Students’ Understanding of Velocity-Time Graphs and the Sources of Conceptual Difficulties/Učeničko i studentsko razumijevanje grafova vremenske promjene brzine i izvori konceptualnih poteškoća

We investigated the students' ability to translate the velocity-time graph into a real physical situation and the possible sources of conceptual difficulties. The study involved the sample of n = 324 high-school/university students, and physics teachers in Croatia. The students were presented the original non-traditional open-ended graph problem. Their written answers were classified and used to form a closed-ended prediction questionnaire for teachers. Comparing the teachers’ expectations with the actual students' responses, we found that teachers significantly overestimate students' understanding. Our results also show that the observed difficulties are common to all groups of participants and not much dependent on the educational level and curriculum. We also found that the physics textbooks are also possible sources of difficulties, giving understated or incomplete statements regarding the sign of physical quantities in kinematic expressions. We feel that non-traditional graph problems of this kind could help teachers in establishing active-learning process in the classroom to become aware of students' thinking and to overcome the difficulties. / Ispitivali smo ucenicke i studentske sposobnosti prevođenja grafickog prikaza vremenske promjene brzine u realnu fizikalnu situaciju te moguce izvore konceptualnih poteskoca. Istraživanjem je obuhvacen uzorak od n = 324 srednjoskolskih ucenika, studenata fizike i srednjoskolskih nastavnika fizike iz Republike Hrvatske. Ucenicima i studentima smo zadali originalni netradicionalni graficki problem s pitanjima otvorenog tipa. Njihove pisane odgovore smo klasificirali te na tom temelju sastavili upitnik predviđanja zatvorenog tipa za nastavnike. Uspoređujuci odgovore koje nastavnici unaprijed ocekuju od ucenika, sa stvarnim odgovorima ucenika, uocili smo da nastavnici znacajno precjenjuju ucenicko razumijevanje. Nasi rezultati također pokazuju da su opažene poteskoce zajednicke za sve skupine ispitanika te da ne ovise u znacajnijoj mjeri o stupnju obrazovanja i kurikulumu. Ustanovili smo da hrvatski udžbenici također predstavljaju moguci izvor poteskoca jer sadrže nedorecene i necjelovite tvrdnje koje se odnose na predznake fizickih velicina u kinematickim jednadžbama. Smatramo da netradicionalni graficki problemi ovog tipa poticu aktivni proces ucenja te nastavnicima omogucuju prilagodbu ucenickom nacinu razmisljanja s ciljem svladavanja opaženih poteskoca.

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