Dissertations and Theses @ UNI
Availability
Open Access Thesis
Keywords
University of Northern Iowa--Students; Rossiĭskiĭ gosudarstvennyĭ pedagogicheskiĭ universitet imeni AI Gert︠s︡ena--Students; Rossiĭskiĭ gosudarstvennyĭ pedagogicheskiĭ universitet imeni AI Gert͡sena; University of Northern Iowa; College students--Cross-cultural studies; College students; Mechanics--Study and teaching (Higher); Physics--Study and teaching (Higher); Students; Cross-cultural studies;
Abstract
This paper reports on a study of misconceptions held by undergraduate students completing an introductory physics course at the University of Northern Iowa and first-year undergraduate students taking a mechanics course at the Herzen State Pedagogical University of Russia. Existence of misconceptions in mechanics among Russian and American students was investigated prior to instruction and at the completion of the one-semester course. Different teaching approaches were used to introduce the students to mechanics. An activity-based approach was emphasized at UNI and a traditional lecture-lab approach was used at Herzen University. The emphasis of the study was placed on identifying misconceptions held by both groups of students, comparing misconceptions held by American and Russian students, and identifying the influence of instruction on student misconceptions. The data on student misconceptions obtained from the Force and Motion Conceptual Evaluation assessment allowed for identification of a number of misconceptions commonly held by the Russian and American students. The study also identified how students' backgrounds influence their misconceptions. The results indicated that American and Russian students had similar misconceptions about motion and forces before instruction. This is an interesting finding given that the Russian students studied physics for several years during high school. Only half of the American students had physics during high school. The analysis of the data also showed that at the end of the semester students from both groups still had some misconceptions. Although an activity-based approach was used at UNI, only a small percentage of students changed their incorrect understanding of mechanics. One can conclude that more than one semester of physics perhaps needs to be taken at UNI to affect student misconceptions. The instruction at the Herzen University did not seem to have the desired impact of addressing student misconceptions as well. Therefore, some revisions of instruction may be needed to affect student misconceptions in mechanics.
Year of Submission
2002
Degree Name
Master of Arts
Department
Department of Physics
First Advisor
Roy Unruh
Second Advisor
Lawrence Escalada
Third Advisor
Cherin Lee
Date Original
2002
Object Description
1 PDF file (90 leaves)
Copyright
©2002 Alexandra Sokolova
Language
en
File Format
application/pdf
Recommended Citation
Sokolova, Alexandra, "Identifying and Comparing Misconceptions Held by American and Russian University Students in Mechanics" (2002). Dissertations and Theses @ UNI. 2176.
https://scholarworks.uni.edu/etd/2176
Comments
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