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Asia-Pacific Forum on Science
Learning and Teaching, Volume 5, Issue 2, Article 1 (Aug., 2004) Vivian Mo Yin CHENG Developing Physics learning activities for fostering student creativity in Hong Kong context
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Asia-Pacific Forum on Science
Learning and Teaching, Volume 5, Issue 2, Article 1 (Aug., 2004) Vivian Mo Yin CHENG Developing Physics learning activities for fostering student creativity in Hong Kong context
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Results
On the whole, most students in this study could respond to most of the tasks given in 10 to 20 minutes. Some of them gave plenty of answers, while others' responses were slower. Some of their answers were quite interesting or creative. For the more comprehensive tasks like Question 20,21 and 22, most students can generate answers with some relevant ideas, thought they not so complete. Among all the questions, students showed greatest difficulties in answering Question 6, 12, 16 an 18. Sample of students' answers are shown in appendix of this paper. The performance of the students indicated that the activities suggested are, on the average, suitable to this group of students.
The written feedbacks of the students on these activities can be classified into four groups. They are (1) direct feelings towards the activities, (2) perceived learning outcomes in Physics learning, (3) perceived learning outcomes in creativity development, and (4) their puzzle and worries in the activities.
Concerning direct feelings towards these activities, nearly all of the students feel that the activities are quite different from that in their normal classroom learning, giving them an innovative learning experience. They wrote:
" ... use a new approach to treat something which we already get used to, ... quite novel"
"(I) seldom think about these questions in normal days... (what learnt in this lesson) is greatly different from that in normal lesson."Most of the students expressed that the activities are interesting and full of fun. They used to describe them as games and play. Their feedback are :
"Amazing ! (Before this activity) I do not know that Physics can be played in this way"
"Very happy! Normal days (I) seldom think crazy things. Now, (I) have the opportunity to imagine these unusual and amazing things. An exciting game!"
"Recently, workload and pressure is great. Today, it is valuable to have time to a have a little rest, to play and relax."On the other hand, some students had mixed feelings. They felt that the activities are quite difficult, need to think very hard and yet still like doing them.
"I found the invention of Physics is quite difficult but at the same time quite funny?"
"Very playful, but the process of imagination is very difficult, especially in breaking away from my original knowledge in Physics to create something new"Concerning learning outcomes in Physics domain, more than half of them expressed that, through participating in these activities, they discovered that Physics is more related to daily-life than they think before. They said,
"let me know Physics is not just study and calculation, but it’s related to life"
"...I can feel that physics is closely related to our daily lives. I can actually invent some things that may be really used"
"the activities can make me understand how many things science involves in"Another perceived outcome was that interest in Physics was enhanced. They mentioned,
"...this is a quite interesting game on Physics. I think exploration on Physics is very funny"
"more effectively linking Physics and daily-life, make me feel that Physics is more playful than I expected"The activities made students think more deeply about Physics. Related responses are:
"this stimulates me think more deeply in Physics and in things happening in daily lives"
"...I like especially the part of comparing force and love. It really provides a chance for me to think deep and think of the things that I've never think of."The activities strengthen an image that Physics is creative. Students said,
"...I understand now that Physics can also be created and used in daily-life"
"...Physics provides room for imagination."
"...science is actually developed from creativity"Some students realize that their Physics knowledge is not enough. They gave these responses:
"(I) recognize that my Physics level is not that good after doing these exercises."
"I feel my Physics knowledge is too limited today"Concerning learning outcomes in creativity development, some students felt that these activities made them think more, think wider and enhanced their creative thinking.
"I'vc learnt to think more in different aspects"
"... should use imagination more, more flexible thinking"
"... don't restrict by other things…."For other students, their confidence and value in creativity were enhanced. They said,
"... I can think of something that normally I cannot imagine, ? Understand that creativity is very important"
"I discover that creativity of a person can be enhanced in anytime like this"Whereas other students were aware that they did not have enough creativity and need to develop their creativity more. Their feedbacks are:
"I discover that I do not have creativity, all I know are only those from lesson"
"I realize that I really lack creative thinking skills. Many simple things I fail to realize"
"My creativity seems not so enough. (I need to) learn harder on creative thinking, ...A few students did express some worries and puzzles on the activities, including inadequate time for thinking and sharing, and not knowing what was learnt. Their responses are:
"...It will be better for us to speak more and share our ideas. Also, we have not enough time for thinking"
"It is fun, but at the end, I am sleepy,…. I do not understand how this lesson can help to increase our creativity"
"I do not know what I have learnt… It seems just play games."
"...you disturb our normal lesson, I cannot see any meaning in it..."In conclusion, the activities developed were novel and interesting to the students. Students felt that they are useful to their Physics learning and creativity development. But some students had some hesitations and concerns in them.
The results of teacher evaluation are shown in Table 3,4,5 and 6. Nearly all (more than 90% of) teachers agreed (including slightly agree and strongly agree) that this set of activities can enhance creativity, divergent thinking abilities and imagination of students. For affective learning outcomes, nearly all teachers agreed that they can cultivate students’ interest, confidence and value in creative thinking, and also their curiosity. For Physics learning, nearly all teachers agreed that they can enhance students’ learning interest in Physics and a daily-life image of Physics. Some teachers also believed that these activities can improve the conceptual understanding and memory of students in Physics, but less in number. (see Table 3)
The result in Table 4 revealed that, around 70% of teachers agreed that this set of Physics activities can be infused into the Physics curricula. Teachers thought that the activities are more suitable for the new curricular reform than for the existing traditional curriculum. They are more suitable for junior levels than for senior levels, and more suitable for project work and extracurricular activities than for classroom learning. In fact, nearly all teachers (more than 90 %) agreed that they can be infused into Form 1 to 3 science syllabus and Physics project work. Only about half the teachers agreed that these activities can be used in the assessment of Physics learning.
