.

The aim of this study was firstly to evaluate the impact of two interactive-engagement models of instruction, namely Whole Class Discussions (WCD) and Computer Simulations (CS) on first year physics student-teachers’ conceptual understanding of Newtonian mechanics, and on their epistemological beliefs about physics. The force concept inventory was used to evaluate the impact on conceptual understanding while the Epistemological Beliefs About Physical Science questionnaire was used to evaluate the impact on their epistemological beliefs. The findings suggest that interactive engagement models had a positive impact on students’ conceptual understanding of Newtonian mechanics, and on their epistemological beliefs about physics. The study also contributed WCD and CS activities that can be used or adapted with an aim of enhancing conceptual understanding in physics. The study did not show any direct relationship between students’ conceptual understanding of Newtonian mechanics and their epistemological beliefs about physics. Key words: Interactive-engagement, Whole Class Discussion, Computer Simulations, epistemological beliefs about physics. / Physics / M.Sc. (Physics Education)

M.Ed. (Tertiary Didactics)

D.Ed. / Please refer to full text to view abstract

D.Phil. / Reading constitutes a major part of academic activities especially at tertiary level where acquisition of knowledge depends on written texts. For university students in particular, key sources of new knowledge in domains of science, for example, are often textbooks, reference books, journal articles and laboratory manuals. In reading the texts, students are expected either to develop or to review information on their own. Unfortunately many first-year university students have difficulties understanding and acquiring knowledge from texts effectively and efficiently. This problem is often more pronounced among students who have to read through English second language (ESL). This study was prompted by complaints from the University of the North first-year physics lecturers that their first-year students were experiencing serious problems with accessing information from their prescribed texts. A provisional assumption made is that lack of reading strategies combined with lack of cognitive skills made worse by poor English language proficiency are to a great extent responsible for this failure. The aim of this study, therefore, is to explore the reading behaviour of the University of the North first-year students in as far as the learning of physics is concerned. Results show that these students do indeed lack cognitive and metacognitive strategies and that their English proficiency level is below what is expected of them at first year. They are therefore ill-prepared to deal with their prescribed text (physics) through this medium. This study recommends that students should be given explicit instruction in strategy selection and use but that these should be sufficiently flexible to be utilized in a variety of contexts and must eventually be owned by the students themselves for later use. The ultimate goal is for students to use the strategy without guidance from their lecturer