Undergraduate students' previous knowledge of Physics

Abstract

Some research results of a study on previous knowledge in Physics, carried out with first year engineering students at the University of The Frontera, Chile are presented. Vergnaud’s Conceptual Fields Theory is used to discover the way to learn scientific concepts. The purpose of the study was to determine comprehension levels of concepts of physics, which describe the structure of the previous knowledge students had in an initial course of Physics, from the use of concepts: a) In situations of daily context, b) In the comprehension of a text of scientific dissemination, and c) In situations and problems of academic context. The obtained results confirm low levels of understanding of the students when facing situations and readings which require a scientific acceptable conceptualization. A predominance of procedural aspects of the operations and limited use of meanings of major conceptual richness is observed.