The Analysis of High School Students’ Conceptions of Learning in Different Domains

Abstract

The purpose of this study is to investigate whether or not conceptions of learning diverge in different science domains by identifying high school students’ conceptions of learning in physics, chemistry and biology. The Conceptions of Learning Science (COLS) questionnaire was adapted for physics (Conceptions of Learning Physics, COLP), chemistry (Conceptions of Learning Chemistry, COLC) and biology (Conceptions of Learning Biology, COLB) firstly and they were separately administered to 361 high school students at the same time. The factor structures of each questionnaire were also analyzed by exploratory factor analysis. The differences between students’ conceptions of learning in each questionnaire factors of all three domains were analyzed with pairedsamples t-test. The results indicated differences in high school students’ conceptions of learning physics, chemistry and biology which were identified for all seven factors except application. In general sense, it was found that students preferred higher-level conceptions of learning biology more when compared with physics and chemistry domains. Possible implications about how students prefer to view learning from a higher-level perspective rather than a lower-level perspective, especially the ones with a high mean score in physics and chemistry (such as memorizing, preparing for exam and calculating and practicing) are discussed.