Using Four-Tier Multiple Choice Diagnostic Test to Identify Misconception Profile of 12th Grade Students In Optical Instrument Concepts

During physics learning process, quite often students experience a misunderstanding between their initial knowledge on certain concept in physics and that was taught in class by teacher. For example, students’ initial knowledge on Optics was that a white object can emit light so that someone can see the object even though the object is in a dark room. Meanwhile, in Physics concept, an object can only be seen by eyes only when there is light that hits the surface of the object and the light is reflected back by the object in all directions, including reaching to the eyes. This misunderstanding quite often leads to misconceptions. Such misconceptions should be detected as early as possible so as not to disturb student’s understanding on the other concepts. This present study aims to analyse the misconceptions profile of 12 th grade students in Senior High School 1 Cerme Gresik East Java in “Optical Instruments ” concepts using the developed four-tier multiple-choice diagnostic test. Identification on the causes of students’ misconceptions, especially that arising from theirselves was also presented. The most frequent misconception found is on the sub concepts of: 1) “Eye and Camera” caused by student’s wrong preconceptions, 2) “Lup” due to associative thinking and 3) “Microscope” due to intuitive thinking. Meanwhile, for the “ Binocular” concept, almost all students have had scientific conception, meaning that they have understood the concept well.