Does using a visual-representation tool foster students’ ability to identify forces and construct free-body diagrams?
Savinainen, A., Mäkynen, A., Nieminen, P., & Viiri, J. (2013). Does using a visual-representation tool foster students’ ability to identify forces and construct free-body diagrams?. Physical Review Special Topics - Physics Education Research, 9(1). https://doi.org/10.1103/PhysRevSTPER.9.010104
Date
2013Copyright
© the Authors, 2013. Published by the American Physical Society.
Earlier research has shown that after physics instruction, many students have difficulties with the force
concept, and with constructing free-body diagrams (FBDs). It has been suggested that treating forces as
interactions could help students to identify forces as well as to construct the correct FBDs. While there is
evidence that identifying interactions helps students in quantitative problem solving, there is no previous
research investigating the effect of a visual-representation tool—an interaction diagram (ID)—on students’
ability to identify forces, and to construct the correct FBDs.We present an empirical study conducted in 11
Finnish high schools on students (n ¼ 335, aged 16) taking their first, mandatory, introductory physics
course. The study design involved groups of students having heavy, light, or no use of IDs. The heavy and
light ID groups answered eight pairs of ID and FBD questions in various physical contexts and the no ID
group answered two of the eight FBD questions. The results indicate that the heavy ID group outperformed
both the light and the no ID groups in identifying forces and constructing the correct FBDs. The analysis of
these data indicates that the use of IDs is especially beneficial in identifying forces when constructing FBDs.
...
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American Physical SocietyISSN Search the Publication Forum
1554-9178Keywords
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http://link.aps.org/doi/10.1103/PhysRevSTPER.9.010104Publication in research information system
https://converis.jyu.fi/converis/portal/detail/Publication/22364000
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