Identification of students’ misconception about light using a four-tier instrument

The research objective is to make a valid and reliable identification of junior high school students' misconceptions about light. The four-tier light instrument (FTLI) was administered to 456 students from two junior high schools in Jambi, Indonesia. Data were analyzed to obtain the percentage of students who have scientific concepts and misconceptions. The results indicated that only 7.7% understood the concept well, and 12.1% had misconceptions about light. The remaining students were categorized as experiencing false positives, false negatives, and lack of knowledge. There are 12 types of misconceptions about the light that can be identified. Some of them are: (1) Light cannot reach faraway places, but distant observers can see the light source; (3) The distance traveled by the candles during the day is shorter than at night; and (3) The color vision of an object is not determined by the color of the light hitting the object.