Physics demonstrations: who are the students appreciating them?

Abstract

ABSTRACT Despite the contemporary emphasis on students’ practical work, lecture demonstrations with their unique power to stimulate students’ interest remain an inseparable part of physics education. At our faculty, performing physics demonstrations for upper secondary students (DEMOs) has a tradition lasting three decades. In our study, we sought to identify factors predetermining students’ positive acceptance of these demonstrations. With a research sample of almost 5000 students, we used the modified Intrinsic Motivation Inventory questionnaire to investigate their intrinsic motivation towards and perception of DEMOs. Subsequently, we examined this data against respondents’ gender, marks in physics, intention to study it at university, and declared attitudes towards physics as a school subject. We found out the acceptance of DEMOs is independent of gender and students’ interest in physics as a school subject. On the other hand, better marks in physics and stronger intention to study it were associated with a more positive assessment of the demonstrations. As the strongest predictors for positive acceptance of DEMOs, giftedness, and diligence in physics (as expressed by respondents themselves) were identified. Cluster analysis uncovered four groups of students, one of which especially seems to be interesting regarding the possibility of their future study of physics – it groups students who do not plan to study physics at this moment but achieve good results in it and have a relatively high intention to study some other STEM discipline. Because they showed a largely positive perception of DEMOs, we discuss the possibilities to use lecture demonstrations to stimulate their interest.