A test of conceptual understanding of density with an emphasis on teaching strategies

Glavni ciljevi obrazovanja su naučiti mladu osobu kako poučavati sebe i kako se snaći u novim situacijama. Pogrešni odgovori učenika koji su se prije samo kažnjavali lošom ocjenom, danas služe kao vodilja ka razvoju boljih strategija poučavanja. U ovom diplomskom radu provedeno je istraživanje o učeničkom razumijevanju koncepta gustoće radi čije je potrebe konstruiran test. Test je proveden prije i nakon nastavne teme Gustoća. U istraživanju je sudjelovalo 70 učenika na predtestu, te 69 učenika na posttestu. Uočene su mnoge miskoncepcije, te su u skladu s rezultatima navedene moguće strategije otklanjanja uočenih miskoncepcija. Također navedeni su prijedlozi dviju priprema nastavne teme „Gustoća“ ovisno o načinu provedbe nastavnog sata, te korelacije s kemijom, biologijom i matematikom. Rezultati istraživanja mogu pomoći u razumijevanju učeničkih poteškoća s konceptom gustoće, te boljem pristupu poučavanja u nastavi fizike.The main goals of education are to teach a young person how to educate themselves and how to manage new situations. Previously, students’ wrong answers were punished with a bad mark. However, today they serve to guide the development of better teaching strategies. In this diploma thesis, a research study on student understanding of density was conducted. Firstly, we constructed the questionnaire targeting the comprehension of density. The test was performed before and after the lesson Density was undertaken. 70 elementary 7th grade school students participated in pre-test and 69 joined post-test. The analysis of the test results identified some of the misconceptions regarding the density. Following the results, strategies for eliminating misconceptions were listed, along with the discussion of the possible correlation with chemistry, biology and mathematics. In the end, we give two preparatory lesson plans for the topic Density, one for the teacher-oriented and other for the student-oriented classes. Results of this research study can help to understand student difficulties in understanding density and to lead to better teaching in physics classes