Exploratory Research on Primary School Students Conception of Mass and Heat

EXPLORATORY RESEARCH ON PRIMARY SCHOOL STUDENTS’ CONCEPTION OF MASS AND HEAT

Saripah Salbiah Syed Abd. Azziz1, Othman Talib2, Tengku Putri Norishah Tengku Shariman3, Khairul Bariyah Abdul Kadir1, Hafsah Taha1, Nurul Aini Bakar1, Lee Tien Tien1, Abu Hassan Kassim1 & Ramli Ibrahim1 1Chemisty Department, Faculty of Science and Mathematic Sultan Idris University of Education, 35900 Tanjung Malim, Perak 2 Department of Science and Technical Education, Faculty of Educational Studies, Universiti Putra Malaysia 43400 Serdang Selangor 3Faculty of Creative Multimedia, Multimedia University 35900 Cyberjaya

ABSTRACT

The purpose of this research is to identify the level of misconception among Malaysian primary school students on science topics, specifically related to heat and matter. The study involved 136 students in Year 3, from the state of Perak and 153 students in Year 5 from the state of Selangor. Two sets of test questions, each set consisting of six subjective questions, were used to collect data which were then analysed descriptively. The findings revealed Year 3 students had a high level of misconception about matter and heat. Similarly, Year 5 students had a high level of misconception about matter; but had a lower level of misconception about heat. Furthermore, majority of students faced problems to describe the properties of matter and explain the transformation process of matter. They also experienced difficulties in clarifying the definition and concept of heat. Key word: primary school science, misconception, matter, heat

INTRODUCTION Malaysia has to be competitive in the areas of science and technology in order to be a developed country. Accordingly science has been one of the important subjects that consistently being called attention to by the Malaysia's Ministry of Education (MoE). Recently, Malaysian score in the Trends in International Mathematics and Science Study (TIMSS) has come under scrutiny by the MoE. TIMMS is an international standardized test, held every 4 years, aiming to assess the mastery of mathematics and science concepts of students from all around the world. In TIMSS 2011, the score of Malaysian students in science has regressed from 510 in 2003 to 426. For the 2011 test, TIMSS was focusing on students' higher order thinking skills. This low achievement is an indicator that they are lacking of the higher order thinking skills (HOTS). In comparison to the average international score of 477 points, Malaysian students had managed to achieve only 426 points in science and were left behind in skills such as reasoning, applying, and analyzing. This shortfall in performance should be addressed, and more initiatives should be taken to enhance students' performance in science.

1 One of the reasons that affected student’s performance in science is their misconceptions of science fundamental concepts (Ping, 2006). According to Martin, Sexton & Gerlovich (2002), misconception is an error in understanding certain science concepts. Students continually fail to understand the fundamental concepts due to discrepancy between the science concepts that they were supposed to have mastered and the scientific ideas they had actually studied in class (Ping, 2006). If this issue is ignored and is not dealt with, the misconceptions will continue to exist thus compromising students’ achievement in science. Mastery of reasoning skills is one of the fundamental cognitive aspects needed by students especially in the science subject. Reasoning involves scientific thinking that assist in the formation and modification of science concepts (Zimmerman, 2007). However informal daily life experiences may lead one to perform immature process of forming and modifying science concepts which causes misconceptions. Misconceptions may also occur when students failed to associate one basic concept with another. For example, in understanding the concept of heat and mass; in an experiment when two cups of water are mixed (each cup comprise of 60mL of water at 600C); two questions will be asked to the students; (i) what is the volume of mixed water? and (ii) what is the temperature of the mixed water? In answering these questions, students may not have difficulties to answer question (i) and confidently says that the volume of mixed water is 120 mL. But they may be summing the water temperature for both cups at 120oC, assuming that the concept of heat is similar to matter. This misconception is difficult to identify if it is not investigated thoroughly during lessons. Both concepts need clarification not only descriptively but also conceptually. In Malaysia, the topics on heat and mass are taught at primary school. This study seeks to identify the patterns of students’ misconceptions of both abstract concepts to help science teachers deal with the misconceptions. Liu (2006, 2007) in his study, identified three consequent levels of understanding the concept of matter and mass: (i) understanding on mixtures, (ii) understanding on separating mixtures, and (iii) understanding kinetic and atomic models of chemical and physical changes. Without a proper understanding of the concept at earlier level will make it difficult for students to master the higher level of understanding. In addition, descriptive understanding of physical change on matter and mass concepts are important before exposing them to more abstract concepts of chemical process at atomic and molecular levels (Liu, 2006).

Meanwhile, in the same context, Saat (2010) studied the progression of children's understanding of heat using a longitudinal research approach. He interviewed 20 children and found the samples understanding of heat were limited to the effect of heating on the changes in the composition of particles of matter (the arrangement of particles).

