Mental models of a group of public high school physics teachers

Abstract

The condition of teachers' mental models on Newtonian concepts was studied by analyzing distributions of their responses on The Force Concept Inventory (FCI). The FCI was administered to 16 public high school physics teachers. Results revealed some very strong mental models (one correct or dominant incorrect answer) for numbers 12 (air pressure contribution to gravity), 2 (greater mass implies a greater force) and 23 (mass makes things stop). For the majority of the questions however, the group was either in the no mental model (random answers) state or was torn between two popular models (correct and incorrect) state. One major implication is that these teachers may be teaching inconsistent physics concepts. It is hoped that the paper will call into action the Samahan to formulate a very good teacher training program.