Students' perspectives in understanding light and vision

This paper reports on the results of a study on how 238 9th- and 10th-grade students from six schools interpret everyday phenomena involving light and sight. The study uses the Structure of the Observed Learning Outcomes (SOL O) taxonomy to lay the foundation for a Students' Seeing Framework, based o n notions of light, eye and object. The instrument used for the study probe d students' understanding of the topic with respect to the mechanism by whi ch they see. A one-to-one interview was also carried out with 14 randomly s elected students after the administration of the questionnaire, principally to validate their responses. The results indicate that more than 50 per ce nt of the students did not demonstrate complete understanding of the concep ts of light and vision, even after formal instruction on the topic. Grade l evel and gender were found to be factors influencing the development of con cepts of light and vision.