Mechanical Wave Concepts of Thai High School Students: Comparing Learned and Unlearned Groups

Mechanical waves are one of the basic topics of physics; they are also the basis of various fields such as physical optics, geophysics, engineering, and medical physics. This study aims to investigate the mechanical wave concepts of Thai high school students. Participants were 150 grade 11 – 12 students from a high school in Songkhla Province, Thailand. They were divided into two groups. The first group consisted of 77 students – grade 12 who had already learned about mechanical waves, and the second group consisted of 73 students – grade 11 who had not yet learned about the topic. The main instrument was the Mechanical Wave Conceptual Survey (Tongchai, Sharma, Johnston, Arayathanitkul & Soankwan, 2009) which consisted of 22 multiple-choice questions. The researchers also asked students to provide their reasoning for choosing their answers for each multiple-choice question. The survey was administered to students and they were given 50 minutes to complete it. Students’ answers and their reasoning were analyzed quantitatively and qualitatively. As a result, students’ responses were categorized into four main topics: 1) propagation; 2) superposition; 3) reflection; and 4) standing waves. Responses from both groups of students indicated the same misconceptions.