Difficulties encountered, learning strategies and academic performance in physics of Psychology students

Introductory physics courses have a reputation among students of being more difficult than other introductory science courses. This may be because success in physics courses requires a different approach, attitude and perspective than other science courses. Realizing the students’ perception that physics is tedious and irrelevant, the researcher was motivated to conduct the study which aimed to determine the level of difficulty in the different topics in physics, causes of difficulties in physics, frequency of use of learning strategies to overcome the difficulties encountered in physics, and academic performance in physics of the respondents. The study also determined the relationship between the respondents’ level of difficulty in physics and their frequency of use of learning strategies to overcome the difficulties encountered. It also looked into the relationship between the respondents’ frequency of use of learning strategies to overcome the difficulties encountered and their academic performance in physics. This study, which involved seventy-two (72) psychology students, utilized the descriptive-correlation research design. Findings showed that the respondents found majority of the physics topics to be difficult. The students cited that their difficulty in physics was caused by their poor background in mathematics and that they had inadequate time for studying. Listening attentively to the lectures, note-taking, and studying alone were often utilized by the respondents to overcome the difficulties encountered in physics. The respondents’ academic performance in physics was fair. The respondents’ level of difficulty in physics has no bearing on their frequency of use of learning strategies to overcome such difficulties. The more frequent the respondents took notes, listened attentively to lectures and studied alone; the better is their performance in physics.