What Do You Know about Alternative Energy? Development and Use of a Diagnostic Instrument for Upper Secondary School Science

The need for renewable and non-fossil fuels is now recognised by nations throughout the world. Consequently, an understanding of alternative energy is needed both in schools and in everyday life-long learning situations. This study developed a two-tier instrument to diagnose students’ understanding...

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Main Authors: Cheong, I., Johari, M., Said, H., Treagust, David
Format: Journal Article
Published: Routledge 2015
Subjects:
Online Access:http://hdl.handle.net/20.500.11937/17894
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author Cheong, I.
Johari, M.
Said, H.
Treagust, David
author_facet Cheong, I.
Johari, M.
Said, H.
Treagust, David
author_sort Cheong, I.
building Curtin Institutional Repository
collection Online Access
description The need for renewable and non-fossil fuels is now recognised by nations throughout the world. Consequently, an understanding of alternative energy is needed both in schools and in everyday life-long learning situations. This study developed a two-tier instrument to diagnose students’ understanding and alternative conceptions about alternative energy in terms of: sources of alternative energy, greenhouse gas emission, as well as advantages, and disadvantages. Results obtained with Years 10 and 11 students (n = 491) using the 12-item two-tier instrument (α = 0.61) showed that students’ understanding of alternative energy was low (M = 7.03; SD = 3.90).The 23 alternative conceptions about alternative energy sources that could be identified from the instrument are reported. The implications for teaching and learning about alternative energy and suggestions for further development and improvement of the instrument are presented.
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institution Curtin University Malaysia
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publishDate 2015
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spelling curtin-20.500.11937-178942017-09-13T15:43:54Z What Do You Know about Alternative Energy? Development and Use of a Diagnostic Instrument for Upper Secondary School Science Cheong, I. Johari, M. Said, H. Treagust, David Environmental Education Alternative Conceptions Alternative Energy Diagnostic Assessment Two-Tier Test Items The need for renewable and non-fossil fuels is now recognised by nations throughout the world. Consequently, an understanding of alternative energy is needed both in schools and in everyday life-long learning situations. This study developed a two-tier instrument to diagnose students’ understanding and alternative conceptions about alternative energy in terms of: sources of alternative energy, greenhouse gas emission, as well as advantages, and disadvantages. Results obtained with Years 10 and 11 students (n = 491) using the 12-item two-tier instrument (α = 0.61) showed that students’ understanding of alternative energy was low (M = 7.03; SD = 3.90).The 23 alternative conceptions about alternative energy sources that could be identified from the instrument are reported. The implications for teaching and learning about alternative energy and suggestions for further development and improvement of the instrument are presented. 2015 Journal Article http://hdl.handle.net/20.500.11937/17894 10.1080/09500693.2014.976295 Routledge fulltext
spellingShingle Environmental Education
Alternative Conceptions
Alternative Energy
Diagnostic Assessment
Two-Tier Test Items
Cheong, I.
Johari, M.
Said, H.
Treagust, David
What Do You Know about Alternative Energy? Development and Use of a Diagnostic Instrument for Upper Secondary School Science
title What Do You Know about Alternative Energy? Development and Use of a Diagnostic Instrument for Upper Secondary School Science
title_full What Do You Know about Alternative Energy? Development and Use of a Diagnostic Instrument for Upper Secondary School Science
title_fullStr What Do You Know about Alternative Energy? Development and Use of a Diagnostic Instrument for Upper Secondary School Science
title_full_unstemmed What Do You Know about Alternative Energy? Development and Use of a Diagnostic Instrument for Upper Secondary School Science
title_short What Do You Know about Alternative Energy? Development and Use of a Diagnostic Instrument for Upper Secondary School Science
title_sort what do you know about alternative energy? development and use of a diagnostic instrument for upper secondary school science
topic Environmental Education
Alternative Conceptions
Alternative Energy
Diagnostic Assessment
Two-Tier Test Items
url http://hdl.handle.net/20.500.11937/17894