Enhancing pre-service teachers' diagnostic competence in Physics misconceptions at public universities in Tanzania

Timothy, Venance Amasi (2019): Enhancing pre-service teachers' diagnostic competence in Physics misconceptions at public universities in Tanzania. Dissertation, LMU München: Fakultät für Psychologie und Pädagogik

Abstract

Teachers require to diagnose students’ learning needs in order to plan and carryout effective lessons, a process similar to medical doctors diagnosing their patients before treatment. While it is crucial to enhance diagnostic competence in teachers, an issue remains about how we can best improve this competence among undergraduate pre-service teachers. In the teaching and learning process of science in middle or high schools, misconceptions can hinder learning of new Physics ideas if teachers do not detect and correct them in time. The current research carried out a meta-analysis of 22 empirical studies aimed at fostering diagnostic competences through intervention in teacher and medical education, summarized the findings, revealed the overall effect size, and examined the moderating factors. Following the results of the meta-analysis, we designed an experimental study to investigate the effects of problem solving and example-based learning instructional approaches on enhancing pre-service teachers’ diagnostic competence in Physics misconceptions. The meta-analysis revealed a positive medium mean effect size (g = 0.37) of interventions on fostering the development of diagnostic competences among undergraduate students in both domains. The moderator analysis suggests that an instructional approach is a significant moderator when we apply problem solving during the learning phase of an intervention. The experimental study revealed that both problem solving and example-based learning significantly enhanced pre-service teachers’ diagnostic competence in form of conceptual knowledge, but not the procedural knowledge. Problem solving instructional approach was more effective than example-based learning on enhancing diagnostic competence. The pre-service teachers’ diagnostic competence in the form of conceptual and procedural knowledge positively correlated with germane cognitive load, while it negatively correlated with intrinsic and extraneous cognitive loads. Example-based learning instructional approach significantly influenced both intrinsic and extraneous cognitive loads when compared with problem solving. Cognitive load did not significantly mediate the effect of the instructional approaches on diagnostic competences, and a rating scale questionnaire differentiated between the three types of cognitive load, but did not clearly discriminate between intrinsic and extraneous cognitive loads. The meta-analysis findings imply that learning to diagnose various aspects through problem solving is an effective means of advancing undergraduate students’ diagnostic competences. Learners’ prior diagnostic knowledge seems to be a covariate on enhancing diagnostic competences through interventions. An experimental study findings also imply that the problem solving instructional approach can enhance pre-service teacher’s diagnostic competence in identifying pupil’s Physics misconceptions better than example-based learning. In practice, the current research supports the assumption that integrating diagnostic practices into the Physics-methods course curriculum during undergraduate training programs can improve pre-service Physics teachers’ formative assessment skills. Some limitations can be accounted for by the findings in both studies. With respect to the meta-analysis, the restrictions of robust variance estimation method when estimating meta-regressions especially for moderator analyses could have limited the findings due to imbalances of level of some categorical moderator variables. This could have then affected the degrees of freedom and hence the power for moderation effect. In the experimental study, the random errors that might occur due to extraneous variable (e.g. individual ability) that could have affected the outcome measures rather than intervention treatment, and the assessment of pre-service teachers’ diagnostic knowledge through a same knowledge test could have also limited the findings. In conclusion, the meta-analysis supports the development of diagnostic competence through interventions (with a medium effect size), and indicates that problem solving is the best instructional approach. The meta-analysis also seems to point out the fact that example-based learning instructional approach may better fit learners with lower prior knowledge, whereas, problem solving may better fit learners with higher levels of prior knowledge. With respect to the experimental study, undergraduate pre-service teachers seem to learn abstract concepts and ideas about the diagnosis process better through problem solving than example-based learning. Both instructional approaches seem to facilitate the diagnostic competence effectively, if we consider the germane cognitive load high, while keeping the intrinsic and cognitive load to a minimum. The current research further emphasizes the need for a similar meta-analysis to include more studies and alternative moderators (e.g. types of feedback, prompts, and so on), and an experimental study to compare the effects of problem solving and example-based learning on diagnostic competences with immediate and delayed post testing.

• Dokumententyp: Dissertationen (Dissertation, LMU München)
• Keywords: Diagnostic competence, example-based learning, problem solving, physics misconceptions
• Themengebiete: 300 Sozialwissenschaften ; 300 Sozialwissenschaften > 370 Erziehung, Schul- und Bildungswesen
• Fakultäten: Fakultät für Psychologie und Pädagogik
• Sprache der Hochschulschrift: Englisch
• Datum der mündlichen Prüfung: 11. Februar 2019
• 1. Bericht­erstatter:in: Fischer, Frank