A Simple Approach to Teach Newton’s Third Law

Abstract

The results of previous researches indicated that there were problems with the mental model and students’ conceptual understanding of the action-reaction law (Newton’s third law, NTL). This research aimed to reveal the effect of a simple approach in teaching NTL. The research was conducted in the first-year of pre-service physics teachers at the Physics Education Department of Tadulako University. Research designs for three consecutive years were (1) one-group, pre-test, and post-test design, (2) a static group comparison (pre-test for the experimental group), and (3) a quasi-experimental. The approach used was an interactive demonstration that consisted of five phases, i.e: eliciting an intuitive argument, demonstrating a continuous force: pulling, demonstrating a continuous force: pushing, demonstrating impulsive force: collisions, and refining the concept with Elby’s pair. Data were collected using a multiple-choice test developed in previous research. The results of the data analyses showed that the approach could improve students’ understanding of the action-reaction law, supporting conceptual change by exhibiting N-gain in the moderate and high categories. The instructional design can be considered for implementation in learning in high schools, lecture on pre-service physics teachers and basic physics lecture, in general..

Conceptual model of the national pedagogical university education

“…-predominance of various forms of self-education, involving the widespread introduction of new systems of communication and information technologies elements [14,15,1,17,18].…”

Students Mental Models about the SuspendingObjects in Static Fluid

“…It was still "fragile" easily affected by suspending contexts, and the cognitive elements owned were not connected constructively to build a scientifically acceptable target model. Referring to the definition that a mental model is a structured building consisting of cognitive elements and fundamental knowledge, which are generally referred to as resources (Hammer, 2000) or associated aspects (Mansyur et al, 2020). However, according to this definition, the mental models adopted by the students in this study contained elements that were not strongly connected, and thus, did not lead to the appropriate and scientifically acceptable representation.…”

Students’ External Representation Patterns of Suspending Objects in Static Fluid

“…Conceptual change does not just happen. It requires support from the learning environment and system (Mansyur et al, 2020).…”