The objectives of this research are to: 1. identify the level of misconception among students regarding matter and heat. 2. compare students’ misconception and the actual scientific idea regarding matter and heat.

2 METHODOLOGY

This research is an exploratory quantitative descriptive research. A comprehension test on matter and heat completed by students were analysed to identify misconceptions of 289 students (136 from Year 3 and 153 from Year 5). These students were selected from the state of Perak and Selangor. The instruments used in this study comprised of two sets of subjective questions on topics related to matter and heat. The instrument was constructed based on the science syllabus for Year 3 and Year 5, and adapted from a compilation of original national examination questions. The instrument was revised by two lecturers, one from Sultan Idris Education University and another from the Teachers’ Training Institute, with twenty years’ experience in teaching science. The test questions included two sections, A and B. Section A consisted of questions related to students’ background and section B contained six subjective questions to assess the level of misconception among students on matter and heat. The subjective format was chosen for the questions since this format is more flexible and can cater to the diverse abilities of students including those who are weak in science; hence these students would not be confined by their ability to answer the questions (Richard & Read, 1996). Table 1 and Table 2 below show the classification of questions. Table 1: Classification of Questions for the Matter

Question Classification

1,4, 5 (circle the picture) State the condition of the substance

2 and 4 (describe a reason) Generalize the characteristics of a substance that exist in either solid, liquid or has gas forms

3 dan 6 (give explanation) Explain the melting of ice and the evaporation of water

3 Table 2: Classification of Questions for the Heat

Question Classification

1 and 4 (select the answer) Define and state whether the substance is hot or cold 2 (give definition) Clarify that temperature is the degree of heat 3,5 and 6 (give explanation) To correlate the changes in temperature with the expansion and contraction of a substance

Test and retesting of the instrument was conducted on the research instrument and a reliability coefficient value of r >0.8 was attained as displayed in Table 3 below.

Table 3: Correlation value, r for Test-Retest Reliability

Number of Items Test and Retest Min Correlation value, r (Retest items)

Percentage of Students’ Score 10.70 3 0.824 for Year 3 (Matter topic) Students’ Score for Year 5 21.67 3 0.868 (Matter topic) Percentage of Students’ Score 21.40 3 0.843 for Year 3 (Heat topic) Percentage of Students’ Score 32.80 3 0.906 for Year 5 (Heat topic)

FINDINGS AND DISCUSSION

In analysing the research data, a descriptive statistical method was used to estimate the frequency and percentage. The answers provided by students in Section B were evaluated according to the grading scheme available and the overall score was based on the percentage of wrong answers. From this percentage, the level of misconception was determined as shown in Table 4. Table 4: Students’ Misconception Level

Percentage of Wrong Answers Level of Misconception

70-100 High 40-69 Average 0-39 Low

4 The data was then analysed qualitatively by listing and discussing the answers provided by students that frequently indicated misconceptions. Finally, the actual answers were discussed and compared to the grading scheme developed according to the primary school science syllabus. Level of Students’ Misconception on Matter and Heat Concepts Data analysis showed students in Year 3 and Year 5 experience substantial misconceptions on matter and heat. Table 5 presents the overall average percentage of wrong answers provided by students for the questions related to the matter topic. Table 5: Overall Average Percentage of Wrong Answers on Matter

Percentage of Wrong Answers by Students Questions Year 3 Year 5 1. Circle the picture 27.2 18.0 2. Describe a reason 99.6 99.4 3. Give explanation 97.4 93.3 4. Circle the picture 33.6 21.8 4. Describe a reason 100 99.4 5. Circle the picture 97.6 92.9 6. Give explanation 99.7 99.7 Average percentage 79.3 74.9 Based on Table 5, the findings demonstrate the level of misconception among Year 3 students is high with average percentage of wrong answers on matter is 79.3%. For Year 5 students, the average percentage of wrong answers on matter is 74.9% which is not much difference from the Year 3 students. Therefore, the level of misconception for Year 5 students is quite similar to Year 3 students. Table 6: Overall Average Percentage of Wrong Answers on Heat

