Enhancing Students’ Understanding of Abstract Concepts in Physics by Integrating ICT in Teaching-Learning Process

Abstract

Conceptualizing abstract concepts in physics has been a challenge that has impeded the learning and performance of the students in the schools in Bhutan. The advent of science and technology has led to development of numerous Information and Communication Technologies (ICT) that are apt to use in physics education but are hardly explored and used in the Bhutanese education system. Thus, there is a compelling need to revamp the conventional instructional approach to accommodate the modern physics education system. A quantitative quasi-experimental pretest-posttest control group design study was used to enhance students’ performance in physics by integrating ICT in the teaching-learning process at Chundu Armed Force Public School, Haa. Two rounds of data (baseline and post-intervention) were collected from both experimental classes (IX C and IX D) and control class (IX E) having 30 students in each section. The data were gathered through valid survey questionnaires, physics achievement tests, and classroom observation techniques between July and August 2021. The collected data sets were analyzed and triangulated using SPSS-22 and Microsoft excel 2011. The study revealed 100% of participants’ preferences over ICT based approach to the conventional “chalk and talk” method in learning physics. The use of ICT facilities in the teaching and learning process has put the abstractness of physics concepts out of question and has enabled more entertaining, engaging, effective, and meaningful learning. It was evident with the significant increase in the mean score of students’ performance in the physics achievement test from 38.26 to 56.19, which account for 46.9 % for the experimental class. The opposite trend was also found for the controlled class with a mean-score difference of -0.12. Thus, the study suggests integrating ICT in teaching learning of physics to encourage two-way interactive delivery methods and enhance students’ performance in physics.