New Perspectives in Science Education

It is often perceived that a child’s academic achievements are the primary parameters of the student capabilities. However, it is indeed needed to study whether the school assessment scores are aligned with the abilities students possesses. The present study thus involved 114 pre-college STEM students from 3 CBSE board schools in India. The study was aimed to measure the relationship and influence of the physics cognitive abilities (PCA) on the achievement in physics (AP) scores. The study resulted in some disappointing conditions of negligible correlation between school AP and PCA scores. The students physics scores are not much influenced by the students cognitive abilities. While more astonishing was to encounter that these PCAs do not show up as a contributor and predictor of the AP scores of the students. Therefore, the paper come across a severe problem of non-alignment of the ability and achievement in physics among the pre-college STEM students in India. The educational system has been discussed and corresponding implications of the study have been incorporated.

Keywords: cognitive ability, achievement in phsics.