Overcoming University Students’ Alternative Conceptions in Newtonian Mechanics

Ahcene Serhane; Mahdi Debieche; Boudhar Karima; Abdelhamid Zeghdaoui

doi:doi:10.11648/j.ajnc.20200902.12

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Overcoming University Students’ Alternative Conceptions in Newtonian Mechanics

Ahcene Serhane, Mahdi Debieche, Boudhar Karima, Abdelhamid Zeghdaoui

Published in American Journal of Networks and Communications (Volume 9, Issue 2)

Received: 28 July 2020 Accepted: 19 October 2020 Published: 22 December 2020

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Abstract

Students’ alternative frameworks and prior conceptions about interactions forces «traditionally, known as Newton's third law» have been largely investigated. The various investigations clearly show that students very often fail to apply Newton’s laws of motion in general to everyday situations and third law in particular. This study highlights some of the serious difficulties students undergo with reciprocal interactions and circular motions, taking advantage of previous studies and/or surveys we managed to reveal and identify a wide range of misconceptions among students, enabling teachers to set appropriate strategies to overcome them. Closely related to students’ misconceptions in Newton’s law of motion, there are still serious difficulties facing students to differentiate between real and fictitious forces, especially when tackling dynamics problems involving circular motion. An approach to teaching mutual interactions and the meaning of centripetal force is suggested that focuses on reconsidering and/or refining students' intuitive thinking on the nature of mutual interactions. However, the essence of this argument is that the teaching of science is not a process by which the wrong ideas are substituted by the correct ones; but students should know where they went wrong and why.

Published in	American Journal of Networks and Communications (Volume 9, Issue 2)
DOI	10.11648/j.ajnc.20200902.12
Page(s)	22-29
Creative Commons	This is an Open Access article, distributed under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 International License (http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/), which permits unrestricted use, distribution and reproduction in any medium or format, provided the original work is properly cited.
Copyright	Copyright © The Author(s), 2024. Published by Science Publishing Group

Keywords

Overcoming, Difficulties, Misconceptions, Interactions, Students, Centripetal Force

References

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APA Style

Ahcene Serhane, Mahdi Debieche, Boudhar Karima, Abdelhamid Zeghdaoui. (2020). Overcoming University Students’ Alternative Conceptions in Newtonian Mechanics. American Journal of Networks and Communications, 9(2), 22-29. https://doi.org/10.11648/j.ajnc.20200902.12

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ACS Style

Ahcene Serhane; Mahdi Debieche; Boudhar Karima; Abdelhamid Zeghdaoui. Overcoming University Students’ Alternative Conceptions in Newtonian Mechanics. Am. J. Netw. Commun. 2020, 9(2), 22-29. doi: 10.11648/j.ajnc.20200902.12

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AMA Style

Ahcene Serhane, Mahdi Debieche, Boudhar Karima, Abdelhamid Zeghdaoui. Overcoming University Students’ Alternative Conceptions in Newtonian Mechanics. Am J Netw Commun. 2020;9(2):22-29. doi: 10.11648/j.ajnc.20200902.12

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@article{10.11648/j.ajnc.20200902.12,
  author = {Ahcene Serhane and Mahdi Debieche and Boudhar Karima and Abdelhamid Zeghdaoui},
  title = {Overcoming University Students’ Alternative Conceptions in Newtonian Mechanics},
  journal = {American Journal of Networks and Communications},
  volume = {9},
  number = {2},
  pages = {22-29},
  doi = {10.11648/j.ajnc.20200902.12},
  url = {https://doi.org/10.11648/j.ajnc.20200902.12},
  eprint = {https://article.sciencepublishinggroup.com/pdf/10.11648.j.ajnc.20200902.12},
  abstract = {Students’ alternative frameworks and prior conceptions about interactions forces «traditionally, known as Newton's third law» have been largely investigated. The various investigations clearly show that students very often fail to apply Newton’s laws of motion in general to everyday situations and third law in particular. This study highlights some of the serious difficulties students undergo with reciprocal interactions and circular motions, taking advantage of previous studies and/or surveys we managed to reveal and identify a wide range of misconceptions among students, enabling teachers to set appropriate strategies to overcome them. Closely related to students’ misconceptions in Newton’s law of motion, there are still serious difficulties facing students to differentiate between real and fictitious forces, especially when tackling dynamics problems involving circular motion. An approach to teaching mutual interactions and the meaning of centripetal force is suggested that focuses on reconsidering and/or refining students' intuitive thinking on the nature of mutual interactions. However, the essence of this argument is that the teaching of science is not a process by which the wrong ideas are substituted by the correct ones; but students should know where they went wrong and why.},
 year = {2020}
}

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TY  - JOUR
T1  - Overcoming University Students’ Alternative Conceptions in Newtonian Mechanics
AU  - Ahcene Serhane
AU  - Mahdi Debieche
AU  - Boudhar Karima
AU  - Abdelhamid Zeghdaoui
Y1  - 2020/12/22
PY  - 2020
N1  - https://doi.org/10.11648/j.ajnc.20200902.12
DO  - 10.11648/j.ajnc.20200902.12
T2  - American Journal of Networks and Communications
JF  - American Journal of Networks and Communications
JO  - American Journal of Networks and Communications
SP  - 22
EP  - 29
PB  - Science Publishing Group
SN  - 2326-8964
UR  - https://doi.org/10.11648/j.ajnc.20200902.12
AB  - Students’ alternative frameworks and prior conceptions about interactions forces «traditionally, known as Newton's third law» have been largely investigated. The various investigations clearly show that students very often fail to apply Newton’s laws of motion in general to everyday situations and third law in particular. This study highlights some of the serious difficulties students undergo with reciprocal interactions and circular motions, taking advantage of previous studies and/or surveys we managed to reveal and identify a wide range of misconceptions among students, enabling teachers to set appropriate strategies to overcome them. Closely related to students’ misconceptions in Newton’s law of motion, there are still serious difficulties facing students to differentiate between real and fictitious forces, especially when tackling dynamics problems involving circular motion. An approach to teaching mutual interactions and the meaning of centripetal force is suggested that focuses on reconsidering and/or refining students' intuitive thinking on the nature of mutual interactions. However, the essence of this argument is that the teaching of science is not a process by which the wrong ideas are substituted by the correct ones; but students should know where they went wrong and why.
VL  - 9
IS  - 2
ER  -

