Effects of the teaching model for hot conceptual change on the academic performance of students in the concept current electricity

Abstract

The conceptual change models have been continually developed over the years and are used to improve students’ conceptual understanding through the remedying of students’ misconceptions. Among these models, the Teaching Model for Hot Conceptual Change (TMHCC) propounded by Kural and Kocakulah was used as a teaching intervention to improve students’ academic performance in some selected topics in direct current electricity. This conceptual change model lends itself to the identification and remedying of students' misconceptions through the active engagement of students' metacognition, creation of cognitive conflict, and utilisation of motivational constructs. An action research design was adopted in this study to gather data. One intact Form Two class with a class size of 40 in a public school in Effutu Municipality was used for the study. The research instrument used were the Electricity concept test, focused group interview and field observation. The Wilcoxon signed rank test, effect size, frequencies and percentages were used in analysing the data. The results of the study showed that the TMHCC positively affect students conceptual understanding of current electricity through improved students’ critical thinking, critique, collaboration, communication, circuit connection, measurement skills, and positive attitudes towards learning physics as evidenced by punctuality, attentiveness, and enthusiasm. It was evident that TMHCC significantly impacts students' academic performance. Consequently, it was recommended among others that teachers should place more importance on teaching effectively such concepts in electricity so that students are able to grasp and overcome their inability to understand them. Students must be provided with some more opportunities for making them understand it.