Beliefs of students around the study of physics in basic secondary and technical education

Abstract

This research is part of a line of research in education that aims to determine the degree of influence that affects have on the study of basic sciences that usually generate high rates of academic loss or repetition in school environments. The aim of this research was to analyze the system of beliefs that a group of students had about themselves as physics students, about physics as a discipline, about the physics teacher and his or her teaching practices, and about the importance of this area of knowledge in their social environment. To achieve this objective, a private educational institution is intentionally selected, with a home in San José de Cúcuta, Colombia, characterized by good results in the Saber 11 state tests. The informants were all students enrolled in 2019 in grades nine and eleven. A questionnaire was designed consisting of 36 items evaluated by means of a Likert scale with five levels of response. The results attested to the internal consistency and validity of the questionnaire. Subsequently, a complete characterization of the informants was carried out, allowing us to discover that the women in the sample have a better attitude and abilities in the study of physics. Finally, a factorial analysis was carried out in order to verify whether the opinions of the respondents fit into the four categories of beliefs considered by the researchers. Six factors were identified that explain 80% of the common variance, highlighting within them the beliefs that the student has about himself and his relationship with the teacher as the main factor explaining 41% of the variance.