Students conceptual understanding of force and motion

Abstract

In this study, the conceptual understanding of 481 high school senior students was probed using the Force Concept Inventory. Results showed that these respondents had a very poor understanding of the Newtonian concepts. The average score was low (6 out of 30) which was also the chance score. The items proved to be difficult to the respondents, with the indices of difficulty ranging from p = 0.43 to a very low p = 0.04. The average misconception indices were likewise low implying that the students did not use cognitive models consistently.