Validation of a learning progression for sound propagation in air
João Paulo Costa 1 2 * , Mónica Baptista 2 , Amanda Amantes 3 , Teresa Conceição 2
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1 Centro Federal de Educação Tecnológica de Minas Gerais, CEFET-MG, Timóteo, BRAZIL2 Instituto de Educação, Universidade de Lisboa, UIDEF, Lisboa, PORTUGAL3 Instituto de Física, Universidade Federal da Bahia, UFBA, Salvador, BRAZIL* Corresponding Author

Abstract

This study was conducted with 37 11th grade secondary school students and had as its focus to verify the different levels of sophistication in students’ explanations regarding the propagation of sound in air. A pre- and a post-test were conducted after a one-month intervention, focusing on learning about sound propagation in air. Data analysis allowed for comparing the progressions in the sophistication of students’ explanations and validating the proposed categorical structure of the hierarchical levels of learning progressions (LPs). The validity was confirmed by the consistency of the category hierarchy, assessed in terms of the difficulty coefficients of LPs levels, which were distinct in the two tests but maintained the established order in the construct maps. In the pre-test, the more sophisticated levels of LPs were not elucidated, but after instruction, in the post-test, there were explanations at all levels. The results also reveal the importance of instruction focused on LPs, so that students can present more sophisticated explanations, and their utility for future investigations using this approach.

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This is an open access article distributed under the Creative Commons Attribution License which permits unrestricted use, distribution, and reproduction in any medium, provided the original work is properly cited.

Article Type: Research Article

EURASIA J Math Sci Tech Ed, Volume 20, Issue 7, July 2024, Article No: em2464

https://doi.org/10.29333/ejmste/14704

Publication date: 01 Jul 2024

Online publication date: 11 Jun 2024

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