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The Level of B.Sc.Ed Students’ Conceptual Understanding of Newtonian Physics

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It is often taken for granted that students who are enrolled in a said Bachelor’s Degree course in a university should have a much better understanding of the said subject then when they were in school. Studies conducted have shown that this may not necessarily be the case. They are often unable to apply the concepts that have been studied in the introductory Physics course to the task of solving related problems. The purpose of this study was to ascertain the level of Newtonian Physics conceptual understanding of university students enrolled in Science Education courses in order to investigate their preparedness in becoming future Physics teachers. This survey-based study involved a sample of 200 third-year B.Sc.Ed students from three universities in Malaysia. Data collected from the Test of Conceptual Understanding of Newtonian Physics was analyzed descriptively and inferentially to determine the level of the students’ Newtonian Physics conceptual understanding. The findings confirmed that generally, undergraduates’ students are still having problems to conceptually understand physics concepts taught at them.
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