Analysing the structure of Kazakhstan university undergraduate students’ knowledge about the force concept: findings from a three-tier FCI survey

Abstract

This mixed method research (quantitative and qualitative) is dedicated to analyse the Structure of Kazakhstani University Students’ knowledge about the force concept. For this purpose we extend the existing, well known instrument Force Concept Inventory (FCI), applying a three-tier test approach, by asking students to write an explanation of scientific reasons for choosing a certain answer of FCI in the second tier and checking their confidence level in the third tier. Also, the survey was translated into Kazakh language and validated for the Kazakhstan population. The results showed the test has high content and construct validity and high reliability. When analysing the results of the survey, it was found that considering the FCI as the three-tier test significantly affected the number of identified misconceptions and the assessment of scientific knowledge, which implied higher reliability in the results obtained. The obtained data suggest that some incorrect answers should be specified as a lack of knowledge rather than misconceptions, and some correct answers should be considered as a lucky guess rather than scientific knowledge. In the study, we showed the most common misconceptions of the Kazakhstani University students population and detected a gender gap in conceptual understanding of Mechanics, which attracts the attention of researchers for their future studies.