Development and Validation of Questionnaire for Physics Learning Self-Efficacy among Ghanaian Senior High Schools

This study focused on developing an instrument for assessing Senior High School students Physics learning self-efficacy beliefs. An instrument known as PLSE was administered on-site and in-person. The PLSE was tested on 290 final year Senior High School Physics students. Prior to this, the initial scale was administered to 60 Senior High School Physics students after validation by seven experts of Science educators. The PCA extracted four factors with loadings ranging from 0.588 to 0.889. The four factors were Physics Practical, Every Application of concepts, High-Order Thinking Skills and Physics Content. The calculated Average Variance Extracted (AVE), and Composite Reliability of the PLSE items were also found to range from 0.540 to 0.718 and 0.823 to 0.927 respectively. The subsequent reliability results showed excellent internal reliability for each of the sub-scales with Corrected Item-total Correlation (CIC) values, ranging between 0.571 and 0.752. Validity, and reliability assessments revealed accepted threshold cut-off of Average Variance Extracted (AVE), Composite Reliability (CR,) and Cronbach's Alpha coefficient. This paper suggests that the current proposed Physics learning instrument represent a reliable research scale to measure Senior High students Physics learning self-efficacy belief

Analyzing Gender Differences in Misconception in Linear Momentum Using Two-tier Diagnostic Test Instrument

Misconceptions that occur can vary between male and female students, therefore, the study analyzed gender difference in misconceptions in linear momentum. The diagnostic- descriptive research method was used in this study. A total of 70 (35 males and 35 females) first-year Senior High School students in the La-Nkwantanan Municipality were used for this study. Identification of misconceptions was conducted using the Two-tier multiple-choice diagnostic test instrument that was equipped with the Certainty of the Response Index method. The study showed both males' level of understanding and misconception (56.88%; 42.88%) and females (28.51%; 50.24%), respectively. Three research questions were raised and two research hypotheses were formulated and tested in this study. The data were analyzed using an independent sample t-test and the hypothesis were tested at 0.05 level of significance. The findings of the study revealed that male’s students understanding of concept was statistically more [(18) = 0.003, p < .05] than females and misconception was found not be statistically significantly different [(18) = 0.285, p > .05]. The researchers recommend that physics teachers use cutting-edge pedagogical instructional techniques such as the use of two-tier diagnostic test instrument to maximize students' prior knowledge and uncover misconceptions. Keywords: linear momentum, misconception, gender, tier-two, test, instrument DOI: 10.7176/JEP/14-1-10 Publication date: January 31st 202