An Investigation Of Students' Problem Representation Of Electromagnetics In Senior High School

Many students feel it was difficult to learn physics,especially e lectromagnetics because the concept and principle of electromagnetics are abstract for students to understand.It makes students be afraid of learning it.The learning process is a process of solving problems.The problem representation is the center of problem solving.The degree of problem representation directly affects the quality of the problem solving.Above all,the study of students' problem representation of electromagnetics in senior high school is helpful for teachers to improve the practical tea ching of electromagnetics.This research investigated students' problem representation of electromagnetics in three different senior high schools by the q uestionnaire which was made by the author.It used SPSS.20 to analyses the knowledge level,self-regulation and the strategy of the problem representation.Then the current situation of students' problem representation of electromagnetics arrived.Also,the verbal report method was used to study different students' problem representation of electromagnetics specifically.Through a combination of quantitative and qualitative analyzes understanding of senior high school students,the author grasped existing problems in the process of students' problem representation of electromagnetics and understood it more.After the research,it was in order to get some relevant conclusions and suggestions.The conclusions were as following.First,the levels of students' problem representation of electromagnetics were generally not high and the levels of boys were higher than girls';second,the levels of students' representation in better school were higher than it in general school;third,students' problem representation of electromagnetics for simple problems was higher than for the complex ones.There were some questions in students' problem representation of electromagnetics.They were as following.Students did not read the subject carefully,missing or ignoring the important information and the implicit information.They were not qualified to use the knowledge of electromagnetics.They were not familiar with electromagnetic models.Also,they could not draw out circuit diagram or the track map of the movement.They did not solve problems standard.They expressed the physical quantities randomly.They learnt physics by rote.They did not select the represent strategy correctly.They were not good at math.Their regulation abilities of the problem representation were not enough and their best calculation was not high.Finally,this study proposed the following six teaching suggestions.First,it needed to strengthen student's ability of mastery and application of electromagnetics;second,it had better to cultivate students' recognition and extraction abilities;third,it needed to cultivate students' good habits of problem solving;forth,it required to develop student's self-confidence and self-regulation;fifth,it needed to train student's thinking strategy of problem-solving;sixth,it demanded to develop student's ability and habit of constructing models.