The validity of Four-Tier’s misconception diagnostic test for Work and Energy concepts

Abstract

Misconceptions has been commonly found during teaching-learning process in senior high school, including in Physics subjects. These misconceptions may affect students’ understanding of subsequent concepts. Therefore misconception should be detected earlier. This paper reports the work to develop a misconception diagnostic test instrument in the four-tier format for Work and Energy concepts and to analyze the validity of the instrument. The instrument was being tested to 50 students in one of the Science Classes, 11th grade in Senior High School 4 Sidoarjo. Based on the trials, it can be known that the developed instrument is valid, both internally and externally. The reliability index is also bigger than the reference value. This also implies that the intended instrument is reliable. Therefore it can be concluded that the developed four-tier format diagnostics test is proper to use.