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Author Information

Ahcene Serhane

Physics Department of Ecole Normale Supérieure, Vieux-kouba, Algiers, Algeria
Mahdi Debieche

Physics Department of Ecole Normale Supérieure, Vieux-kouba, Algiers, Algeria
Boudhar Karima

Physics Department of Ecole Normale Supérieure, Vieux-kouba, Algiers, Algeria
Abdelhamid Zeghdaoui

Chemistry Departement of Ecole Normale Supérieure, Vieux-kouba, Algiers, Algeria

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APA Style

Ahcene Serhane, Mahdi Debieche, Boudhar Karima, Abdelhamid Zeghdaoui. (2020). Overcoming University Students’ Alternative Conceptions in Newtonian Mechanics. American Journal of Networks and Communications, 9(2), 22-29. https://doi.org/10.11648/j.ajnc.20200902.12

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ACS Style

Ahcene Serhane; Mahdi Debieche; Boudhar Karima; Abdelhamid Zeghdaoui. Overcoming University Students’ Alternative Conceptions in Newtonian Mechanics. Am. J. Netw. Commun. 2020, 9(2), 22-29. doi: 10.11648/j.ajnc.20200902.12

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AMA Style

Ahcene Serhane, Mahdi Debieche, Boudhar Karima, Abdelhamid Zeghdaoui. Overcoming University Students’ Alternative Conceptions in Newtonian Mechanics. Am J Netw Commun. 2020;9(2):22-29. doi: 10.11648/j.ajnc.20200902.12

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@article{10.11648/j.ajnc.20200902.12,
  author = {Ahcene Serhane and Mahdi Debieche and Boudhar Karima and Abdelhamid Zeghdaoui},
  title = {Overcoming University Students’ Alternative Conceptions in Newtonian Mechanics},
  journal = {American Journal of Networks and Communications},
  volume = {9},
  number = {2},
  pages = {22-29},
  doi = {10.11648/j.ajnc.20200902.12},
  url = {https://doi.org/10.11648/j.ajnc.20200902.12},
  eprint = {https://article.sciencepublishinggroup.com/pdf/10.11648.j.ajnc.20200902.12},
  abstract = {Students’ alternative frameworks and prior conceptions about interactions forces «traditionally, known as Newton's third law» have been largely investigated. The various investigations clearly show that students very often fail to apply Newton’s laws of motion in general to everyday situations and third law in particular. This study highlights some of the serious difficulties students undergo with reciprocal interactions and circular motions, taking advantage of previous studies and/or surveys we managed to reveal and identify a wide range of misconceptions among students, enabling teachers to set appropriate strategies to overcome them. Closely related to students’ misconceptions in Newton’s law of motion, there are still serious difficulties facing students to differentiate between real and fictitious forces, especially when tackling dynamics problems involving circular motion. An approach to teaching mutual interactions and the meaning of centripetal force is suggested that focuses on reconsidering and/or refining students' intuitive thinking on the nature of mutual interactions. However, the essence of this argument is that the teaching of science is not a process by which the wrong ideas are substituted by the correct ones; but students should know where they went wrong and why.},
 year = {2020}
}

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TY  - JOUR
T1  - Overcoming University Students’ Alternative Conceptions in Newtonian Mechanics
AU  - Ahcene Serhane
AU  - Mahdi Debieche
AU  - Boudhar Karima
AU  - Abdelhamid Zeghdaoui
Y1  - 2020/12/22
PY  - 2020
N1  - https://doi.org/10.11648/j.ajnc.20200902.12
DO  - 10.11648/j.ajnc.20200902.12
T2  - American Journal of Networks and Communications
JF  - American Journal of Networks and Communications
JO  - American Journal of Networks and Communications
SP  - 22
EP  - 29
PB  - Science Publishing Group
SN  - 2326-8964
UR  - https://doi.org/10.11648/j.ajnc.20200902.12
AB  - Students’ alternative frameworks and prior conceptions about interactions forces «traditionally, known as Newton's third law» have been largely investigated. The various investigations clearly show that students very often fail to apply Newton’s laws of motion in general to everyday situations and third law in particular. This study highlights some of the serious difficulties students undergo with reciprocal interactions and circular motions, taking advantage of previous studies and/or surveys we managed to reveal and identify a wide range of misconceptions among students, enabling teachers to set appropriate strategies to overcome them. Closely related to students’ misconceptions in Newton’s law of motion, there are still serious difficulties facing students to differentiate between real and fictitious forces, especially when tackling dynamics problems involving circular motion. An approach to teaching mutual interactions and the meaning of centripetal force is suggested that focuses on reconsidering and/or refining students' intuitive thinking on the nature of mutual interactions. However, the essence of this argument is that the teaching of science is not a process by which the wrong ideas are substituted by the correct ones; but students should know where they went wrong and why.
VL  - 9
IS  - 2
ER  -

Copy | Download