Concepciones de estudiantes y profesores acerca de la energía de las ondas

Abstract

The purpose of this paper is to examine some difficulties students and professors have to interpret and describe the physical mechanisms associated with the generation and propagation of a wave and the energy involved in these processes. Results of surveys and interviews carried out to teachers and students of an introductory Physics course of university level are analyzed and compared with text-book statements that are, either clearly incorrect, or ambiguous and more or less compatible with the thoughts of the students. They are also considered the possible causes of the diffusion of these ideas among the actors participating in the process of teaching-learning of the sciences and rules are given to reach a significant learning of the analyzed subject matter.