Gain in learning the force concept and change in attitudes toward Physics in students of the Tonala High School

Abstract

From the perspective of competency-based education, in Mexico, to be part of the National High School System implies the adoption of strategies oriented toward and centered on the students’ needs. The objective of this study was to evaluate the effectiveness of the physics academy of the Tonala High School, Jalisco, Mexico, for the attainment of favorable attitudes toward physics and the learning of the force concept. For that, it was necessary to use the concentration and the Hake factor with the goal to know the trends in the answers and the gain in the learning of concepts respectively. The data were obtained from the administration of two questionnaires, the Maryland Physics Expectations Survey and the Force concept inventory, to students of Physics I and ceramic materials mechanics courses. These courses are taught in the first semester of the competency-based General High school Program, and in the second semester of the Ceramics-oriented High School Technological Program, respectively. The result of the analysis gives information of the low gain zone in learning of the force concept (G = 0.000 1). The progress in percentage of favorable responses towards physics was small (1.2 %) in both high school programs. In addition, there was a decrease in favorable attitude from pre-test to post-test in three groups. The response patterns in the random zone suggest that the students have  difficulty  with  physics  learning.