The effectiveness of conceptual teaching of physics in secondary schools

The modern information society expects, after the education process, a young person who will be able to deal with rapid changes in the world. Students are more and more often required to possess qualities such as: flexibility, initiative, motivation, and readiness to solve problems and accept decisions. In such conditions teaching has become a more complex process. In the traditional courses, where students are more or less just passive listeners, they are not able to develop such qualities. In the last two decades there have been many researchers who have been searching and developing new appropriate methods for improving teaching processes. With the rapid progress of information and communication technology the conceptual approach in teaching (Conceptual Learning of Science - CoLoS) is becoming ever more interesting, also for teachers who favour more traditional approaches in teaching physics.;We found that in this area there is no scientific study provided that would offer empirical results about the effectiveness of conceptual teaching of physics in secondary schools. The purpose of this study is to: (1) Analyze the effectiveness of conceptual teaching of physics, supported with conceptual models (Physlets) in comparison to traditional frontal teaching of physics in secondary schools. (2) Use assessment strategies as an additional mechanism in a pedagogical experiment analyzing the success of conceptual teaching of physics in attaining higher taxonomic levels of knowledge. (3) Examine the effects of observed factors on the success of selected teaching approach: sex of tested students, previous mark of students in the physics subject.;The thesis is structured into two parts. In the theoretical part, the main reasons for the incorporation of innovative didactical approaches in contemporary education are presented.;In the empirical part of the thesis, the pedagogical experiment is presented.;The results of One-Factory Analyses of Covariance after the experiment confirm the statistically significant advantage of the experimental group in comparison with the control group, in the case of the total results of the post-tests. When analyzing the test results on particular higher taxonomic levels of knowledge, there are also statistically significant differences between the experimental and control group. The experimental group is better, except on the level of evaluation; however, also at this taxonomic level the means indicated the advantage of the experimental group. Better learning outcomes on higher taxonomic levels of knowledge (analysis, comparison, inference and evaluation) confirm the effectiveness of conceptual teaching of physics. We also confirm that the effectiveness of the conceptual teaching of physics is not dependent on the sex of students and their grades in physics in the previous academic year. We also present the analysis of the results of a questionnaire about the popularity of conceptual teaching of physics among the students.;In the conclusion the research carried out in academic years 2010/11 and 2011/12 is presented, confirming findings of the basic research about the efficacy of conceptual teaching of physics. The most important result is that, on the basis of theoretical research and empirical results, we can show that the model of conceptual teaching of physics in secondary schools, as presented in this thesis, is possible and successful. (Abstract shortened by UMI.).