Could Physics Teachers Also Have Misconceptions on Basic Kinematics?

Abstract

Abstract The role of a physics teacher in learning is to facilitate student activities to construct correct conceptual understanding as that of a scientist. As the primary source of knowledge for students, a physics teacher is required to have the right concept, but this demand is not necessarily fully fulfilled. This study aims to determine the profile of physics teachers’ understanding of concepts on kinematics material detected by a four-tier misconception test. Participants in this study were 20 high school physics teachers in Surabaya. Based on the results of data analysis, it was found that the dominant misconceptions included: (1) Two objects that make the same displacement at the same time interval will have the same velocity, regardless of the type of movement of the two objects (2) Objects that move vertically straight up or down will always have the acceleration of motion equal to the acceleration of gravity which is directed downwards. (3) As long as the object’s position is at positive coordinates, it means the object is moving in the forward direction. (4) The graph of velocity against time, which has a positive gradient, means that the object always moves forward (5) In parabolic motion, the length of time an object is in the air only depends on the length of its path, the longest path will require the longest time. (6) In parabolic motion, the final speed of an object when it lands on the ground depends not only on its initial speed but also on its elevation angle. The findings of several misconceptions above show that even a physics teacher cannot escape misconceptions. Therefore, it is crucial for a teacher to be able to remedy the misconceptions he suffers so that these misconceptions are not transmitted to the students he teaches. This finding is the first step for researchers to detect misconceptions, followed by the application of certain learning methods to remedy misconceptions in future research.