@article {844, title = {EFFECTS OF INQUIRY-BASED TEACHING ON CHINESE UNIVERSITY STUDENTS{\textquoteright} EPISTEMOLOGIES ABOUT EXPERIMENTAL PHYSICS AND LEARNING PERFORMANCE}, journal = {Journal of Baltic Science Education}, volume = {19}, year = {2020}, month = {April/2020}, pages = {Continuous}, type = {Original article}, chapter = {289-297}, abstract = {Students{\textquoteright} epistemologies of experimental physics refer to how they understand the role of experimentation as well as the experimental operation and design and communication of results in physics. This research aimed to find whether students in inquiry-based physics laboratory activities show more expert-like epistemologies of experimental physics and better course performance relative to courses using cookbook guided laboratory activities. The participants consisted of two classes of students in a Chinese university. They were divided into control group and experimental group. The experimental group was taught with inquiry-based teaching, while the control group was using cookbook teaching. Each group was taught by the same lecturer. Colorado Learning Attitudes about Science Survey for Experimental Physics were used to investigate students{\textquoteright} epistemologies about the nature of experimental physics. It was found that students in a traditional cookbook guided laboratory showed significant negative shifts on personal epistemologies, and in contrast, students{\textquoteright} epistemologies of experimental physics in inquiry-based laboratory had been significantly improved. The increase of scores in the control group was higher than the experiment group on experimental physics learning performance. The results were slightly different from other studies, some possible explanations were given.}, keywords = {epistemologies of experimental physics, inquiry-based teaching, physics education}, issn = {1648-3898}, doi = {https://doi.org/10.33225/jbse/20.19.289}, url = {http://oaji.net/articles/2020/987-1586941778.pdf}, author = {Wei-Zhao Shi and Liping Ma and Jingying Wang} } @article {548, title = {COMPARISON ON VIEWS OF NATURE OF SCIENCE BETWEEN MATH AND PHYSICS STUDENTS}, journal = {Journal of Baltic Science Education}, volume = {16}, year = {2017}, month = {February/2017}, pages = {Continuous}, type = {Original article}, chapter = {77-85}, abstract = {University lecturers stress the importance of science and non-science students developing informed views of nature of science. However, few previous researches have conducted to explore students{\textquoteright} NOS views within specific majors. Consequently, this research used the questionnaire of VNOS-D (View of Nature of Science, the version D) to assess the views of nature of science between math and physics students. From the survey of 311 students, it was found that both math and physics students scored relatively lower on the subjective and social \& cultural dimension than others. However, on the tentativeness dimension, the third year and the fourth year physics students showed significantly more sophisticated views than math counterparts. In addition, the differences across grade levels were found on the observation \& inference dimension in both math and physics major groups. Some possible explanations were provided. The findings indicated that majors and grade levels influenced the views on some special dimensions of NOS. }, keywords = {math and physics students, university science education, views of nature of science}, issn = {1648-3898}, doi = {https://doi.org/10.33225/jbse/17.16.77}, url = {http://oaji.net/articles/2017/987-1493049902.pdf}, author = {Wei-Zhao Shi and Jingying Wang} } @article {286, title = {THE EFFECT OF PEER INTERACTIONS ON QUANTUM PHYSICS: A STUDY FROM CHINA}, journal = {Journal of Baltic Science Education}, volume = {12}, year = {2013}, month = {June/2013}, type = {Original article}, chapter = {152-158 }, abstract = {Many studies in the field of physics have demonstrated that courses which include a component of interaction among peers achieve significantly higher gains in conceptual understanding. However, few of those studies have closely examined the role play in quantum physics. Unlike classical physics, the area of quantum physics has little relation to experiences of students in everyday life. This makes quantum physics very difficult to teach. In this study, Ireson{\textquoteright}s 29 questions regarding the quantum physics conceptual understandings were developed and validated, then used in the pre- and post-test. It was found that a significant difference in the mean number of correct responses between the experiment class and the control class, through their participation in peer conversations, experiment class students achieved a stronger overall understanding of quantum physics concepts. The result is the same as the previous research in classical physics.}, keywords = {peer interaction, physics education, Quantum physics, science education}, issn = {1648-3898}, doi = {https://doi.org/10.33225/jbse/13.12.152}, url = {http://oaji.net/articles/2015/987-1425758468.pdf}, author = {Wei-Zhao Shi} } @article {261, title = {GENDER, PERCEPTION OF LEARNING PHYSICS AND PERFORMANCE IN UNIVERSITY PHYSICS: A CASE STUDY FROM CHINA}, journal = {Journal of Baltic Science Education}, volume = {11}, year = {2012}, month = {September/2012}, type = {Original article}, chapter = {267-274 }, abstract = {In this study, the researcher has developed and validated an instrument focus on perception of learning physics, which builds on Maryland Physics Expectations survey (MPEX). It was administered to first-year university students in a Chinese university during the autumn semester of 2011. It was found that female students preferred physics learning by relating and by analysis, which were positively correlated to better performance in physics. Male students preferred physics learning by rote which was negatively correlated to performance in university physics. So physics learning perception differences based on the gender also exist in China. At the same time, no significant gender difference found on the performance in university physics. The results were similar to the studies in the Western countries and have pedagogical implications for instructors of university physics and potentially for other science courses.}, keywords = {gender, perception of learning, physics education, science education}, issn = {1648-3898}, doi = {https://doi.org/10.33225/jbse/12.11.267}, url = {http://oaji.net/articles/2014/987-1419168380.pdf}, author = {Wei-Zhao Shi} }