Study of Second-year Physies Students' Scientific Reasoning Ability and Knowledge of Simple Harmonic Motion through Guided Inquiry

Abstract

In the physics education literature, it has been reported that there is a disconnection between the progress of scientific reasoning skills and content knowledge. Scientific reasoning skills were not addressed with the content-rich pedagogical approach. This study is aimed at studying the effects of guided inquiry approach with the three-phase learning cycle to mitigate the problem. Design of the instructional intervention was targeted on the application of scientific thinking through class response system, lecture demonstration with a video, simulation, or experiment, as well as worksheet tasks and problems about simple harmonic motion. These activities were supported by the evaluation of one's own idea and small group or whole class discussions. The sample consisted of 26 participants in a vibrations and waves course at Prince of Songkla University. Lawson Classroom Test of Scientific Reasoning and standard simple harmonic motion problems were administered to them as pre- and posttests. Practically, no significant gain of overall scientific reasoning ability was observed. By model analysis, changes in mental models revealed that students moved toward better thinking pattern strategies on some subskills of scientific ability. Moreover, they developed to become better problem solvers in the context of simple harmonic motion.