Examination of undergraduate students’ physics expectations

Abstract

A body of beliefs based on previous knowledge, attitudes, and experiences creates physics expectations of students about what they will learn and which skills they will use in physics lessons. Previous research indicated these views about knowledge and learning influenced physics learning by affecting their learning approaches. This research aims to investigate the physics expectations of undergraduate engineering and education students, who take various and different numbers of physics courses in Türkiye. The physics expectations of students were examined due to certain variables and they were compared with experts' ideas. In the study, the Turkish version of the Maryland Physics Expectations Survey II (MPEX II) was given to 831 engineering and education students in different universities. The results indicated the statistical differences in the physics expectations scores according to the department that was registered, the number of physics courses taken, and the reading of popular physics books. However, no significant difference was observed in the physics expectations scores according to gender, being an engineering student or education student, the year of the program, and the instructional approach of physics courses. The mean of the percentages of students who thought like experts in item by item was around 2/5; however, when expert-like thinking was considered for the overall scores, almost 12% of students answered at least half of the items like experts.