The Effects of Computer Simulated Experiments on High School Students' Understanding of the Displacement and Velocity Concepts

Date

2010-01-01

Author

ŞENGEL, ERHAN
Özden, Muhammet Yaşar

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This work is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial-NoDerivatives 4.0 International License.

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d Problem Statement: The number of relationships between important concepts is higher in physics courses than in other courses. As well as the definitions of complicated concepts, the feature of concepts should be learned. Using traditional instructional methods are sometimes not enough to teach physics concepts like velocity and displacement. Based on implications in the literature, Computer Simulated Experiment (CSE) seems to be a satisfactory approach that can be used to promote students' science achievement, and it is important to test how successful it will be when compared to Hands on Laboratory (HOL) study. Purpose of Study: The main purpose of this study was to investigate the effectiveness of CSE over HOL study on the understanding of velocity and displacement concepts when both teaching methods were used as a supplement to regular classroom instruction. The second purpose was to identify whether logical thinking ability accounted for a significant portion of variation in achievement related to velocity and displacement concepts. Methods: In this study, the pretest/post-test control group design was used. Each treatment (CSE & HOL) was randomly assigned to the experiment group and the control group. Both groups were administered a pretest of Velocity and Displacement Concepts Achievement Test (VDCAT) and a Logical Thinking Ability Test as dependent variables. Then, both groups were post-tested with the same VDCAT. The sample of the present study consisted of 61 tenth grade students enrolled in two physics classes of the same teacher in a high school.

Subject Keywords

Computer simulated experiments, Computer assisted instruction, Logical thinking ability, Physics education

URI

https://hdl.handle.net/11511/54491

Collections

Department of Computer Education and Instructional Technology, Article