The Future of Education

The purpose of this study is to identify the relationship, if any, between misconceptions in mechanics and gender, repeaters/non-repeaters, previous secondary school, grades in secondary level physics, maths and English, choosing advanced or intermediate physics course and assigned course classes. The study focussed on all students (N = 475) admitted to the college in October 2015, intending to study physics at advanced (N = 198) or intermediate level (N = 277). In this study a multiple-choice test was used comprising of 30 questions taken from the force concept inventory (FCI) and two additional questions about distance-time and velocity-time graphs. The research analysed the first thirty questions (FCI) separately from the analysis of the last two questions for the comparison of the results with the interpretations of the FCI authors. The test was given on the second week of the academic year so that their response was not influenced by mechanics teaching. The results of the study suggest that the participants did not reach the entry level of Newtonian thinking after their secondary education whereas they showed a good understanding of distance-time and velocity-time graphs. The findings suggest that male participants have fewer misconceptions than female participants and repeating participants had a good grasp of concepts in mechanics than the non-repeating participants. The grade in secondary level physics and maths is related to a high score in the FCI while the grade in English language does not. Participants choosing to continue studying physics at advanced level are better in the concepts than the others taking intermediate level. Participants coming from a post-secondary (academic or vocational) did better than participants coming from state secondary schools. The assignment of classes is purely random, according to the logistics of the time table and their subject choice. The research found that there is no distinction between participants in different advanced level classes or between participants in different intermediate classes.

Keywords: Force concept inventory (FCI), Secondary certificate (SEC)