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Asia-Pacific Forum
on Science Learning and Teaching, Volume 11, Issue 2, Article 4 (Dec., 2010) |
This is a descriptive correlation survey design that was performed at an education faculty in Izmir in Turkey during the 2009-2010 academic year. The research instruments were administered at the end of the spring semester to pre-service teachers receiving traditional instruction. In this study, the predictor variables include the reported frequency of learning strategy use (elaboration, comprehension monitoring, rehearsal, organization clusters), attitude towards physics (sense of interest, sense of care) and gender to explain the dependent (or criterion) variable, physics achievement.
Participants
The participants in this study were 357 first and second-year pre-service teachers (female=220, male=137) who were enrolled in the Departments of Physics, Chemistry, Secondary Mathematics, Primary Mathematics, and Biology Education at Dokuz Eylul University (DEU). At DEU education is carried out in Turkish language. The mean age of the subjects was 20 years (with a standard deviation of 1.2).
Instruments
The research instruments used were the Revised Learning Strategies Scale for Physics Learning, the Scale of Attitudes towards Physics, and the Personal Information Form. The details of the instruments are explained below.
The Revised Learning Strategies Scale for Physics Learning (R-LSSPL)
To measure the frequency of the use of LSs in physics, subjects were given the revised "Learning Strategies Scale for Physics Learning." The "Learning Strategies Scale for Physics Learning" was developed by Sezgin Selçuk (2004) to determine the learning strategies used by students when studying physics during classes. The scale was revised by removing some items from the scale by Sezgin Selçuk and Çalışkan (2010). The revised Learning Strategies Scale for Physics Learning (R-LSSPL) is a 39-item scale, where each item is evaluated on a 5-point Likert-type format with five response options. Those are respectively "always," "frequently," "sometimes," "seldom," and "never." The items on the scale have been categorized into four subscales as "elaboration" (18 items, α=0.90), "organization" (8 items, α=0.77), "rehearsal" (7 items, α=0.77) and "comprehension monitoring" (6 items, α=0.78). Cronbach’s Alpha reliability coefficient for the scale is 0.93. The items on the scale are numbered 5, 4, 3, 2, and 1 starting with the "always" option. The minimum score for the questionnaire is 39, and the maximum score is 195.
Examples that illustrate subscale items for the R-LSSPL are:
Elaboration: "I learn subject matter by relating it to daily life;" "I always compare what I have just learnt to my existing knowledge."
Comprehension monitoring: "When I cannot answer a question or solve a problem, I always think of what could be the reason for that;" "I try to notice what knowledge I lack."
Rehearsal: "I always review my lecture notes the same day, either orally or by rewriting them;" "I always go over the example problems that my instructor solved in class, and try to solve those again."
Organization: "I draw charts in order to understand the relationship between concepts;" "To comprehend a case in physics, I either draw its picture or a diagram."
The Scale of Attitudes towards Physics (SAP)
To determine student attitudes towards the physics course, I used SAP which was developed by Sezgin Selçuk (2004). It comprises 40 items. SAP is a 5-point Likert scale (Highly Applicable, Applicable, Neutral, Inapplicable, Highly Inapplicable). Twenty two of the items reflect positive attitudes; while 18 reflect negative attitudes. It is a two-factor scale with a Cronbach Alfa reliability coefficient of 0.97. The factor loading for each item was above 0.40. The percent of total variance explained by two factors was 53.4%. These factors were "sense of interest" and "sense of care" respectively. "Sense of interest" has 25 items, with a reliability coefficient of 0.96. Examples of items include "having an interest in physics" and "enjoying physics." Examples of items that compose the "sense of interest" factor are: "I am interested in everything related to physics" and "I am not interested in physics except for when I am in class." The alpha coefficient for "sense of care" was 0.90, and is made up of 15 items. Examples of items are: "I think physics is important," and "I think physics is a course that needs to be learnt." The minimum score for the scale is 40, while the maximum score is 200.
The Personal Information Form
This form includes demographic variables such as student gender, age and physics course variables (Physics I and Physics II grades and teaching methods used in the courses).
