For many years, the physics teaching in Macedonia was based on a “chalk and talk approach”.
Only few teachers used experiments in a form of demonstrations, which, again, did not
engage students actively in the experimenting processes and procedures. Teachers’
demonstrations were expected to keep the students with minds on. Last six years there are
efforts to incorporate computers into teaching and to use their features as a substitute for real
experiments. This process faces new problems: students’ and teachers’ capabilities for using
computers, compatibility of the software with the curriculum and organization and
management of the class. Having in mind all these problems, primary goal of the research was
set to determine:
- Whether or not an approach that includes computer simulations produce significant
difference in students’ understanding of density and their levels of motivation when compared
with the one that includes real experiments.
- The difficulties in understanding the concept of mass.