Students' understanding of circular motion with multi representational approach

Abstract

This research aims to examine the effectiveness of a multi representational approach to improve students' understanding of circular motion. The subject consisted of 28 students of grade X of a public high school in Malang, Indonesia. The main students' learning activity was to describe circular motion using various kinds of representation including graph, vector diagram, and equation. The students' understanding was assessed using a reasoned multiple-choice test. The students' responses to the multiple-choice test were analyzed quantitatively, whereas the students' explanation was analyzed qualitatively. The results showed that the students' understanding significantly improved with - rf-effect size of 2.86 and average normalized gain of 0.63. Most of the students became able to determine velocity and acceleration vectors based on a given motion diagram. The most significant improvement of the students' ability was to determine the centripetal acceleration of the object. However, many students still had difficulties with graph of angular velocity versus time and determining tangential acceleration of pendulum motion.