On the Declining Interest in Physics among Students—From the perspective of teachers

Abstract

This study examines physics teachers’ views on factors that contribute to the declining interest in physics among school students. A total of 190 physics teachers from 91 secondary schools and nine junior colleges in Singapore participated in this study, which used a survey instrument to seek their views. Rasch analysis was used to analyze the data. The findings showed that teachers are uncertain about the career prospects of physics graduates and are not very optimistic about the market demand for physics graduates. They feel that physics seems to be difficult and abstract to students. The perception that physics is for boys seems to be rooted in society. The teachers emphasized the importance of co‐curricular activities and laboratory work to enhance interest of students in learning physics. We provide several recommendations to arrest the declining interest in physics at the school level.

Keywords:

• Physics teachers’ views
• Unpopularity of physics
• Rasch analysis
• Singapore

Acknowledgements

We thank the Ministry of Education for permission to gather data from schools for this study and the various schools that participated in this study. We also thank the Nanyang Technological University for the award of a research scholarship to the first author to undertake this study. We would also like to thank Prof. Trevor Bond for some useful discussions on Rasch analysis.

The views expressed in this paper are those of the authors, based on their interpretation of the findings, and do not necessarily represent the views of any of the national agencies mentioned.

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