Effect of simulation-based inquiry with dual-situated learning model on change of student's conception

Abstract

Numerous researches in science education have reported that many students displayed learning difficulties in understanding and hold unscientific conceptions about sound wave although sound is an everyday phenomenon that we constantly observe. Moreover, their common alternative conceptions about wave phenomena of sound are often resistant to change into correct physics of thought. To investigate effect of the teaching method of simulation-based inquiry with dual-situated learning model (SimIn-DSLM) on student’s conceptual understanding of sound wave, 38 of Grade 11 secondary school students participated in learning physics with computer-simulated experiment. Both quantitative and qualitative data of conceptual understanding and conceptual change were collected, and analyzed aiming to understand their conceptual status at before, after, and a month after the use of SimIn-DSLM teaching method. The results showed that the method of SimIn-DSLM explicitly influenced their conceptions in physics of sound wave into correct physics. This finding suggests that the SimIn-DSLM method could be used to induce mechanism of change within students’ conceptual knowledge of sound wave phenomena and the change of their conceptions could place them into meaningful conceptual framework of basic scientific knowledge.