ON THE IMPORTANCE OF MISCONCEPTIONS’ DETECTION IN PRE-SERVICE TEACHERS

The detection and treatment of misconceptions in students supposes a key stage when considering that the teaching-learning process takes place in an iterative fashion. In this process students build their own knowledge on the ideas they already possess. In this scenario, this communication is focussed on the study of misconceptions that pre-service teachers have about the vectorial decomposition of forces, a key concept to understand everyday phenomena, kind of the sliding of a body on an inclined plane.

The research has been carried out in three phases: the first one has consisted in the detection of misconceptions using a questionnaire as instrument (pre-test); secondly, an intervention with theoretical-practical nature has been carried out, with a great load of manipulative tasks; and finally, the evolution of misconceptions has been judged, using the same questionnaire as in the first phase (post-test).

Important misconceptions have been detected, related e.g. to the nature and performance of the friction force or to the acting forces on an object at rest. In general, the obtained results, demonstrate the persistent character of the students’ misconceptions and also the difficulty of changing alternative ideas in students who have received many years of educational instruction. However, it is necessary to be aware of their existence, especially when treating with pre-service teachers, so that, as far as possible, they do not transmit them when in the future they act as teachers.