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Effectiveness of computer animations for teaching kinematics in physics at a secondary school
Author
Wong, Toi Kuan
Supervisor
Yau, Che Ming
Yeo, Jennifer Ai Choo
Abstract
A human being has five recognized senses. They are sight, hearing, smell, taste and touch. By invoking only one of his/her senses, the experience is limited to that particular sense. However, if a combination of the senses is used together, the experience is greatly enhanced. The rationale for the study in this dissertation is to ascertain whether the use of computer animations can aid in the understanding of the topic of kinematics in Physics. Computer animations invoke the senses of sight over time and touch by working on the websites for the computer animations. Furthermore, the computer animations can be used repeatedly if necessary. A combination of the human senses of sight and touch and repetition is invoked. The goal of this study is to show if this proposition for the rationale of this study holds by conducting an experiment on two groups of students. One group of students would have the aid of computer animations, while the other group of students does not have such an aid. The other group of students was exposed only to the usual way of teaching by means of white boards and/or PowerPoint presentation slides. Both groups were taught by the same Physics teacher with 25 years of teaching experience.
The research covers both qualitative and quantitative approaches. A number of questions for evaluation are based on the effectiveness of three websites which use computer animations in understanding displacement / distance – time graphs and velocity / speed – time graphs. This part of the research constitutes the qualitative approach of the study. The sample size consisted of 75 students from two classes. There were 38 students in the experimental group and 37 students in the control group. The experimental group consisted of 16 boys and 22 girls. The control group consisted of 14 boys and 26 girls. This allows careful control and fidelity that gives internal validity, which leads to a reliable study of the effectiveness of the three websites that use computer animations for kinematics.
Two tests were conducted: pre-test and post-test. These tests were conducted for both the experimental group and control group. The results of the analysis of the pre-test and post-test give the quantitative aspect of the study. The results from the pre-test and post-test and a number of additional evaluation questions showed that using computer animation in the teaching of kinematics on slope and at rest for graphs produced encouraging results to an extent, although the results of the t-tests using the Statistical Package for the Social Sciences (SPSS) did not support the hypothesis that animation in kinematics helped students learn better.
From the results of three additional evaluative questions, there is some evidence that many of the students in the experimental group enjoyed and benefited from using computer animations to understand graphs in kinematics and they understand the topic better. Thus, this could open new doors and ways of learning for students to learn other topics in Physics using computer animations.
The research covers both qualitative and quantitative approaches. A number of questions for evaluation are based on the effectiveness of three websites which use computer animations in understanding displacement / distance – time graphs and velocity / speed – time graphs. This part of the research constitutes the qualitative approach of the study. The sample size consisted of 75 students from two classes. There were 38 students in the experimental group and 37 students in the control group. The experimental group consisted of 16 boys and 22 girls. The control group consisted of 14 boys and 26 girls. This allows careful control and fidelity that gives internal validity, which leads to a reliable study of the effectiveness of the three websites that use computer animations for kinematics.
Two tests were conducted: pre-test and post-test. These tests were conducted for both the experimental group and control group. The results of the analysis of the pre-test and post-test give the quantitative aspect of the study. The results from the pre-test and post-test and a number of additional evaluation questions showed that using computer animation in the teaching of kinematics on slope and at rest for graphs produced encouraging results to an extent, although the results of the t-tests using the Statistical Package for the Social Sciences (SPSS) did not support the hypothesis that animation in kinematics helped students learn better.
From the results of three additional evaluative questions, there is some evidence that many of the students in the experimental group enjoyed and benefited from using computer animations to understand graphs in kinematics and they understand the topic better. Thus, this could open new doors and ways of learning for students to learn other topics in Physics using computer animations.
Date Issued
2012
Call Number
QC47.S55 Won
Date Submitted
2012