The purpose of this study was to investigate how undergraduate students at the University of
Northern Iowa who had taken prior coursework on non-calculus general physics with a unit …

There is an extensive literature that establishes that intuitive explanations of motion differ
fundamentally from Newtonian explanations (cf. Caramazza, McCloskey, & Green, 1981; …

Among the student ideas about forces discussed in the literature, perhaps the most
commonly reported is the notion of an impetus force, or the “belief that there is a force inside …

This paper describes a model for the adolescent's understanding of the motion of objects,
and the application of this model to the design of beginning physics instruction in …

This paper presents research findings of a study on specific conceptions held by college
students in an introductory physics course when they explain a non-sliding rotational motion …

Every student begins physics with a well-established system of commonsense beliefs about
how the physical world works derived from years of personal experience. Over the last …

Data for the construction of students' conceptual systens were gathered through individual
interviews, student portfolios, and calculator-based laboratories. As students progressed …

This study concerns students' ideas about the existence or otherwise of forces in several
dynamical situations involving moving objects and objects at rest. It aims to contribute to a …

The widespread existence among students of alternative frameworks or naive theories in the
area of mechanics is now unquestioned.(For reviews of relevant research written from a …

Students' perceptions of the nature of physics knowledge affect their understanding of
physics and the relevancy they attribute to concepts and principles to explain phenomena …