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The Impact of Culture and Language Sensitive Physics on Concept Attainment

2014; Tresorix Ltd; Volume: 2; Issue: 1 Linguagem: Inglês

1694-2493

Marie Paz Escaño Morales,

Multilingual Education and Policy

The study was designed to determine gains in student concept attainment of Pangasinan learners of the Philippines throughculture and language sensitive Physics. Pangasinan learners were culturally profiled by determining the cultural dimensions, epistemological beliefs and students’ views on integration of culture and language in the teaching and learning process. The unique cultural profile of the Pangasinan learners was used to design culture and language sensitive curriculum materials in physics. The designed culture and language sensitive curriculum materials presented physics lessons and activities using the traditions, beliefs, practices, artifacts and the native language of Pangasinan. Implementation of these curriculum materials was doneto determine if integration of culture and language would result to better attainment of physics concepts of the experimental participants. Pre-test and post-test comparisons of the concept attainment of the experimental participants showed significant statistical differences in favor of the experimental participants. The group showed better concept development with greater percentages of correct responses in the concept tests administered to the participants. Qualitative data deduced from interviews, focus-group-discussions, journal logs, and classroom observations showed the same trend in favor of the experimental participants. Insights deduced from the study included the idea that the use of native languagemust be complemented by the use of culture of the learner to achieve better concept attainment in physics.