Analysis of Students’ Difficulties about Rotational Dynamic Topic Based on Resource Theory

Abstract

Students' difficulties commonly are analyzed based on misconception theory. This paper aimed to analyze students' difficulties on the rotational dynamic based on resource theory. The subject of research consisted of 108 first-year undergraduate students of Physics Education, State University of Malang. Firstly, the students were asked to solve 15 multiple-choice questions and gave open explanation. We then implemened a constant comparative method to identify and categorize some resources that students employed in solving several problems that most the students failed to respond correctly. The results indicated that the students had difficulties in solving problems related to the torque and the equilibrium of rigid body. The students' difficulties were not merely caused by the lack of correct knowledge. Instead, they have the correct knowledge or resources but they activated them on inappropriate context. The students will be successfully used the resources to solve problems if they activated them in the right context.

“Knowledge in Pieces” View: Conceptual Understanding Analysis of Pre-service Physics Teachers on Direct Current Resistive Electrical Circuits

“…These results are consistent with the results of research conducted by Rahmawati et al (2017) on the concept of rotational dynamics showing that the students' resources had not been coupled coherently so that the less dominant resource would be delayed to activate than the more dominant resource. In addition, research conducted by Singh (2010) also shows that many students do not have a complete understanding of the electrical circuit, such as a small error in determining the amount of electric current on the second side of a lamp in a series of which many students still assume a different magnitude.…”

“…Study-related to direct current electricity is mostly based on misconceptions, but less based on Knowledge in Piece "view or resource theory. Some study on Knowledge in Piece "view or resource theory is more focused on understanding the concepts of rotational dynamics (Rahmawati et al 2017) and the concept of energy (Sabo et al 2016). Therefore, a study of understanding student concepts based on the Knowledge in Piece "view needs to be done.…”

About the Teaching of Plane Motion of Rigid Bodies

“…Given the complexity of the RBP motion, several theoretical aspects related to the teaching of it have been treated in previous papers [1][2][3][4][5][6]. The learning difficulties and typical misconceptions of the students, associated to the RBP motion, have been reported previously by several authors [1,3,[7][8][9][10][11][12][13][14][15][16]. For instance, the students have difficulty in determining the magnitude of the torque and connecting the total torque to the direction of rotation [17].…”

The Effect of Interactive Multimedia Base Problem Solving on Students’ Critical Thinking Skills in Equilibrium and Rotational Dynamics Concept

“…This means that this concept related to the problem of daily life. Moreover, this concepts are complex and abstract [1]. Accordingly, learning equilibrium and rotational dynamics concept needs some thinking skills, such as critical thinking skill.…”