Research On Compiling Interpretation-centered Inquiry Tests Based On Primitive Physics Problems

The General Senior High School Physics Curriculum Standards(2017)proposes to focus on cultivating students’ abilities for lifelong development.Both theoretical and practical researches show that scientific inquiry ability is crucial for students’ lifelong development.Domestic scholars have found that Chinese students’ scientific inquiry ability is generally weak,especially in interpretation.Therefore,this study attempts to compile interpretation-centered inquiry tests based on the primitive physics problems and conduct a practical test.The study firstly reviewed the literature on existing research results and drafted the research focus.On the basis of literature review,a more in-depth theoretical discussion was presented on primitive physics problems,scientific inquiry ability,and problem preparation,and the concepts of original physics problems and scientific inquiry ability were defined.Combined with the views of NAEP,PISA and domestic scholars,it is concluded that interpretation is the core of the inquiry tests.Four principles for the preparation of the exercises are then presented.Based on the conclusion of literature review and theoretical discussion,five inquiry tests were compiled and the evaluation gauge was developed according to the SOLO classification method.Totally 162 students from 4 different classes in Q High School were selected for 5 training sessions,and asked to complete one test in each session.The experimental results show a significant positive correlation between students’ academic performance and their performance in inquiry tests(p=0.001).The overall difficulty of the five tests is 0.496,which can effectively reflect students’ learning level.The clone Bach coefficient α is 0.681,so the research is reliable.The overall discrimination is 0.65 which is good.Therefore,it is feasible to make use of the primitive physics problem to compile the interpretation-centered inquiry tests.The results of the tests between Parallel Class and Experimental Class A had significant differences,while there is no significant differences between Experimental Class 1and Experimental Class 2.Both the theoretical analysis and correlation tests showed that it is the scientific knowledge that resulted in the differences.Test B,which provides prompt information,does not help students give a higher level of answers in a short period of time.The number of A-level and B-level answers in the control group are much smaller than that in Experimental Class B after 3 trainings,but a bit smaller than Parallel Class after 3 trainings.The analysis of E-level answers indicates further that students’ ability of answering questions in interpretation-centered inquiry tests can be improved after some training.After reclassifying the excellent answers,it is found that verbal explanations is the main way of answering which takes up 61%.Besides,students’ specific ways of answering are directly affected by the specific exercises in the tests.