Instruments for Diagnosing Students’ Conceptions of Optical Phenomena

Abstract

Students’ understanding of optical phenomena was an early topic of research interest and continues to be an important focus for physics education researchers world-wide. In this chapter, we review a wide range of studies with an emphasis on the different types of diagnostic instruments used to generate qualitative and quantitative data about understanding of age-appropriate optical phenomena at elementary, secondary, university levels of schooling, including teacher education. Several studies implemented different teaching approaches and appraised them, often comparing findings of experimental and control groups. Researched topics include light propagation, shadow formation, reflection from mirrors, refraction of light by lenses, image formation, polarization, and photoelectric effect. Most of the reviewed studies identified students’ conceptual difficulties and provided recommendations for future teaching and learning; fewer studies presented a radical change of curriculum based on research findings and evaluated student learning. We recommend that progress in learning optics can be made by curriculum designers considering the findings from optics research.