Victor Antwi

Background Over the years, the number of prospective students intending to study physics at the University of Education, Winneba (UEW) has gradually declined. This has drastically affected the number of trained physics teachers in the country. As a matter of urgency, there is therefore the need to look at the factors that influence the choice of physics at the undergraduate level in UEW in order to encourage more students to enrol in the course.Purpose This study sought to find out the factors motivating the students at UEW, to major in physics, despite the general belief that the course is very difficult.Sample The participants of this study were physics students at the Department of Physics Education, UEW, Ghana. Purposive sampling was used to select 101 respondents.Design and Methods Questionnaire was used in gathering data. Interview and focused group discussion were used to validate the responses of the participants to the questionnaire. The questionnaire was analyzed using R version 4.22. Additionally, Relative Importance Index (RII) was used to rank the Likert form items.Results The findings indicated that students ranked interest (RII = 0.92) as their major motivating factor to read physics in the Department. Students also claimed that their parents had little influence on their decision to study physics. Whiles professional teachers used it as a conduit to secure study leave with pay from GES. Students who had difficulty in the subject also attributed it to their long delay at home after completing senior high school before gaining admission to the University.Conclusions The study recommends that there should be a concerted effort to arouse the interest of physics learners at the lower levels of education in Ghana by the Department of Physics Education, Winneba and other stakeholders in order to increase the enrolment of students in physics.

This study aims to assess the effectiveness of using Physics Education Technology (PhET) interactive simulations in improving students' understanding of energy conversion and conservation at Tuobodom Senior High and Technical School, with a focus on comparing female and male students. A total of 45 students (male = 29, female = 16) were selected using purposive sampling and taught using both traditional methods and PhET simulations, with their understanding evaluated through pre and post-intervention tests. Data was analyzed using descriptive statistics and t-tests. There was a significant pre-intervention score difference between males (15.88) and females (8.25) with a p-value of 0.00, however post-intervention scores were similar for both groups (males 10.88, females 12.62). The study found that PhET simulations effectively promote gender equity by narrowing the performance gap which is likely to improve student’s interest in science, technology, engineering and mathematics (STEM). The findings of the study shows that PhET interactive simulation improves students' conceptual understanding of energy conversion and conservation. Keywords: Physics Education Technology (PhET), Conceptual, Energy conversion, energy conservation and Interactive visualization, Science Technology engineering and mathematics (STEM). DOI: 10.7176/JEP/14-8-06 Publication date: March 31 st 2023

This study investigated the effect of practical work on students’ academic achievement, acquisition of scientific process, skills and attitudes towards the study of selected topics in electricity. Fifty (50) Form Two Physics students from a Senior High Technical School in the Kwaebibirem Municipal of the Eastern Region of Ghana participated in the study. Instruments used to collect data included a student learning evaluation form, questionnaire and pre-and-post-intervention tests. Data was analysed using descriptive statistics and Microsoft Excel 2010 Computer Software. The findings indicated that the students’ academic performance were enhanced, they acquired important scientific process skills needed for science practical work and developed positive attitudes towards science practical work. The study recommended that Physics teachers should adopt practical work as a teaching technique and as well be encouraged to teach concepts alongside with practical activities.

The study sought to establish differences in the effect of cooperative learning strategy with and without the instructional manual on the Senior High School students’ performance in Mechanics concepts in Physics in the Berekum Municipality, Ghana. The research design employed in this study was the experimental using the pretest and posttest equivalent control group design. A sample of 93 SHS 2 students, drawn from two intact classes was used. An instrument known as Mechanics Concepts Test (MCT) was employed in data gathering. Mean score, standard deviation; t-test, mean gain and effect size analysis were used to answer the research questions, while the independent sample t-test was used to test a hypothesis. The results revealed that students taught using the cooperative learning strategy with the instructional manual performed significantly better in the Mechanics Concepts Test (MCT) than those taught using the cooperative learning strategy only. Therefore, it is recommended that physics teachers should use the cooperative learning strategy along with the instructional manual in order to enhance the performance of students in secondary schools.

Many students have problems when it comes to describing the shapes of displacement, velocity and acceleration-time graphs (x, v, a-t graphs), conversion of graphs from one form into another, and calculating and getting the meaning of slopes and areas under kinematics graphs. They often describe shapes of graphs as pictures and give interpretation without taking into cognizance of the type of graph being considered. In this study, 37 first year university physics students (Group One: 17 students and Group Two: 20 students) at the University of Education in Winneba (Ghana) in two consecutive years, were introduced to the use of microcomputer based laboratory (MBL) tools; simulations and graph samples to practice and describe the shapes of kinematics graphs; conversion of graphs from one form to the other; calculation of slopes and areas under kinematics graphs, and their meanings, all in an interactive engagement teaching. Students were made to answer the "Test of Understanding Graphs in Kinematics" (TUG-K) before and after the introduction of the use of MBL tools, simulations and graph samples. Students' scores were compiled and converted to mean proportion scores and average normalized gain 〈 g 〉, under the four concepts "Area under the graph (meaning and calculation); Slope (meaning and calculation); Graph description; and Graph transformation". The results indicate that the first year university students in the two groups all did better in describing the shapes of kinematics graphs, transforming kinematics graphs, calculating and getting the meaning of slopes and areas under kinematics graphs when they were tested with the same instrument after instruction in kinematics. This goes to show that MBL tools, simulations and graph samples when used in an interactive engagement manner can improve the teaching and learning of kinematics graphs in physics.