How do additional instructions change the answer? Study of pre-service physics teachers’ misconception about buoyancy

Abstract

The misconceptions experienced by pre-service physics teachers are essential to know; However, these are not easy to identify, let alone to remediate. This study aims to find out how additional instruction changes pre-service physics teachers’ responses and whether or not it affects the misconceptions of pre-service physics teachers. Respondents were tested using the online Four-Tier Buoyancy Instrument (FTBI) twice, namely at Time 1 and 2. Preservice physics teachers were given additional instructions between the two measurements by reminding them of the principle of balance on a stationary object or an object moving in a straight line with constant velocity. Quantitative data from the two areas of the instrument are then analyzed and compared to determine the differences in respondents’ answers. In-depth interviews were conducted with respondents who had different answers to the instruments. The results showed that a small proportion of respondents had changed their answers to be the correct answers on several FTBI items. The interview results showed that it seems there was a tendency to change the respondents’ cognitive structure from locally coherent to global coherent. However, this change does not necessarily reduce pre-service physics teachers’ misconceptions about buoyancy significantly.