La Comprensión Conceptual y la Resolución de Problemas en el Aprendizaje de los Conceptos de Desplazamiento, Velocidad y Aceleración

The purpose of this study was to apply conceptual understanding and problem solving processes to kinematic variable concepts to improve student performance. The subjects were 82 students who are enrolled in a physics course for engineering students. They ranged in age from 18 to 19 years old, including 59 males and 25 females. The instructional task corresponded to the Particle Kinematics in One Dimension unit and the topics covered were the concepts of displacement, mean and instantaneous velocity and mean and instantaneous acceleration. The instrument used to measure the students' performance was a multiple-choice test with 16 questions. The procedure followed during the intervention was as follows: (1) Present the intervention to the experimental group and to the control group the traditional model (2) Administer the performance test. The Gosset's test applied gave a value of p < 0.035 therefore the research hypothesis is accepted. The results obtained are due to the application of multiple representations that engage the student in learning the concept.