Can a Syllabus Change Impact on
Students’ Perceptions of Science?
Fragmented and Cohesive
Conceptions of Physics

Manjula Devi Sharma; Chris Stewart; Rachel Wilson; Muhammed Sait Gökalp

doi:10.12973/eurasia.2013.914a

Can a Syllabus Change Impact on Students’ Perceptions of Science? Fragmented and Cohesive Conceptions of Physics

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Manjula Devi Sharma ¹ ^* , Chris Stewart ¹, Rachel Wilson ¹, Muhammed Sait Gökalp ²

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¹ University of Sydney, Australia² Dumlupınar University, Turkey^* Corresponding Author

Abstract

In recent decades, the literature paid attention to students’ conceptions of the nature of disciplines. This study aimed to investigate how students’ cohesive and fragment conceptions of physics changed with a major change in senior high school physics syllabus. We obtained measures of conceptions of physics by utilizing a 20-item questionnaire and triangulated by open-ended responses. The sample was 1979 first year university students from three different years surveyed in their first laboratory session. The first cohort of 780 first year university students had experienced the old syllabus in high school and the next two cohorts of 511 and 688 first year university students had experienced a rejuvenated high school syllabus. By establishing the reliability and validity we found that there exists a substantial shift in student conceptions of the cohesiveness of physics coinciding with the school syllabus change. This shift was mirrored in qualitative data. Furthermore, students with more previous engagement in physics learning, on the average, demonstrated less fragmented and more cohesive conceptions with the rejuvenated syllabus than with the old syllabus.

Keywords

academic engagement
conceptions
university students
curricular reform
physics education

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This is an open access article distributed under the Creative Commons Attribution License which permits unrestricted use, distribution, and reproduction in any medium, provided the original work is properly cited.

Article Type: Research Article

EURASIA J Math Sci Tech Ed, 2013, Volume 9, Issue 1, 33-44

https://doi.org/10.12973/eurasia.2013.914a

Publication date: 27 Jan 2013

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How to cite this article

APA

Sharma, M. D., Stewart, C., Wilson, R., & Gökalp, M. S. (2013). Can a Syllabus Change Impact on Students’ Perceptions of Science? Fragmented and Cohesive Conceptions of Physics. Eurasia Journal of Mathematics, Science and Technology Education, 9(1), 33-44. https://doi.org/10.12973/eurasia.2013.914a

Vancouver

Sharma MD, Stewart C, Wilson R, Gökalp MS. Can a Syllabus Change Impact on Students’ Perceptions of Science? Fragmented and Cohesive Conceptions of Physics. EURASIA J Math Sci Tech Ed. 2013;9(1):33-44. https://doi.org/10.12973/eurasia.2013.914a

AMA

Sharma MD, Stewart C, Wilson R, Gökalp MS. Can a Syllabus Change Impact on Students’ Perceptions of Science? Fragmented and Cohesive Conceptions of Physics. EURASIA J Math Sci Tech Ed. 2013;9(1), 33-44. https://doi.org/10.12973/eurasia.2013.914a

Chicago

Sharma, Manjula Devi, Chris Stewart, Rachel Wilson, and Muhammed Sait Gökalp. "Can a Syllabus Change Impact on Students’ Perceptions of Science? Fragmented and Cohesive Conceptions of Physics". Eurasia Journal of Mathematics, Science and Technology Education 2013 9 no. 1 (2013): 33-44. https://doi.org/10.12973/eurasia.2013.914a

Harvard

Sharma, M. D., Stewart, C., Wilson, R., and Gökalp, M. S. (2013). Can a Syllabus Change Impact on Students’ Perceptions of Science? Fragmented and Cohesive Conceptions of Physics. Eurasia Journal of Mathematics, Science and Technology Education, 9(1), pp. 33-44. https://doi.org/10.12973/eurasia.2013.914a

MLA

Sharma, Manjula Devi et al. "Can a Syllabus Change Impact on Students’ Perceptions of Science? Fragmented and Cohesive Conceptions of Physics". Eurasia Journal of Mathematics, Science and Technology Education, vol. 9, no. 1, 2013, pp. 33-44. https://doi.org/10.12973/eurasia.2013.914a