Aspects of student’s perception of scientific explanation

Abstract

The purpose of the present study was to explore the cognitive steps involved in students' assessment of explanation in Science using structured tests- developed and refined in the light of a two-step linear model of information processing. A pilot Study was conducted with first year undergraduates ln order to identify the principal components of the assessment process. Refinement of the instruments enabled a detailed investigation of the assessment process and its constraints. As a result of this wo'rk light has been shed on the cognitive dysfunctions associated with failures in physics students' assessment of scientific explanation. A Primary recommendation resulting from this study is that instruction in physics should place much greater emphasis than at present on the underlying logical structure of the subject. It is als recommended further that physics instruction to be successful should bring the student into a conscious explanatory process