The effects of problem solving strategies teaching on the physics achievement, attitude, self-efficacy, and the strategy usage

In this research, it was intended to determine the effects of the problem solving strategies teaching on the students? successes in physics course, attitudes, self-efficacies, strategy usages, and problem solving performances; and the correlation among the students? success levels, and self-efficacies in physics, and strategy usages. In the research, pre-test and post-test research model with unbalanced control group which is one of the semi-experimental models was used, and the research was carried out on two groups consisting of second grade students (n=77) at graduate level who took General Physics I course at 2006-2007 academic year. In strategy group, (Understanding the Problem, Qualitative Analysing of the Problem, Solution Plan for the Problem, Applying the Solution Plan, Controlling + Self Evaluation) UQAPAC+SE problem solving strategy teaching was applied, whereas in the control group, no strategy teaching was applied. The data of the research was collected by using Physics Achievement Test, Attitude Scale Towards Physics Course, Self-Efficacy Scale in Physics, Physics Problem Solving Strategies Scale, and Classical Physics Test. At the analysis of the data obtained from the research, Arithmetic Average, Standard Deviation, KR-20, Correlation Analysis, t-test, Variance Analysis, and Scheffé test had been used. Findings obtained at the end of the research show that the problem solving strategies teaching had positive effects on the physics achievement, attitude towards physics, self-efficacy in physics, and physics problem solving performances. It was determined that the strategy teaching had important effects on the strategy usages of the students in certain dimensions, the self-efficacies of the students had significantly PDF created with pdfFactory Pro trial version www.pdffactory.com ii differentiated according to their success levels, and also there were meaningful correlations between the students? success levels and their strategy usages in certain dimensions; and suggestions in the directions of the obtained results were given.