Exploring eighth grade students' conceptions of light in schools under the Bangkok Metropolitan Administration (Thai)

Abstract

The objectives were to explore the conceptions of light by eighth grade students in schools under the Bangkok Metropolitan Administration (BMA) in the 2005 academic year. The subjects were 114 eighth grade students in schools under the BMA. The instrument was a concept test which was a two-tier test with choice selection and writing the reason or deriving the answer, comprising 27 items. The test consisted of the following main concepts: the nature of light, image formation by lenses and mirrors, the refraction of light, color, optical instruments, and seeing. The results of this study show that the students held both scientific conceptions and misconception in each main concept but the most misconceptions of students were in color, the refraction of light and image formation by mirrors and lenses.