Since the invention and dissemination of domestic laser pointers, observing optical phenomena is a relatively easy task. Any student can buy a laser and experience at home, in a qualitative way, the reflection, refraction and even diffraction phenomena of light. However, quantitative experiments need instruments of high precision that have a…

The authors examined whether students' epistemic and learning beliefs varied across different knowledge types in physics. On the basis of various beliefs frameworks, the authors predicted that individuals' beliefs would vary within a domain across the same content when presented conceptually versus procedurally. Participants were 81 high…

This article analyzes the relationship between pupils' level of understanding of the analogies proposed in class while working with a model of chemical change and their competence at constructing a coherent verbal discourse of that model in both its macroscopic and submicroscopic representations. The study participants were 35 pupils in their 3rd…

Solving many quantitative problems does not necessarily lead to an improved Physics understanding. However, physicists, who have learned physics largely through quantitative problems solving, often have a refined physical intuition. Assuming that the refinement of physical intuitions occurs, to a great extent, during problem solving, the question…

This study aims to explore how undergraduate students in mathematics and engineering professions make sense out of graphs representing periodic and repeated but non-periodic motions. In this study, making sense out of graphs means interpreting graphical features and describing a situation that could be represented by them. The data was collected…

This embedded mixed methods study investigates the development of rural elementary students' conceptual understanding of force and motion as a result of the implementation of robotics instruction immersed within a 5E Learning Cycle Model lessons. Three treatment groups and one controlled comparison group (n = 96) participated in pretests and…

Background: Valid assessment of the understanding of Newton's mechanics is highly relevant to both physics classrooms and research. Several tests have been developed. What remains missing, however, is an efficient and fair test of conceptual understanding that is adapted to the content taught to secondary school students and that can be validly…

Developing critical thinking skills is a common goal of an undergraduate physics curriculum. How do students make sense of evidence and what do they do with it? In this study, we evaluated students' critical thinking behaviors through their written notebooks in an introductory physics laboratory course. We compared student behaviors in the…

In industrial design (ID) education, mechanics-based courses are mainly based on a traditional lecture approach and they are highly abstract for ID students to comprehend. The existing studies highlight the requirement of a new approach for mechanics-based courses in ID departments. This study presents a combined teaching model for mechanisms…

The aim of this study was to develop a Likert type attitude scale for high school students with regard to high school physics lessons. The research was carried out with high school students who were studying in Ankara. First, the opinions of 105 high school students about physics lessons were obtained and then 55 scale items were determined from…

Fluid statics is one of the most difficult topics for students to learn. Formative assessment and remedial instruction can help students master the concepts. However, identifying students' challenges for formative purposes and facilitating remedial learning is not easy given to the number of students and variation of the problems encountered. An…

New physics bachelors entering the workforce receive some of the highest starting salaries of any undergraduate majors. Bachelors accepting STEM (science, technology, engineering, mathematics) positions in the private sector had a median starting salary of $55,000. Physics bachelors from 2013 and 2014 were contacted in the winter following the…

This paper examines students' achievement and interest and the extent to which they are predicted by teacher knowledge and motivation. Student achievement and interest are both considered desirable outcomes of school instruction. Teacher pedagogical content knowledge has been identified a major predictor of student achievement in previous…

Undergraduate educational settings often struggle to provide students with authentic biologically or medically relevant situations and problems that simultaneously improve their understanding of physics. Through exercises and laboratory activities developed in an elective Physics in Biomedicine course for upper-level biology or pre-health majors…

This article builds on a semiotic perspective of science learning that is framed in terms of achieving competency in a disciplinary discourse of a science such as physics. The aim of the article is to use this perspective, and the proposal that learning in a science discipline should be seen in terms of achieving fluency in a critical…