EXPLORING SOUTH AFRICAN PRESERVICE TEACHERS’ CONCEPTUAL UNDERSTANDING OF LIGHT PHENOMENA

The wave and particle nature of light poses considerable instructional challenges to both teachers and learners in diverse educational settings. Developing a meaningful conceptual understanding of the wave and particle nature of light is a key requirement for demystifying the complex nature of various optical phenomena. The study adopted an exploratory descriptive survey design and involved purposively selected South African preservice Physical Sciences as participants. Preservice Physical Sciences teachers’ conceptual understanding of light phenomena was explored through the administration of the Light Phenomena Conceptual Assessment (LPCA) inventory. The key findings of the study revealed that preservice Physical Sciences teachers exhibited conceptual hurdles in relation to light phenomena such as reflection, refraction, total internal reflection and light scattering. The prevalence of these conceptual hurdles can partly be attributed to pervasive knowledge gaps manifested as a result of deficient instructional strategies adopted to demystify complex nature of light phenomena. Theoretical implications for initial teacher education are discussed.