Mental representations of 14-15 years old students about the light propagation time

Abstract

Abstract: Mental representations of 14-15 years old students about the light propagation time. Objectives: The study of students’ representations of physics concepts and phenomena constitutes a central part of science education research, as they play a decisive role in teaching. In the study presented here, we investigate the mental representations of 14-15 years old students about the light propagation time, before they were taught about it in school. Methods: The empirical data was gathered through an interview using three tasks which involved the evaluation of hypothetical situations. The research data included representations that cause difficulty in the comprehension of the position of a light source in relevance to the light propagation time. Findings: Most of students assumed that the identification of the light propagation time is strongly correlated with the large distance between the light source and the receiver. Conclusion: This study concluded that the arrangement of objects in space strongly influences the students’ thinking. Keywords: Light propagation time, mental representations, 14-15 years old students. Abstrak: Representasi mental siswa berusia 14-15 tahun tentang waktu propagasi cahaya. Tujuan: Studi mengenai representasi siswa terhadap konsep dan fenomena fisika merupakan bagian sentral dari penelitian pendidikan sains, karena hal itu memainkan peran penting dalam kegiatan belajar mengajar. Pada penelitian ini, kami menyelidiki representasi mental siswa berusia 14-15 tahun tentang waktu propagasi cahaya sebelum mereka diajarkan tentang hal itu di sekolah. Metode: Data empiris dikumpulkan melalui wawancara menggunakan tiga penugasan yang melibatkan evaluasi situasi-situasi hipotetis. Data penelitian meliputi representasi-representasi yang menyebabkan kesulitan dalam pemahaman posisi sumber cahaya yang relevan terhadap waktu propagasi cahaya. Temuan: Sebagian besar siswa mengasumsikan bahwa waktu propagasi cahaya berhubungan erat dengan jarak luas antara sumber dan penerima cahaya. Kesimpulan: Penelitian ini menyimpulkan bahwa pengaturan objek di ruang sangat mempengaruhi pemikiran siswa. Kata kunci: Waktu propagasi cahaya, representasi mental, siswa berusia 14-15 tahun. DOI: http://dx.doi.org/10.23960/jpp.v8.i2.201806