The effect of active learning problem sheets on secondary school students? problem solving ability

This study aims on finding out whether students can transfer problem solving techniques given to them through worksheets for different problems that they are unfamilier. The students involved in this study were students enrolled in a high school and at the Afyon Kocatepe University General Physics classes.Data were collected using a written questionnaire and semi-structured interviews. Questionnaires were administered to students at the end of the Fall Semester in 2006-2007 academic year. Using the phenomenographic method student responses were analyzed to extract the information about how students solve the problems.In the literature considerable emphasis is placed on developing multiplerepresentation problem solving skills. The first step in problem-solving is to ask students to construct the pictorial and physical representations for a large number of problems. On the next step students practice turning a physical description of a problem into a mathematical representation such as converting a free-body diagram into Newton?s second law in component form. In our case, students make conversion in the opposite direction. They then invent a problem consistent with the equations. After the carefull analysis of data, it is noticed that students did not follow the steps in problem solving. More or less it seemed like they are in big hurry to solve the problem. They are not trying to map out the problem for a better understanding.The last thing to point out is that students were honest both in their responses to written questionnaire and in semi-structured interview.Keywords: Active learning, Solving Problems, Worksheets