Attributes Of Students Towards Problem Solving In Physics: A Step Towards Students’ Capacity Building

Abstract

Solving problems in Physics is challenging and perceived to be difficult. Thus, the aim of this study is to evaluate the experienced attributes of the students in solving Physics problem sets. All fifty students from different year levels of the College of Education taking Bachelor of Secondary Education major in science participated in the study. A survey questionnaire and a follow-up interview were accomplished to probe more into the result of the survey. Respondents in every year level were given a lecture and problem set in their corresponding physics subjects. The students were asked to accomplish the questionnaire at the end of the week. The result shows there is a higher percentage of females than males in the group. Also, there are more students in their 20^th and 21^st years of age. Meanwhile, the first-year level dominates the science group. In terms of the attributes, Anxiety and Motivation are largely experienced by the students. Furthermore, overall Confidence and Self-Learning Techniques are moderately experienced by the respondents. In correlation, the age and year-level of the respondents is negatively correlated to Anxiety but are positively correlated with their Confidence, Motivation, and Self-Learning techniques. This implies that the anxiety experienced by the students decreases as they get older and are promoted to the next year’s level while building Confidence, Motivation, and Self-Learning techniques.