Lower-secondary students’ understanding of constant velocity motion graphs

İngilizce (OpenAlex)

In science, one of the most crucial representations for constructing meaning about physical events is graphs. The first graph students encounter in science class is the constant velocity motion graph. Therefore, examining students' understanding of structuring and interpreting these graphs for the relationship between distance, time, and velocity may provide significant clues for their future understanding of more complex motion graphs. The constant velocity motion graph interpretation and structuring understanding of 6th-grade secondary school students were explored. It was conducted with 97 students from a small-scale province in the east of Türkiye. The data were collected using the “Form on Interpretation and Construction Skills of Constant Velocity Motion Graphs.” The data were analyzed using descriptive analysis. It was found that the students mostly used irrelevant reasoning and symbolic reasoning, and the least multiple variable reasoning for graph interpretation. In addition, it was determined that students used irrelevant reasoning the most and single variable reasoning the least in all questions prepared for graph structuring. These results suggest that many students find it difficult to understand complex motion graph questions in the future. Keywords: constant velocity motion graph, graphic literacy, students understanding, qualitative analysis