A Study Of Open-Ended Questions In The Teaching Of Physics In Senior High Schools

The traditional method of teaching physics, which centers around having students practice excessive closed-form questions, has been hindering, too some extent, the students'exploratory activities and the cultivation of their innovation spirit. The new curriculum standards require that open-ended questions (OEQs) be researched and constructed, which are capable of helping the students improve their thinking, keep in touch with real life and the society. Compared with traditional closed-form questions, OEQs help foster the students'abilities to gather and process information, to link theory with practice, and to carry out scientific explorations; meanwhile, they help to develop the thinking ability of students of different levels. Not only is it in consistent with the direction of the examination reform to research, construct OEQs and introduce them into classroom teaching, but it will also result in the gradual replacement of the traditional mode of teaching physics with the introduction of problem-solving activities, which will make it possible to arouse the students'interest in and desire for knowledge and develop the students'abilities to explore truth and innovate actively. However, studies of OEQs concerning their classification, characterization and construction remain to be summarized and sorted systematically; besides, much work still remains undone and many problems unsolved as to the application of OEQs in classroom teaching and the evaluation of answers to such questions, which is exactly what this thesis attempts to discuss.