Gender and ethnicity differences in metacognitive skills and problem–solving ability among physics students in johor

A study on metacognitive skills in relation to problem-solving in physics among secondary school students in Johor, Malaysia is sponsored by Research Management Centre (RMC), UTM under Vot 75161. It has finally completed its data collection and a complete Technical Report is due to be published in January 2007.The study involved a survey on 1300 physics students from nine districts of Johor namely Batu Pahat, Muar, Kota Tinggi, Pontian, Johor Bahru, Segamat, Mersing, Kulai and Kluang. Two well-validated instruments on metacognitive skills and four problem-solving questions on mechanics (Fatin, 2005) were conducted among respondents selected from 9 rural schools and 15 urban schools in Johor using random cluster samplings of form four physics students. The sampling of respondents in this study did not include students from fully residential schools where the “cream� of the Malay students are mostly found. The samples comprised students from daily secondary schools (rural and urban) and premier schools (urban High Schools) in Johor. This paper forms part of the report of the short term research project and focuses only on the development of gender and ethnicity differences on metacognitive and problem-solving skills from three stages of research processes. An indepth literature review related to metacognition and physics problem-solving is discussed fully in Fatin (2005)

Technological Pedagogical and Content Knowledge among Undergraduate Education Degree Students at Universiti Teknologi Malaysia

AbstractThis study aims to identify technological pedagogical and content knowledge (TPACK) among undergraduate physics education degree students at Universiti Teknologi Malaysia (UTM). A paper-and-pencil test was used to collect data on their conceptual understanding of Archimedes’ principle. They were also requested to write a teaching lesson plan for the topic of Archimedes’ principle. The data gathered was analysed qualitatively using content analysis. The finding indicates that, these respondents possessed many alternative conceptions in the buoyancy concept and more interestingly, those who have not undergone the Teaching Practice (TP) demonstrated more alternative conceptions compared to those who have. Moreover, those who have undergone TP tended to use question-and-answer method to deliver this topic

Pengaruh pemilihan aliran dengan minat, sikap dan persepsi pelajar tingkatan tiga terhadap mata pelajaran Fizik

Kemerosotan peratusan pelajar ke aliran sains dan seterusnya mengambil mata pelajaran fizik menjadi isu kritikal dalam negara. Kajian ini bertujuan untuk mengenal pasti tahap minat, sikap dan persepsi pelajar tingkatan tiga terhadap mata pelajaran fizik serta pengaruh pembolehubah tersebut dengan pemilihan aliran pasca tingkatan 3. Seramai 112 orang pelajar di daerah Johor Bahru menjawab soal selidik mengenai minat, sikap dan persepsi terhadap mata pelajaran fizik. Kesahan dan kebolehpercayaan instrumen dianalisis dengan ujian analisis mengikut model Rasch. Data dianalisis secara deskriptif dan inferensi menggunakan perisian Statistical Package for Social Science (SPSS) versi 17.0 untuk mendapatkan min, sisihan piawai dan ujian-t. Dapatan kajian menunjukkan bahawa tahap minat pelajar terhadap fizik adalah sederhana (min=3.52, SP=0.64) manakala tahap sikap pelajar terhadap fizik adalah tinggi (min=3.89, SP=0.67) dan persepsi pelajar terhadap pengajaran dan pembelajaran mata pelajaran fizik juga tinggi (min=3.80, SP=0.60). Didapati bahawa terdapat perbezaan yang signifikan antara pemilihan aliran dengan minat, sikap dan persepsi pelajar terhadap mata pelajaran fizik (minat (t=5.135), sikap (t=4.798) dan persepsi (t=3.664)). Oleh yang demikian, dapatan ini menunjukkan bahawa ketiga-tiga pembolehubah tersebut mempengaruhi pelajar tingkatan tiga untuk memilih aliran sains semasa tingkatan empat nanti. Ini sekaligus menunjukkan bahawa penglibatan pelajar dalam aliran sains dan fizik berpotensi mencapai nisbah 60:40 bagi bidang sains berbanding sastera, dengan minat yang tinggi serta sikap dan persepsi yang positif terhadap fizik

