Finding out what students are thinking concerning light and sight

Abstract

This paper reports on the results of a study on how 238 ninth and tenth grade students from 6 schools interpret everyday phenomenon involving light and sight. The study uses the Structure of the Observed Learning Outcomes (SOLO) Taxonomy (Collis and Biggs, 1991) to lay the foundation for a Students' Seeing Framework (Jones, Collis, Watson, Sprod and Fraser, 1995a) based on notions of light, eye and object. The instrument used for the study probed students' understanding of the topic with respect to the mechanism by which they see. A one-to-one interview was also carried out with 14 randomly selected students after the administration of the questionnaire, principally to validate their responses. The results indicate that more than 50% of the students did not demonstrate complete understanding of the concepts of light and vision, even after formal instruction on the topic. Grade level was a factor influencing the development of concepts of light and vision.