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Literature Review On Students Alternative Concepts (SAC) about Force

V. G. Jadhao & B. K. Parida. (2002) stated that the concept of force is the most fundamental yet the most misunderstood concept in Physics especially by the students up to higher secondary level. Learning materials in print form, which discuss the formation of these concepts, technically known as cognition or in Piagetian terminology, schemata, are rarely available to a practicing teacher or to learners. One possible causes for formation of the alternative conceptions are the familiarity with the use of the term force in our everyday language creates some alternative conceptions among students. For example we say: Water is coming out of the tap with great force, The police forced the door open and In spite of applying so much force the lid of the tin is not opening. V. G. Jadhao & B. K. Parida. (2002) agree that the other reason for alternative conceptions about force is the Aristotelian idea about the state of rest being the preferred state. Lastly it is teachers faulty way of teaching the concept of force from primary to secondary level, which gives rise to alternative conceptions. The alternative conceptions about force are also related with the alternative concepts about velocity and acceleration. It is stated that force is an abstract concept and that there does not exist a definition of force independent of Newtons laws of motion. In particular the Newton First Law gives a criterion to find out whether an unbalanced force acts on the body or not. The Newton Second Law, while giving us the unit of force also gives the quantitative measure of the unbalanced force. But still they both do not tell us anything about the physical cause of the force. The Newton Third Law tells us that the force is a result of interaction (V. G. Jadhao & B. K. Parida., 2002). Thus, we can understand the definition of force based on all the three Laws that define the concept of force.

Research done by Pablico, J. R. (2010) is about Misconceptions On Force And Gravity Among High School Students. A survey instrument consist of 12 qualitative questions require both answers and written explanations was used to gather students ideas and beliefs in situations involving force and gravity. The primary aim of the study done by Pablico, J. R. is to determine the prevalent or dominant misconceptions on force and gravity that need to be addressed in the science classroom. Students come to school bringing with them some preconceptions that are incompatible with established scientific theories. Such

preconceptions are also called misconceptions, naive conceptions, alternative conceptions, or conceptual misunderstandings (Pablico, J. R., 2010). Pablico, J. R. (2010) pointed out at least three ways in which alternative conceptions among children differ from generally-accepted concepts. First, children have difficulty with the kind of abstract reasoning used by scientists. Second, children are interested in unique explanations for specific events. Third, the everyday language of our society often leads children to have views that are different from those of scientists, and common speech is often at odds with the precise language used by scientists. Besides that, students usually explain physical phenomena using their knowledge from previous experience or using common sense knowledge. But even common sense knowledge often does not agree with scientific fact. Misconceptions can have serious impact on student learning. The prevalence of those misconceptions hinder students from learning more advanced concepts, and as they continue to build up knowledge, it becomes more difficult to rectify the misconceptions. If their initial understanding is not engaged, they may fail to grasp new concepts and information presented in the classroom, or they may learn them for purposes of a test but revert to their preconceptions outside the classroom. It is then important that the science teacher should find ways to identify and carefully address those misconceptions that students bring to class (Pablico, J. R., 2010). From her findings of her survey found that, three prevalent misconceptions were found on questions 1, 2 and 3, concerning the force on a ball thrown vertically upward. One of these is the idea that the direction of motion is also the direction of the force. Another prevalent misconception is the belief that the force of throw is still present in the ball even after leaving the hand. The third prevalent misconception is the idea that there is no force when there is no motion. These misconceptions were found to be persistent because they were present in students of the three types of school Physics background, which means that they exist in the minds of students even after Physics instruction. Another research done by Driver, R. et al. (1994) on Misconceptions about Motion, stated that students who recognized a holding force, differentiated it from pushing or pulling forces. Students think that the downward force of gravity must be greater than an upward

force for the book to be stationary. Driver, R. et al. (1994) has summarize about the misconceptions on Force and Motion. These are the summary about the misconceptions: 1) If there is motion, there is a force acting. 2) There cannot be a force without motion and if there is no motion, then there is no force acting. (for example, students see a downward force of a book acting on a table, but they do not see an upward force of the table acting on the book.) 3) When an object is moving the force is acting in the direction of its motion. 4) A moving object has a force within it which keeps it going (Buridans impetus theory). 5) A moving object stops when its force is used up. 6) Motion is proportional to the force acting and a constant speed results from a constant force (students associate force with speed not acceleration). Besides that, Driver, R. et al. (1994) also stated the students misconception about friction. These are the summary: 1) 2) 4) 6) 7) 8) Friction is a force Friction is he same thing as reaction Friction is associated with energy, especially heat Friction occurs with liquids but not with gases. Friction causes electricity Friction is thought of as an object

