Amrizaldi. 2014. Development of Diagnostic Tests to Map Mental Models of Class X Senior High School Students with Heat and Temperature Materials. Thesis, Physics Education Study Program. Postgraduate Program, State University of Malang. Advisors: (1) Dr. Markus Diantoro, M.Sc., (2) Dr. Wartono, M.Pd.

Keywords: Diagnostic Tests, Mental Models, Temperature and Heat

A person's mental model is not easy to know because mental model is a unique personal representation of each individual. In addition, mental models are unstable, inconsistent, and always change when more information is obtained or information is recalled. Another thing that makes students' mental models difficult to investigate is because students find it difficult to express their mental models to researchers. Therefore, to find out the mental model of students, an appropriate and optimal way is needed. The purpose of this study was to develop and describe the feasibility of an assessment instrument in the form of a diagnostic test to map students' mental models.

This research is a research and development using the Borg & Gall method. The research instrument used was a product assessment questionnaire by the validator, a student response questionnaire, a teacher response questionnaire and a mental model diagnostic test in the form of a description test. Data collection was carried out through interviews, mental model diagnostic tests, questionnaires from validators, teachers and students. Field studies were conducted to determine the needs of prospective users to compile product designs and specifications that were tailored to the literature review. The mental model diagnostic test is analyzed based on the content validation results obtained from the validation questionnaire for the validator. The validation results were analyzed using a scale Likert and students' mental models are mapped into 3 types, namely Surface (S), Matching (M), and Deep (D).

The product validation test results indicate that the mental model diagnostic test is feasible to use. This can be seen from the results of the feasibility test for all items that have exceeded the required minimum score of 3.26 from the maximum score of 4 for each item. This development product has advantages and disadvantages. These advantages include being able to know the level of students' deeper understanding of the material that has been studied and can help teachers develop innovative assessment instruments. This development product still has other drawbacks, the image color quality of some mental model diagnostic test items is not good. Before this test is used, students should have studied the temperature and heat material in depth.