The aim of this project was to research alternative conceptions that grades 11 and 12 high
school physical science learners have about projectile motion. Their performance is
compared with first year university physics students. A questionnaire was designed for
grade 11 and 12 learners. The understanding of university students was assessed through
ex post facto scrutiny of responses to a projectile question set in their mid-year
examination.
The results of this study were analyzed through the responses of the learners and
university students. The study revealed that the grade 11 learners performed better than
their grade 12 counterparts, though the same questionnaire was used for both groups.
Such differences may be associated with the fact that projectile motion is taught during
the grade 11 year of study. Grade 11 learners may therefore have a better memory recall
of the formal teaching of the topic and associated concepts. By contrast, grade 12
learners might have resorted to a “re-understanding” of the various concepts as they have
been acquired in their own world: these are what the literature refers to as, inter alia,
alternative conceptions or naïve ideas.
The performance of university students was also better than that of the grades 11 and 12
learners. This may be due to a maturity factor, as well as the way in which projectile
motion was dealt with in their lectures. Arising out of our analysis, we shall make a
number of recommendations as to how the topic might be better taught at the secondary
level. Secondary educators need to be better informed about alternative conceptions
research, and preventative and remedial activities that could be adopted.
| Identifer | oai:union.ndltd.org:netd.ac.za/oai:union.ndltd.org:wits/oai:wiredspace.wits.ac.za:10539/4856 |
| Date | 20 May 2008 |
| Creators | Hlatshwayo, Elvis Stanley |
| Source Sets | South African National ETD Portal |
| Language | English |
| Detected Language | English |
| Type | Thesis |
| Format | 35840 bytes, 736267 bytes, application/vnd.ms-excel, application/pdf, application/pdf, application/vnd.ms-excel |
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