Table 3. Teachers' opinion on the learning outcomes of the activities
Learning objectives
% Agree
% Disagree
Can enhance
creativity (general)
100
0%
creativity in Physics
97
3%
divergent thinking, like fluency, flexibility, novelty and elaboration
100
0
imagination
97
3
sensitivity
86
0
interest, confidence and value in creative thinking
94
0
curiosity
91
3
challenge-taking and risk-taking attitudes
86
3
interest in Physics learning
94
3
an image that Physics is highly related with daily-life
91
3
an image that Physics is a creative domain
89
3
memory of Physics knowledge
72
11
aspiration to become a scientist in Physics
66
20
conceptual understanding in Physics
66
17
Note. "% agree" include % of teachers who strongly agree, agree and slightly agree the statement. "% disagree" include % of teachers who strongly disagree, disagree and slightly disagree the statement. The % of teachers who have no ideas on the statement is not reported.
Table 4. Teachers' opinion on the suitability of the activities to Physics curricula
Physics curricula
% Agree
% Disagree
Can be infused into
the coming new Physics syllabuses
77
6
the existing Physics syllabuses
69
14
the Physics topics in Form 1 to 3 Science syllabus
94
0
Form 4 & 5 Physics syllabus
77
9
Form 6 & 7 Physics syllabus
66
17
Physics project work
94
6
Physics extra-curricular activities
83
9
Physics classroom lessons
89
6
Physics assessment
51
20
The result in Table 5 and 6 showed that around 80% of teachers agreed that this set of activities is suitable for their own students and other students in Hong Kong, and doing them is not out of students' capacity. However, in evaluating the suitability of the activities to teachers, teachers showed less confidence in it. 66% of teachers agreed that conducting this kind of activities is not too difficult to them. Their confidence in designing and assessing these activities were even lower. Less than half of the teachers agreed that most Physics teachers in Hong Kong can design, conduct and assess this kind of activities. Teachers were not sure other Hong Kong teachers have the abilities to infuse these activities into their Physics teaching. Table 6 showed teachers' opinion on the some suggested problems of the activities. A high percentage of teachers agreed that the activities would cause serious troubles to their classroom management (63%) and greatly delay their teaching schedule (80%).
Table 5. Teachers' opinion on the suitability of the activities to teachers and students
Items
% Agree
% Disagree
This kind of activities is suitable for students in my classes
83
12
This kind of activities is suitable for most secondary students in HK
74
11
To me, designing this kind of activities is not too difficult
49
37
To me, conducting this kind of activities is not too difficult
66
29
To me, assessing learning in this kind of activities is not too difficult
43
46
Most Physics teachers in HK can design this kind of activities
46
29
Most Physics teachers in HK can conduct this kind of activities
49
23
Most Physics teachers in HK can assess learning in this kind of activities
40
34.3
Table 6. Teachers' opinion on the negative impact of the suggested activities
Items
% Agree
% Disagree
Doing these activities would greatly delay my teaching schedule
80
12
Doing these activities would cause serious troubles to my classroom management
63
23
Doing these activities would do great harm on students' examination results
26
49
Teaching these activities are out of my own capacity
20
66
Doing these activities are not learning Physics
6
81
Doing these activities are wasting students' time
0
74.3
Doing these activities are out of my students’ capacity
3
80
For expected frequency of implementation, the result in Figure 1 indicated that about 40% of teachers confessed that in future they will now and then, but not frequently, implement this kind of activities in their teaching. About 28% will seldom teach them and 20% will infuse these activities into their normal teaching regularly. Very few of them refuse or show reluctance in trying them with their students.
Figure 1. Teachers' expectation on frequency of implementing the suggested activities
In the open-ended question that asked teachers what changes they expected they would have, teachers’ feedback can be classified into three categories – (1) would try to develop students’ creativity by infusing some of these creative elements into their teaching, (2) would implement these activities in schools for achieving other non-creativity-related teaching objectives, and (3) highlight difficulties and obstacles in implementing these creative activities.
Consistent with the result in Figure 1, many teachers expressed that they would try to infuse the creative learning activities into their teaching. They wrote,
"ask students more creative questions"
"a new approach in lesson that is worth to be implemented"
"plan more activities that help develop students' creativity... reconsider what I have been teaching in this area"Rather unexpectedly, instead of teaching for creativity, many teachers suggested that they would use these activities to achieve other teaching objectives, including inducing more variations in their teaching, enhancing learning interests of students, doing revision, developing cross-curricular learning, assessing knowledge acquisition. They wrote,
"(If I) have time, I would play some of these activities with students, making use of creativity (activities to) widen students interest in Physics. It does not matter using them as revision activities."
"Use more alternatives to teach students physics"
"not so boring while learning physics"
"better to develop cross-curricular activities, such as Chinese(writing) and physics"
"Can use some of the more interesting methods to assess students' Physics knowledge"Also unexpectedly, instead of answering what changes they expected themselves to have in the questionnaire, some of the teachers highlighted the limitations they have in implementing these activities, including time, syllabus and etc. This result echoes with that in the reported teacher survey.
"It is difficult to change for the high form students. Limited teaching time is one of the difficulties we have to face"
"On the launching of new CE Physics syllabus, there will be more time for me to try different teaching strategies..."In short, on the whole, teachers agreed that the activities suggested are suitable for fostering creativity of students in Hong Kong, but they still have a lot worries, including the concerns on the abilities of teachers in designing, conducting and assessing the activities, and the concerns on the classroom discipline, teaching time, syllabus, and etc.
Copyright (C) 2004 HKIEd APFSLT. Volume 5, Issue 2, Article 1 (Aug., 2004). All Rights Reserved.
