Influence of intellectual and cultural environments on students conceptions of the topic heat in secondary school and University physics education

Abstract

The topic of heat forms an important part of the science curriculum at all levels in the education system. However the poor perfomiance on questions involving heat in examinations suggests that students have difiiculties in conceptualizing heat and could have ideas that are incompatible with the accepted physical theories. This study investigated the kinds of ideas that students use to explain heat and its associated physical phenomena and sought to establish whether students‘ conceptions are influenced by their level of intellectual development, gender and cultural beliefs. Such information would be helpful to physics curriculum developers and teachers in planning and developing teaching strategies to present the concept of heat to students. The data was collected from 269 Form One and 225 Form Three students in 15 randomly selected schools from all mixed, district secondary schools in Nyandarua district and also from 68 Egerton University second year B.Ed - (science) and B.Sc - (physics) students. Hence a total of 562 students were involved. However to investigate influence of cultural beliefs on students conceptions only the secondary students of Kikuyu ethnic community were involved. A simultaneous cross-sectional survey research design was used. The research instruments comprised two questionnaires, one to solicit students‘ ideas on the physical phenomena associated with heat (QSPIH) and the other to assess influence of cultural beliefs on students conceptions of heat (QICBSCH). The questionnaires were pilot tested to detemiine their validity and reliability. Descriptive and inferential statistics were used for data analysis. Chi-square tests of analyses were used to determine whether the distribution of conceptions was dependent on students’ level of intellectual development and gender. The hypotheses were tested at oi = 0.05. The findings obtained indicated that students in secondary schools and University have some misconceptions on the concept of heat. When students‘ conceptions were categorized in terms of the prevailing theories of heat namely caloric, pre-kinetic and kinetic, the results indicated that the distribution of conceptions was dependent upon the students’ level of intellectual development but not gender. The findings further indicated that a particular metaphor concerning heat exists in the conceptions of the secondary students of Kikuyu ethnic community in Nyandarua District, Based on these findings, the study concludes that students‘ conceptions concerning heat are influenced by their level of intellectual development and to some extent by their cultural beliefs but not gender. The study recommends that the topic of kinetic theory of matter be taught to primary pupils before being introduced to the topic of heat. The study further recommends that misconceptions be emphasized in the science curricula of schools and teacher training institutions so that students‘ altemative conceptions on various concepts like heat can be addressed. Lastly the study proposes that aspects of indigenous culture that interactvin a manner complementary to the accepted science be included in the curricula of schools. Further research should be conducted to investigate existence of cultural metaphors concerning heat in other ethnic communities living in Kenya.