A STUDY ON LEARNERS' UNDERSTANDING OF FORCE (2) -AN ATTEMPT TO IDENTIFY RULES IN COGNITIVE ERRORS-

Abstract

A number of investigations have already reported that students commonly encounter a lot of cognitive errors related to the concept of force. We have conducted a research on students' understanding about force vector on static things. It was found out in our research that students have encountered a lot more difficulty in dealing with attractive force vector than with repulsive force vector. In this research we attempted to analyze the students' errors using the following viewpoints: 1) interpretation of symbolic meaning, and 2) interpretation of specific meaning within the context. In order to get the needed data, 237 high school students and 248 college students were requested to answer problems on magnetic force. The following rules were used by students in analyzing their responses, to wit: (1) correct interpretation of force vector, (2) wrong interpretation of the symbolic meaning wherein the object behind the vector gives force to the object ahead of the vector, (3) wrong interpretation of the symbolic meaning wherein the object having the vector gives force to the object ahead of the vector, (4) wrong interpretation about the contextual meaning wherein the magnet possesses force that acts on another object. The students' answering patterns were constructed within the framework of these four rules. In theory, six answering patterns were defied by the four rules. It was found out that 89.9 percent of the high school students and 85.5 percent of the college students responded using these six answering patterns. Therefore the validity of these four rules seems to have been found.