Secondary students' ideas about Newton's third law of motion

Abstract

Science education in the 80's involved extensive research on students' ideas about many concepts in physics. Such ideas, termed alternative frameworks by Driver & Easley (1978), are often in contrast with the correct physics view. This research studies Maltese students' alternative frameworks about Newton's third law of motion which considers pairs of forces between objects in contact or at some distance apart. Such alternative frameworks include force being associated with motion, mass or the active part. The most common alternative framework is that forces of a third law pair are not seen to be equal in situations differing from the typical representations in common texts. Such alternative frameworks were found to exist amongst students of different ages (Form 3 to Form 5). They were found to be used slightly more by boys than by girls (not statistically significant) and also more common amongst Area Secondary than Junior Lyceum students (statistically significant in half of the cases).