Diagnosing students’ misconception in Hydrostatic Pressure through a 4-tier test

The aim of this study is to record and highlight the misconceptions of Greek junior high school students regarding the concept of hydrostatic pressure. Hydrostatic pressure is included in most international curricula for this age group and in Greece, is introduced in the context of the study of fluid equilibrium in the second grade of the junior high school. After thorough international literature review and interviews with teachers who teach the physics course, to discover the students' way of thinking and their common misconceptions in the case of hydrostatic pressure concept, the researchers of this study created targeted questionnaires for students aged 12-13 years old. The method followed to determine the misconceptions in this article is the distribution of a 4 - tier test to a sample of students who, initially, attended the relevant course. During the 2023-24 school year, the questionnaires were handed out to 33 s-grade students at a junior high school in Athens, Greece. The students had previously been taught the corresponding unit. Before being administered to the students, the questionnaires were subjected to a content validity test by four physics experts according to Aiken's V index. The students' responses were inputted into SPSS version 25, which was utilized for the statistical analysis. Statistical analysis of the results revealed a high incidence of misconceptions related to the effects of container shape, area, and pressure direction, as well as a significant lack of knowledge. Although the overall rates of misconceptions may be low, the study recorded significant knowledge gaps in physics education, suggesting the need for improved teaching methods. The findings suggest that more effective teaching strategies and experimental approaches are needed to address these misconceptions our research highlighted. This study contributes a reliable diagnostic tool for future research and teaching, aiming to enhance conceptual understanding of hydrostatic pressure in educational settings.