Students' scientific representation enhancement through "ECRA" techniques in formative examination design

Abstract

The recent studies in science learning has a specific interest with 4C's which are communication, collaboration, critical thinking and creativity. This study explored the students' 4C's as they engage with physics concepts relating to alternating currents. This engagement entails students' interpretation for descriptive questions. Following action research cycle, the study begin with planning the intervention using "ECRA" technique and conducted the activities with 38 Matriculation College students. The analysis attempt to make a connection between students' ability to construct representational aspects of scientific description with formative achievement. This study systematically describes students' understanding on the representations signify in the descriptive questions. Data collected from this study were Work Report, review of answers tutor questions, and interviews during observation stage. The finding suggests that, the ECRA technique is enabling students to obtain higher percentage in formative assessment by allowing them to developed richer conceptual understanding. Hence this study suggest that the representational issues in physics questions constructed in essay can be moderated with ECRA technique.