University students’ conceptual understanding of thermodynamics with conceptual problem-solving approach (CPS)

Abstract

This research aims to know the university students’ conceptual understanding of thermodynamics matter after practice to solve problems using the CPS approach. Implementation of the CPS approach is based on many research results recently about students’ habit of using the chug and plug strategy to solve the problem. This research involved 22 university students in the second year at Nusa Cendana Kupang University. Pretest and posttest instrument in the form of 12 multiple choice conceptual understanding questions with reliability value is 0.524. The paired sample t-test result got a significant value as 0.001. Effect size value as 1.69 and in strong category show that practice to solve the problem using the CPS approach has a strong impact on university students’ conceptual understanding improvement.