Description
Every physics teacher knows the frustration: students sit through careful instruction on Newton's laws, yet persistently return to the same intuitive errors. A ball thrown upward "still has the throwing force inside it." A heavier truck "pushes harder" on a smaller car in a collision. For decades, these mistakes were treated as noise, unhelpful distractions on the path to correct Newtonian thinking. But what if we have been misreading them entirely?
This talk presents research that challenges how we think about student misconceptions in mechanics. Using data from over two thousand students completing the Force Concept Inventory, one of the most widely used diagnostic tools in physics education, we shift attention away from what students get right and toward the hidden structure in what they get wrong. Applying exploratory factor analysis to incorrect responses reveals something striking: students' errors are not random. They are almost coherent. They cluster into recognisable, internally consistent worldviews, most prominently a pre-Newtonian 'impetus' conception of force, in which motion is caused by a property carried inside moving objects.
This finding has implications for the classroom. If students are not simply lacking knowledge but are instead operating from an alternative framework, one that is (quasi)logically self-consistent from their perspective, then instruction designed merely to add Newtonian ideas on top of existing knowledge is likely to fail. The impetus worldview does not quietly step aside; it actively competes with Newtonian thinking.
This talk walks educators through what thi hidden worldview looks like, why they are so resilient, and what they suggest about how we sequence and design instruction in mechanics. Understanding why students are wrong, it turns out, may be the most important step toward helping them become right.
| I am the presenting author | Yes |
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