Furthering Students’ Conceptual Change on Grade 9 Electricity and Magnetism Topics and Physics Corridor Demonstrations

Abstract

Learners often take part in science instruction bringing with them different perceptions of concepts and skills or those that are inconsistent with the target knowledge. True understanding of information is attained when students are provided opportunities to make meaning from data and evidences. Hence, corridor demonstrations were developed in this study. Corridor demonstrations are ready-to-use experimental setups installed along a corridor, which may be manipulated by students with or without teachers’ supervision. This pioneering study discusses students’ conceptual change in grade 9 electricity and magnetism topics after using corridor demonstrations as learning materials. Corridor demonstrations on electromagnetic induction, AC generator, DC generator, transformer, solar energy and wind energy, were developed by the researcher and validated by experts. Students’ conceptual understanding were evaluated using a researcher-made and expert-validated test questionnaire. Using paired samples t-test, the results showed that students’ post-test average conceptual understanding (49%) is significantly higher than their pre-test result (29.3%), with p=.002. This difference may be attributed to the students’ experiences using the corridor demonstrations, that helped them understand the relationship of variables, apply the concepts that they learned, acquire a deeper understanding of how things work. Qualitative data including quotations from the focus group discussions and written responses in test items provide an in-depth look at the influence of using corridor demonstrations in the students’ conceptual understanding in physics. Further research on the learning materials and its pedagogical practicality are recommended.