The Effect of Concept Cartoon Worksheets on Students’ Conceptual Understandings of Geometrical Optics

Abstract

The purpose of this study was to investigate the effect of concept cartoon worksheets, gender and their interaction on pre-service science teachers’ conceptual understanding of geometrical optics. Participants were 121 sophomore students from four intact classes. A quasi-experimental design was used as the research method. The experimental group studied geometrical optics with implementation of concept cartoon worksheets prepared in consideration with a constructivist view of learning while the control group studied the lesson unit with traditional instruction. Students’ conceptual understandings of geometrical optics were measured by a tree-tier misconception test. The main effects of treatment, gender and their interactions on post-test scores were examined via ANCOVA test. The analysis yielded that the worksheets produced a statistically significant treatment effect; however, gender and gender*treatment interaction effect on students’ post-test performances were not significant.