Relationship between Dimension Metacognition and Students’ Ability Level in Physics Problems Solving Involving the Use of Free-Body Diagram

Problem solving in Physics using Free-body Diagram (FBD) is complex and need to be planned carefully. Students who possess metacognitive awareness can make problem solving involving FBD easier. Therefore, this study aims at identifying the level of students’ ability in solving physics problems involving the use of FBD and the student’s metacognition as well as the relationship between all the dimensions in metacognition with their ability in solving physics problem. 300 Form 5 Science students from schools around Johor Bahru involved in this study. The data was collected using a set of instrument that includes paper-and-pencil test, known as Force Problem Solving Ability and Physics Metacognition Inventory (PMI). The findings show that the level of students' ability in solving physics problems involving the use of FBD was low, while the level of students’ dimensions of metacognition was at a moderate level. The correlation analysis shows that a positively low and significant relationship between students’ ability in solving physics problems involving the FBD with their dimension of metacognition. These findings suggest that teachers should emphasize thinking at the metacognition level among the students and to use different strategies in different physics problem solving

Student Perceptions Change in a Chemical Engineering Class using Cooperative Problem Based Learning (CPBL)

AbstractThis paper reports a phenomenological study of a class of third year Chemical Engineering students first experience in undergoing a course using Cooperative Problem Based Learning (CPBL). The main purpose of this study is to understand the students’ perceptions on CPBL in two aspects; (1) the student perceptions and acceptance on the learning approach; and (2) what the students gained from the learning process. The paper illustrates the pattern of perception change among the students and how CPBL affects the students’ mastery of the content knowledge (Process Control), problem-solving, team-working as well as self-esteem. Concurrently, this study also investigates the role played by the lecturer in affecting the students’ perception change. Through classroom observations and interviews for one whole semester, the results are reported in three stages: (1) the beginning; (2) the middle; and (3) the end of the semester. The findings have wider relevance for evaluating student assessments of CPBL in Engineering Education

Faktor penyumbang kepada kemerosotan penyertaan pelajar dalam aliran sains: satu analisis sorotan tesis

Pada tahun 1996, kerajaan Malaysia mensasarkan kadar peratusan penyertaan pelajar dalam aliran sains berbanding sastera pada nisbah 60:40. Sehingga tahun 2012, peratusan penyertaan pelajar dalam aliran sains tidak pernah mencapai 60% malahan berlaku trend penyusutan yang membimbangkan. Sehingga kini, terdapat banyak kajian yang telah dijalankan untuk mengenalpasti faktor yang menyumbang kepada senario ini. Sehubungan itu, satu kajian analisis sorotan tesis telah dijalankan ke atas 344 tesis peringkat sarjana dan ijazah kedoktoran yang telah dilakukan di sembilan buah IPTA bagi tempoh 2001-2010. Tujuan utama kajian ini adalah untuk merumuskan faktor yang dikenalpasti sebagai penyumbang utama kepada kekurangan penyertaan pelajar dalam aliran sains di negara ini dan seterusnya mencadangkan tindakan yang perlu diambil untuk memperbaiki ketidakseimbangan ini. Kajian mendapati bahawa ramai pelajar lepasan menengah rendah mempunyai kelayakan yang diperlukan untuk meneruskan pengajian dalam aliran sains. Mereka juga mempunyai minat yang tinggi dan sikap yang positif terhadap bidang sains dan matematik. Bagaimanapun, kerisauan mengenai kesukaran pembelajaran dan tahap keyakinan akademik yang rendah dalam matapelajaran sains dan matematik dikenalpasti sebagai faktor utama menyebabkan ramai dalam kalangan mereka tidak memilih aliran sains di peringkat tingkatan empat dan ke atas. Selain itu, faktor pengajaran guru, sistem penilaian, faktor demografi dan pengurusan sekolah juga menyumbang kepada sebab mengapa pelajar kurang menyertai aliran sains. Sebanyak empat cadangan teras telah diutarakan untuk menangani masalah ini

