Students' Conception of Heat Energy in Senior Secondary School Physics

Abstract

The purpose of the study was to determine students' conceptions of heat energy in senior secondary school physics.

Three research questions and two null hypotheses guided the study. Ex-post facto research design was adopted for the study. The population of the study consisted of 6,270 senior secondary school two (SSS2) physics students in all the government owned educational secondary schools in Onitsha Education Zone in Nigeria. The sample size of the study comprised of 357 senior secondary two (SS2) students drawn from the population using multi-stage sampling procedure. Heat Energy Conception Test (HECT) which consists of 16 essay items was used as instrument for data collection. The reliability coefficient of 0.747 for the instrument was ascertained using Cronbach Alpha. Frequency and percentage were used to answer research question one and students' responses were described based on research question two. Chi-square was used in testing the two null hypotheses of the study at 0.05 level of significance. The findings of the study showed that the level of students' conception is low; only 5.6% have Sound Conception, 6.7% have Partial Conception, 13.7% have Alternative Conception while 74% have No Conception. Based on the findings of the study, recommendations were made.