College Students’ Conceptions of Newtonian Mechanics: a Case of Surabaya State University Indonesia
College Students’ Conceptions of Newtonian Mechanics: a Case of Surabaya State University Indonesia

Summary/Abstract: Students’ understanding of scientific phenomena have been of considerable interest to science education researchers. However, students’ conceptions might differ from those generally accepted by researchers as scientific concepts. This study was possessed the conception profile of college students in mechanics by using: Force Concept Inventory (FCI) and Mechanics Baseline test (MBT). The study identified the concept of supporting the cause of misconceptions. A descriptive quantitative approach was used, which included 90 college physics students at Surabaya State University as the participants. The results indicated that, first, students conceptions on Newtonian mechanics based on FCI performed that students at Junior level better than Sophomore and Freshman. Second, the overall level of misconception among college students was moderate (68.86%). The two highest levels of misconception were kinds of force with fluid contact (81.67%) and Newton’s second law (78.33%). Third, according to MBT, college students have a very low understanding regarding the kinds of acceleration, kinematics, energy conservation, superposition force, action-reaction, and free fall. Last, the overall level of misconception among college students was high (75.91%). The highest levels of misconception were the topics of kinematics; both centripetal and average acceleration (86.67% and 85.56%, respectively). The students also performed high level in misconception in general principles (such as, energy conservation, superposition of force, free fall, and action-reaction).

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