Physics on the go: A mobile computer-based physics laboratory for learning forces and motion

"Forces and Motion" is a topic that requires students to relate contents to real life applications but most of them have difficulties in connecting physics concepts to its corresponding representations and the connections of the representations to the real world. This contributes to poor conceptual understanding among the students. Conventional teaching approaches also create poor interest among the students in studying Physics. Some school laboratories are not equipped sufficiently and some apparatus are broken or out dated. Therefore, a Mobile Science Laboratory (MSL) is applied in the research to provide an alternative to better functioning laboratory which also uses Microcomputer-Based Laboratory (MBL) in providing up-to-date apparatus in data acquisition. This research investigates the impact of Mobile Computer-based Physics Laboratory (MCPL) which is a combination of the use of MSL and MBL in teaching and learning "Forces and Motion" called PotGo (Physics on the Go) using semi-structured interview. The data was analysed using thematic analysis. The result shows that MCPL improves the students' understanding in Forces and Motion because the students can see and experience the concepts in real life and getting the data in real time. MCPL is interesting for students because they can conduct Physics experiments using computers and technology, it is fun and the students can explore the Physics concepts with little time for setting up the experiments. Therefore, the use of PoTGo in MCPL affects students' learning in "Forces and Motion" and interest towards Physics

The mobile science laboratory (MSL): a systematic review

Experiments and hands-on activities encourage students to be active in knowledge construction. As students carried out experiments and activities, they explored science concepts and retain the knowledge. Currently, a low number of experiments are carried out because some schools are not equipped with updated experimental apparatus, while some schools’ laboratories are broken and they do not have enough experimental apparatus. Therefore, a systematic review was made to study the use of mobile science laboratory in previous studies and its need in Malaysia context. The findings show that teachers had developed their pedagogical skills and confidence in laboratory teaching instruction. The students gained conceptual understanding, retained science learning, increased interest in subject and experiment, and interest to choose career in STEM

A functional link neural network with modified cuckoo search for prediction tasks

The impact of temperature, relative humidity and ozone changes bring a sharp warming climate. These changes can cause extreme consequences such as floods, hurricanes, heat waves and droughts. Therefore, prediction of temperature and relative humidity is an important factor to measure the environmental changes. Neural network, especially the Multi-Layer Perceptron (MLP) which uses Back Propagation algorithm (BP) as a supervised learning method, has been successfully applied in various problems for meteorological prediction tasks. However, this architecture has still been facing problems which the convergence rate is very low due to the multi layering topology of the network. Thus, this research proposed an implementation of Functional Link Neural Network (FLNN) which composed of a single layer of tunable weight trained with the Modified Cuckoo Search algorithm (MCS). The proposed approach was used to predict the daily temperatures, relative humidity and ozone data. Extensive simulation results have been compared with standard MLP trained with the BP, FLNN with BP and FLNN with CS. Promising results have shown that the proposed model has successfully out performed 14% percentage compared to other network models with reduced prediction error and fast convergence rate

Faktor penyumbang kepada kemerosotan penyertaan pelajar dalam aliran sains: satu analisis sorotan tesis

Since 1967, the government of Malaysia targeted 60:40 ratio of student participation in Science and Art subjects respectively. Until 2012, the percentage of student participation in secondary schools has never achieved the 60% target. In contrast, student achievement and participation in science stream deteriorated. Therefore, a meta-analysis study on theses highlight was conducted to identify problems faced by students, teachers and schools in the learning of mathematics and science in Malaysia. A total of 344 theses at Master and Doctorate levels from 9 universities in Malaysia which offered post-graduate education programmes were collected to determine problems faced and possible causes that led to decreasing participation of students. The study found that students had high level of interest and positive attitude towards mathematics and science. However, there were concerns among students regarding the assessments in mathematics and science subjects compared to art subjects which eventually led to students not choosing science stream. Besides that, factors such as teaching styles, family and peer influence, negative perception towards mathematics and science subjects, lack of exposure regarding opportunities for further studies and future careers had contributed to the cause of student's poor participation in science stream. Four thrusts of recommendations were tabled to address the problem