Context dependence of Physics students' responses to the term "radiation"

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dc.contributor.advisorAllie, Saalihen_ZA
dc.contributor.authorTakane, Mpeli Aliceen_ZA
dc.date.accessioned2015-07-02T08:45:11Z
dc.date.available2015-07-02T08:45:11Z
dc.date.issued2014en_ZA
dc.descriptionIncludes bibliographical references.en_ZA
dc.description.abstractFor the public to be able to participate meaningfully in debates regarding issues that are related to science and technology it is important that they are properly informed and that their sources of information are reliable. One source of such information are university science students and it is therefore interesting to find out what their views are regarding various scientific concepts. For example such an area of interest is that of using nuclear power for electricity generation, in particular the dangers associated with radiation. A reasonably correct view of radiation would be seen as an important part of having a meaningful debate. The present study aims to find out the views that a group of university students who are studying physics hold about radiation, in particular their immediate response to being asked to clarify what the term radiation means. However, the notion that students simply have conceptions that are unitary and static has been challenged by several Physics Education Researchers. Instead a view summarised as “knowledge in pieces” has been proposed in which it is suggested that much smaller units of ideas are brought together dynamically depending on the situation at hand and that context plays an important role in how students respond to questions. Thus, the thesis explores to what extent context plays a role in their responses by preceding the question with four different scenarios which are suggested as the contexts in which the question is being asked. In summary, the guiding questions for the present work are: (1) What do students understand by the term radiation and (2) To what extent do student response patterns depend on “textual priming”. The thesis is divided into two parts (1) a pilot study in which the methodology is established and (2) a follow up study (main study) in which the effect of textual priming on the responses is explored.en_ZA
dc.identifier.apacitationTakane, M. A. (2014). <i>Context dependence of Physics students' responses to the term "radiation"</i>. (Thesis). University of Cape Town ,Faculty of Science ,Department of Physics. Retrieved from http://hdl.handle.net/11427/13299en_ZA
dc.identifier.chicagocitationTakane, Mpeli Alice. <i>"Context dependence of Physics students' responses to the term "radiation"."</i> Thesis., University of Cape Town ,Faculty of Science ,Department of Physics, 2014. http://hdl.handle.net/11427/13299en_ZA
dc.identifier.citationTakane, M. 2014. Context dependence of Physics students' responses to the term "radiation". University of Cape Town.en_ZA
dc.identifier.ris TY - Thesis / Dissertation AU - Takane, Mpeli Alice AB - For the public to be able to participate meaningfully in debates regarding issues that are related to science and technology it is important that they are properly informed and that their sources of information are reliable. One source of such information are university science students and it is therefore interesting to find out what their views are regarding various scientific concepts. For example such an area of interest is that of using nuclear power for electricity generation, in particular the dangers associated with radiation. A reasonably correct view of radiation would be seen as an important part of having a meaningful debate. The present study aims to find out the views that a group of university students who are studying physics hold about radiation, in particular their immediate response to being asked to clarify what the term radiation means. However, the notion that students simply have conceptions that are unitary and static has been challenged by several Physics Education Researchers. Instead a view summarised as “knowledge in pieces” has been proposed in which it is suggested that much smaller units of ideas are brought together dynamically depending on the situation at hand and that context plays an important role in how students respond to questions. Thus, the thesis explores to what extent context plays a role in their responses by preceding the question with four different scenarios which are suggested as the contexts in which the question is being asked. In summary, the guiding questions for the present work are: (1) What do students understand by the term radiation and (2) To what extent do student response patterns depend on “textual priming”. The thesis is divided into two parts (1) a pilot study in which the methodology is established and (2) a follow up study (main study) in which the effect of textual priming on the responses is explored. DA - 2014 DB - OpenUCT DP - University of Cape Town LK - https://open.uct.ac.za PB - University of Cape Town PY - 2014 T1 - Context dependence of Physics students' responses to the term "radiation" TI - Context dependence of Physics students' responses to the term "radiation" UR - http://hdl.handle.net/11427/13299 ER - en_ZA
dc.identifier.urihttp://hdl.handle.net/11427/13299
dc.identifier.vancouvercitationTakane MA. Context dependence of Physics students' responses to the term "radiation". [Thesis]. University of Cape Town ,Faculty of Science ,Department of Physics, 2014 [cited yyyy month dd]. Available from: http://hdl.handle.net/11427/13299en_ZA
dc.language.isoengen_ZA
dc.publisher.departmentDepartment of Physicsen_ZA
dc.publisher.facultyFaculty of Scienceen_ZA
dc.publisher.institutionUniversity of Cape Town
dc.subject.otherTertiary physics educationen_ZA
dc.titleContext dependence of Physics students' responses to the term "radiation"en_ZA
dc.typeMaster Thesis
dc.type.qualificationlevelMasters
dc.type.qualificationnameMScen_ZA
uct.type.filetypeText
uct.type.filetypeImage
uct.type.publicationResearchen_ZA
uct.type.resourceThesisen_ZA
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