Development and Application of a Three‐Tier Diagnostic Test to Assess Secondary Students’ Understanding of Waves

Abstract

This study focused on the development and application of a three‐tier multiple‐choice diagnostic test (or three‐tier test) on the nature and propagation of waves. A question in a three‐tier test comprises the content tier, which measures content knowledge; the reason tier, which measures explanatory knowledge; and the confidence tier, which measures the strength of conceptual understanding of the respondents. This paper presents results based on the responses of 243 Grade 10 students after they were formally instructed on the topic. The vast majority of the respondents showed an inadequate grasp of concepts about waves. Eleven alternative conceptions (ACs), which were expressed with confidence by more than 10% of the students, were identified; four of these ACs were expressed with high confidence.

Keywords:

• Alternative conceptions
• Misconceptions
• Physics education
• Quantitative research
• Three‐tier test
• Waves

Acknowledgements

We thank the Nanyang Technological University for the award of a research scholarship to the first author and a research grant (RI 9/06 RS) to the second author.