5 Percentage of Wrong Answers by Students Questions Year 3 Year 5 1 Select the answer 27.5 12.6

1. State the reason 98.7 96.2

3. Draw a picture 87.5 76

5. Circle the answer 42.3 48.4

6. Make an observation 67.7 48.0 6. State the reason 99.8 99.0

Average percentage 79.6 66.1

The overall average percentage of wrong answers on heat is 79.6% (Table 6). This shows that the level of misconception among Year 3 students on heat is high. Meanwhile for Year 5 students, the overall average percentage of wrong answers on heat is 66.1% which could be considered at a moderate level. Comparison between misconception of students and scientific ideas Results found students have problems in describing the condition of a substance. Among the frequent answers is visualising a solid as a jelly or gum. They also portray ice to be categorised as liquid and not solid. The answers given by students are incorrect because ice does have some characteristics of solid; ice cannot be compressed, cannot flow through and cannot adhere to the shape of a container. Most students failed to explain the attributes that represent all the conditions of a substance when they were expected to generalize these attributes. As an example, students said that solids have the attributes of hardness, sharpness, strength, and consider solid as something that has the properties of iron. This is due to their tendency of assuming solid as a hard and strong material. Moreover, students perceive that the concept of solid is based on the word “solid” since a group of students answered that solid is ‘something solid’. Most students could not explain the scientific attributes and characteristics accurately even though they have ideas about the substance. In describing reasons for the condition of a substance, most Year 5 students could not give an answer that corresponded with the scientific idea even though they had been exposed to formal instruction on the topic. For example, a student would regard the factory smoke as water vapour when in fact, in theory, a factory smoke is actually a type of gas that move

6 freely and fill up a space. This misconception occurred, because students have formed individual meanings that are different from the viewpoints of scientists about many science concepts, before they had any formal instruction in science (Sidek, 2012). On the other hand, in describing ice melting and water evaporation, majority of students said that ice will become ‘liquid’ whereas the actual answer is ice will melt. The "liquid" answer indicated obvious change in students’ understanding of scientific ideas, particularly on melting as a transformation process of a substance condition from solid to liquid. Answers given by students did not explain the transformation process in evaporation. Students would usually answer based on their individual experience without applying any scientific idea like the answer, “a wet garment can be dried with the sun,” “water which is wet will turn into smoke”, and “wind will dry clothes.” These findings strengthened the earlier research by Anderson (1990) which discovered numerous misconceptions in a study on the phases in transformation. As an example, water that has spilled on the floor will penetrate the floor (Bar & Travis, 1991). With regards to the heat topic, in the definition category and statement of whether and material is hot or cold, majority of students answered ‘heat makes a material feel hot,’ ‘because scorching heat can cause something to become hot,’ and ‘heat uses a lot of items that are hot.’ For questions on concepts of heat, most students defined heat as ‘hot,’ ‘vapour,’ ‘cloud,’ and ‘smoke.’ Current misconception on heat transpired when students did not understand heat as a form of energy (Chan, 2002). This misconception has prevailed since they imagine heat as something shaped like a mist or fog rather than a form of energy. On the other hand temperature is defined by most students as ‘temperature is cold or hot,’ ‘temperature absorbs,’ ‘temperature is measurable,’ and ‘warm temperature absorbs heat.’ Many students have apparent misconception on basic concepts of temperature and heat; for example, they often presumed that heat has the same meaning as temperature, but in reality heat is a form of energy while temperature is the degree of heat or coldness (Chan, 2002). In fact, some of the students’ answers have no relevance at all with temperature like the words ‘steel’, ‘wood’, ‘paper’ and ‘picture’. To explain the effect of heat on materials, some of the questions included requesting students to draw a picture and clarify the reasons based on the picture drawn. For example, they sketched a picture of an electric cable in a tensed situation and among the reasons given is ‘hot weather will make an electric pole feel hot’ and ‘when it is hot, the electric cable will be tensed.” The reasons given did not correlate with the scientific ideas illustrated in the sketches even though students are supposed to relate the changes in temperature with the expansion and contraction of materials. Nevertheless, students seem to have basic understanding in the application of heat on the expansion and contraction on railway lines that they may have obtained through informal learning of a life experience. Research also found level of misconception among Year 3 students is high for both topics, 79.3% on matter and 79.6% on heat. Similarly, level of misconception among Year 5 students on matter is high (74.9%), but the level of misconception on heat has decreased to 66.l% which immediately ranked their level of misconception at a medium level. In conclusion, the study showed the existence of misconception on matter among students. However, the magnitude of this misconception has decreased in Year 5. Students also experienced difficulties in explaining the qualities of matter. In addition, they tended to provide their own justification about the process of change in matter without associating the justification with a scientific idea. Similarly, overall findings indicated the existence of

7 misconception on heat for Year 3 and Year 5 students. Data revealed the level of misconception for the Heat topic among Year 5 students is lower compared to students in Year 3. Majority of students faced problems in explaining the causes and relating temperature changes with expansion and contraction in the Heat topic. This misconception problem should not be regarded as something trivial because the problem would probably snowball and continue to affect students’ understanding of science concepts. To overcome this problem of misconception among primary school students, educators should review and improve science pedagogy implemented in schools so that it is more suitable with the level of students. Clear pedagogical input from teachers about a science concept is crucial in ensuring efficient delivery science classroom. Hence, it is hoped this study can assist teachers to improve their pedagogical skills in the science subject and further enhance the quality teaching and learning at schools.

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