Identification of student difficulties in understanding kinematics: focus of study on the topic of acceleration

Abstract

To design a quality lecture is necessary to identify the difficulties in understanding the concepts experienced by students. This research was a survey study that aims to identify the difficulties experienced by students in understanding the concept of kinematics, which is focused on the topic of acceleration. Seven reasoned multiple-choice questions were given to 159 physics and physics education students at the State University of Malang to archive this goal. The questions used in this study are presented in various representations, namely mathematical, verbal, pictures, and graphics. Based on the results of the analysis, the average percentage of students who answered correctly was 30.47. It can be concluded that students who understand the concept of kinematics are still low. This research shows that students still have difficulty understanding the concept of acceleration if the questions are presented in various representations.