home - login - register

Journal Article Detail Page

Physical Review Physics Education Research
written by Terry F. Scott and Dániel Schumayer
The Force Concept Inventory is one of the most popular and most analyzed multiple-choice concept tests used to investigate students' understanding of Newtonian mechanics. The correct answers poll a set of underlying Newtonian concepts and the coherence of these underlying concepts has been found in the data. However, this inventory was constructed after several years of research into the common preconceptions held by students and using these preconceptions as distractors in the questions. Their sole purpose is to deflect non-Newtonian candidates away from the correct answer. Alternatively, one can argue that the responses could also be treated as polling these preconceptions. In this paper we shift the emphasis of the analysis away from the correlation structure of the correct answers and look at the latent traits underlying the incorrect responses. Our analysis models the data employing exploratory factor analysis, which uses regularities in the data to suggest the existence of underlying structures in the cognitive processing of the students. This analysis allows us to determine whether the data support the claim that there are alternate non-Newtonian worldviews on which students' incorrect responses are based. The existence of such worldviews, and their coherence, could explain the resilience of non-Newtonian preconceptions and would have significant implications to the design of instruction methods. We find that there are indeed coherent alternate conceptions of the world which can be categorized using the results of the research that led to the construction of the Force Concept Inventory.
Physical Review Physics Education Research: Volume 13, Issue 1, Pages 010126
Subjects Levels Resource Types
Classical Mechanics
- General
Education - Basic Research
- Alternative Conceptions
- Assessment
= Conceptual Assessment
= Instruments
- Learning Theory
= Cognitive Modeling
- Graduate/Professional
- Reference Material
= Research study
PER-Central Type Intended Users Ratings
- PER Literature
- Researchers
  • Currently 0.0/5

Want to rate this material?
Login here!


Formats:
application/pdf
text/html
Access Rights:
Free access
License:
This material is released under a Creative Commons Attribution 3.0 license. Published by the American Physical Society under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 International license. Further distribution of this work must maintain attribution to the author(s) and the published article's title, journal citation, and DOI.
Rights Holder:
Terry F. Scott and Dániel Schumayer
DOI:
10.1103/PhysRevPhysEducRes.13.010126
Keywords:
Force Concept Inventory, Newtonian mechanics
Record Creator:
Metadata instance created June 4, 2017 by Lyle Barbato
Record Updated:
September 21, 2017 by Lyle Barbato
Last Update
when Cataloged:
May 16, 2017
ComPADRE is beta testing Citation Styles!

Record Link
AIP Format
T. Scott and D. Schumayer, , Phys. Rev. Phys. Educ. Res. 13 (1), 010126 (2017), WWW Document, (https://doi.org/10.1103/PhysRevPhysEducRes.13.010126).
AJP/PRST-PER
T. Scott and D. Schumayer, Conceptual coherence of non-Newtonian worldviews in Force Concept Inventory data, Phys. Rev. Phys. Educ. Res. 13 (1), 010126 (2017), <https://doi.org/10.1103/PhysRevPhysEducRes.13.010126>.
APA Format
Scott, T., & Schumayer, D. (2017, May 16). Conceptual coherence of non-Newtonian worldviews in Force Concept Inventory data. Phys. Rev. Phys. Educ. Res., 13(1), 010126. Retrieved November 12, 2024, from https://doi.org/10.1103/PhysRevPhysEducRes.13.010126
Chicago Format
Scott, Terry, and Dániel Schumayer. "Conceptual coherence of non-Newtonian worldviews in Force Concept Inventory data." Phys. Rev. Phys. Educ. Res. 13, no. 1, (May 16, 2017): 010126, https://doi.org/10.1103/PhysRevPhysEducRes.13.010126 (accessed 12 November 2024).
MLA Format
Scott, Terry, and Dániel Schumayer. "Conceptual coherence of non-Newtonian worldviews in Force Concept Inventory data." Phys. Rev. Phys. Educ. Res. 13.1 (2017): 010126. 12 Nov. 2024 <https://doi.org/10.1103/PhysRevPhysEducRes.13.010126>.
BibTeX Export Format
@article{ Author = "Terry Scott and Dániel Schumayer", Title = {Conceptual coherence of non-Newtonian worldviews in Force Concept Inventory data}, Journal = {Phys. Rev. Phys. Educ. Res.}, Volume = {13}, Number = {1}, Pages = {010126}, Month = {May}, Year = {2017} }
Refer Export Format

%A Terry Scott %A Dániel Schumayer %T Conceptual coherence of non-Newtonian worldviews in Force Concept Inventory data %J Phys. Rev. Phys. Educ. Res. %V 13 %N 1 %D May 16, 2017 %P 010126 %U https://doi.org/10.1103/PhysRevPhysEducRes.13.010126 %O application/pdf

EndNote Export Format

%0 Journal Article %A Scott, Terry %A Schumayer, Dániel %D May 16, 2017 %T Conceptual coherence of non-Newtonian worldviews in Force Concept Inventory data %J Phys. Rev. Phys. Educ. Res. %V 13 %N 1 %P 010126 %8 May 16, 2017 %U https://doi.org/10.1103/PhysRevPhysEducRes.13.010126


Disclaimer: ComPADRE offers citation styles as a guide only. We cannot offer interpretations about citations as this is an automated procedure. Please refer to the style manuals in the Citation Source Information area for clarifications.

Citation Source Information

The AIP Style presented is based on information from the AIP Style Manual.

The AJP/PRST-PER presented is based on the AIP Style with the addition of journal article titles and conference proceeding article titles.

The APA Style presented is based on information from APA Style.org: Electronic References.

The Chicago Style presented is based on information from Examples of Chicago-Style Documentation.

The MLA Style presented is based on information from the MLA FAQ.

Save to my folders

Contribute

Similar Materials