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Asia-Pacific Forum on Science Learning and Teaching, Volume 16, Issue 1, Article 15 (Jun., 2015)
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Asia-Pacific Forum on Science Learning and Teaching, Volume 16, Issue 1, Article 15 (Jun., 2015)
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The results showed that science teachers don’t find activities enough relating to lenses in the present middle school textbook. Also they stated that these activities are insufficient for students to associate concepts with daily life. And they suggested to use researcher’s activities to attract students’ interest and to motivate them to topic and science. They stated that the activities will contribute students to relate more links with lenses and daily life and understand the topic more easily. The present study has provided science educators a series hands of activities to guide them for teaching middle school students the basic principles of lenses in geometric optics. Sometimes, under the right conditions lecturing could be an effective method for students learning however wholesale lecturing method is not effective means of getting the majority of students engaged in constructing knowledge during class time (Mestre, 2001). Above suggested student-centered learning environment including hands-on activities supports students doing and discussing physics. Instructional approaches allow students discussing physics, doing physics, teaching each other physics and offering problem solution strategies for evaluation by peers will facilitate the construction of physics knowledge (Mestre, 2001). Also students need to be well motivated for learning physics as other disciplines. It is thought that providing students such a student-centered learning environment they do activities and design a refracting telescope as an optical system will help to motivate students for learning the topic. Students’ views after application of these activities in a class during the lens topic showed that activities were amusing for them. They stated activities motivated them to science and attracted their interest in science. This result of the research is consistent previous ones (Holstermann, Grube, & Bögeholz, 2010; Tuan, Chin, Tsai, & Cheng, 2005; Wen-jin, Chia-ju, & Shi-an, 2012) on this topic. According to results of students’ views, they learned the topic better and be able to relate with daily life via activities. Using hands-on activities on this topic seemed to support motivation, interest and learning. Further research may be able to identify how influential these activities in academic achievement really are.
Copyright (C) 2015 HKIEd APFSLT. Volume 16, Issue 1, Article 15 (Jun., 2015). All Rights Reserved.
