IDENTIFICATION AND SOURCES OF MISCONCEPTIONS HELD BY SECONDARY SCHOOL PHYSICS STUDENTS IN HEAT ENERGY IN RIVERS STATE, NIGERIA

The study identified misconceptions held by secondary school students about the concepts of Heat energy and investigated the sources of the misconceptions in Rivers State, Nigeria. A mixed method research design, specifically the descriptive survey and the exploratory analysis, was adopted for the study. The study was guided by two research questions. Using the random sampling technique, a sample of 300 Secondary School 1 (SS 1) Physics students was selected for the study in Ikwerre Local Government Area, Rivers State. Data was collected using three research instruments titled “Heat Energy Performance Test” (r = 0.80), Sources of Misconceptions in Heat Energy Questionnaire” (r = 0.74) and “Misconception in Heat Energy Interview Template”. This study revealed that secondary school students have misconceptions about Heat energy. This study further revealed that teachers' instructional presentation ranked 1^st as the source of misconception in the concept of Heat energy, social interactions ranked 2^nd, prior knowledge ranked 3^rd while textbooks and reference materials ranked 4^th. The study thus recommends that Physics teachers should always conduct a diagnostic test before instruction to correct any wrong preconceived notion held by the students about a particular concept before instruction. Also, well-designed and technology-assisted instruction should be adopted by Physics teachers to facilitate an accurate scientific understanding of heat energy.

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