An inquiry-based simulation-supported approach to assist students' learning of basic electric circuits

Important aspects of teaching and learning are to understand what difficulties students have, why they face these difficulties, and how to help them overcome these difficulties. This research investigated the alternative conceptions that students hold pertaining to the concepts of open circuits and...

Full description

Saved in:

Bibliographic Details
Main Author:	Hussain, Noor Hamizah
Format:	Thesis
Language:	English
Published:	2012
Subjects:	LB Theory and practice of education
Online Access:	http://eprints.utm.my/id/eprint/31864/1/NoorHamizahHussainPSPS2012.pdf
Tags:	Add Tag No Tags, Be the first to tag this record!

id	my-utm-ep.31864
record_format	uketd_dc
spelling	my-utm-ep.318642017-09-25T05:58:05Z An inquiry-based simulation-supported approach to assist students' learning of basic electric circuits 2012-10 Hussain, Noor Hamizah LB Theory and practice of education Important aspects of teaching and learning are to understand what difficulties students have, why they face these difficulties, and how to help them overcome these difficulties. This research investigated the alternative conceptions that students hold pertaining to the concepts of open circuits and short circuits in a Basic Electric Circuits course. Data gathered from different sources including interviews, tests and documents were analyzed to characterized students’ conceptual learning difficulties. The researcher adapted a diagnostic instrument that consists of 12 multiple choice items for the pretest and posttest. The participants were 80 first-year students enrolled in a Diploma in Electrical Engineering programme at one local public university; where 47 students constituted the treatment group and 33 students constituted the control group. The pretest was administered to both groups during the first week of the semester. An inquiry-based simulation-supported approach session was conducted with the treatment group after the pretest. The inquiry-based simulation-supported approach incorporated predict-observe-explain (POE) tasks. The extent to which this approach can assist students’ in developing conceptual understanding was investigated. Students’ verbal responses during the circuit simulation using Multisim software were recorded and analyzed. The posttest was administered during the final week of the semester to both groups. Research findings are presented in two parts. The first part is a quantitative analysis of students’ performance on the pretest and posttest. The second part is a qualitative analysis of students’ documents and interviews to identify their alternative conceptions. Findings reveal that the inquiry-based simulation-supported approach positively impacted students’ conceptual understanding. The advantages and disadvantages of applying the inquiry-based simulation-supported approach in Basic Electric Circuits are discussed. 2012-10 Thesis http://eprints.utm.my/id/eprint/31864/ http://eprints.utm.my/id/eprint/31864/1/NoorHamizahHussainPSPS2012.pdf application/pdf en public phd doctoral Universiti Teknologi Malaysia, School of Graduate Studies School of Graduate Studies
institution	Universiti Teknologi Malaysia
collection	UTM Institutional Repository
language	English
topic	LB Theory and practice of education
spellingShingle	LB Theory and practice of education Hussain, Noor Hamizah An inquiry-based simulation-supported approach to assist students' learning of basic electric circuits
description	Important aspects of teaching and learning are to understand what difficulties students have, why they face these difficulties, and how to help them overcome these difficulties. This research investigated the alternative conceptions that students hold pertaining to the concepts of open circuits and short circuits in a Basic Electric Circuits course. Data gathered from different sources including interviews, tests and documents were analyzed to characterized students’ conceptual learning difficulties. The researcher adapted a diagnostic instrument that consists of 12 multiple choice items for the pretest and posttest. The participants were 80 first-year students enrolled in a Diploma in Electrical Engineering programme at one local public university; where 47 students constituted the treatment group and 33 students constituted the control group. The pretest was administered to both groups during the first week of the semester. An inquiry-based simulation-supported approach session was conducted with the treatment group after the pretest. The inquiry-based simulation-supported approach incorporated predict-observe-explain (POE) tasks. The extent to which this approach can assist students’ in developing conceptual understanding was investigated. Students’ verbal responses during the circuit simulation using Multisim software were recorded and analyzed. The posttest was administered during the final week of the semester to both groups. Research findings are presented in two parts. The first part is a quantitative analysis of students’ performance on the pretest and posttest. The second part is a qualitative analysis of students’ documents and interviews to identify their alternative conceptions. Findings reveal that the inquiry-based simulation-supported approach positively impacted students’ conceptual understanding. The advantages and disadvantages of applying the inquiry-based simulation-supported approach in Basic Electric Circuits are discussed.
format	Thesis
qualification_name	Doctor of Philosophy (PhD.)
qualification_level	Doctorate
author	Hussain, Noor Hamizah
author_facet	Hussain, Noor Hamizah
author_sort	Hussain, Noor Hamizah
title	An inquiry-based simulation-supported approach to assist students' learning of basic electric circuits
title_short	An inquiry-based simulation-supported approach to assist students' learning of basic electric circuits
title_full	An inquiry-based simulation-supported approach to assist students' learning of basic electric circuits
title_fullStr	An inquiry-based simulation-supported approach to assist students' learning of basic electric circuits
title_full_unstemmed	An inquiry-based simulation-supported approach to assist students' learning of basic electric circuits
title_sort	inquiry-based simulation-supported approach to assist students' learning of basic electric circuits
granting_institution	Universiti Teknologi Malaysia, School of Graduate Studies
granting_department	School of Graduate Studies
publishDate	2012
url	http://eprints.utm.my/id/eprint/31864/1/NoorHamizahHussainPSPS2012.pdf
_version_	1747815864255643648

An inquiry-based simulation-supported approach to assist students' learning of basic electric circuits

Similar Items