University Student Conceptual Resources for Understanding Forces

Abstract

We present preliminary results from our investigation of introductory physics students' conceptual resources for understanding forces. We analyzed a total of 1057 student responses to conceptual questions about forces and identified three common, prevalent resources that students used in justifying their answers, including the ideas that forces change the motion of objects, objects that have motion keep that motion, and motion is due to an imbalance of forces. We illustrate some of the ways in which these resources manifested in student responses and discuss how these ideas are continuous with physics understandings. We situate our work in the literature on student thinking about forces and instructor pedagogical content knowledge (PCK).