3) Friction depends on movement 5) Friction occurs only between solids

A research done by Saleh, S. in 2010 about The Level of B.Sc.Ed Students Conceptual Understanding of Newtonian Physics found that problems of conceptual understanding are widespread among students. Besides that, most students still have naive ideas about the concepts of Newtonian Physics. The high school and undergraduates students are generally found to have an understanding that is not scientifically accepted according to their world, known also as the alternative conception. Research findings also concluded that even if students have been exposed to Newtonian Physics from the early stages of their schooling years, they are still yet unable to master the knowledge of Newtonian Physics. Students encounter difficulty when asked to apply a concept or line of reasoning to a situation different from which it was learned.

An instrument known as the Test of Conceptual Understanding of Newtonian Physics has been administered to a group of 200 third-year B.Sc.Ed students in three higher learning institutions in Malaysia and 200 form four science students in three science secondary schools in Malaysia. The questions presented are based on concepts such as the students have learned during the secondary school level. Generally, students are required to answer 28 questions related to the conceptual understanding of basic concepts of Newtonian Physics (Saleh, S., 2010). Results of the study indicated that B.Sc.Ed students generally have the level of Newtonian Physics conceptual understanding equivalent to that of form four science students. There is no significant difference between the mean score of B.Sc.Ed. students and form four science students in the Test of Conceptual Understanding of Newtonian Physics administered (Saleh, S., 2010). Therefore, it can be concluded that university students, more often than not, have similar conceptual difficulties to those that are currently in secondary schools.

The research done by Chia, T. C. (1998), about Common Misconceptions In Frictional Force Among University Physics. He stated that it is not uncommon that university students possess some common misconceptions in Physics. Frictional force is one of the topics that many university Physics students have misconceptions about. In order to find out the misconceptions, Chia, T. C. (1998) conducted an interview to a small group of students. Each item of this misconception test consisted of: (a) a multiple-choice question with common or suspected misconceptions; (b) an explanation which requiredstudents to give their reasons for the answer which they had chosen; and (c) an open option for students to respond to, if their answers were none of the options given. There were 42 students involved in this study. All of the students have passed as least the first year university Physics course.

Based on the findings found by Chia, T. C. (1998), many students hold common misconceptions about frictional force especially the direction of the force. This fact is reflected in the test in which, for quite a number of items, the percentage of correct answers is less than 50%. Although most of the students provided correct answers about frictional forces acting along the backward direction, quite a number of them did not explain appropriately.

In Physics teaching, there is a need to find out common misconceptions among students and then follow up by designing instruction and teaching strategy based on the findings so that the instruction developed would provide meaningful learning experiences (Chia, T. C., 1998). Such a move will enable students to recognize their misconceptions, correct them consistently, successfully analyse and intepret more complicated Physics phenomena and problems. The emphasizing of concept mastery should be considered from the early stages of Physics learning process to ensure a better performance among students, in assuring them to understand physics meaningfully as well as able to apply the knowledge in their lives. This is crucial to prevent any further related issues regarding conceptual understanding problems due to at the tertiary level, it is found that this aspect is no longer a major consideration as students are considered to grasps this kind of understanding in their previous learning (Saleh. S., 2011). Teachers and curriculum developers need to read and review about study that has be done by researcher about students alternative conceptions. So that, they enable to design classroom activities and teaching strategies that could address the students misconceptions. Besides that, teachers should find ways of identifying students misconceptions, such as the use of probes or formative assessment, to motivate students and to guide in the teaching process (Pablico, J. R., 2010). Besides that, teachers and curriculum developers can conduct a similar research, with emphasis on testing teaching strategies that could effectively alter students misconceptions.

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