Um estudo sobre as concepções alternativas acerca do conceito de inércia no ensino médio.

Abstract

The Alternative Conceptions are very important in the process of teaching and learning and so many researches were made by several scholars during the second half of the last century. Today we have a large table with alternative conceptions of various content: light, motion, energy, among others. The concept of Inertia which is the content covered in this basic research is no different, we know some characteristics of student thinking about Inertia concept, they tend to think in absolute referential they tend to think that ceased the cause ceased effect and tend to relate directly force and velocity; these conceptions have been identified in other studies (Saltiel & Malgrange - 1980; Watts & Zylberztajn - 1981; Clements - 1982, 1987, 1991; Thomaz - 1983; Watts - 1983; Champagne, Gunstone & Klopfer - 1983). This work has as hypothesized that the context of existence historical-material from student the phenomena observed in their day to day contribute to the construction of their alternative conceptions on the scientific concept Inertia. This work had as general objective identify the alternative conceptions about the concept of inertia, covered in the physics lessons, of students of the 3rd Year of the High School in the city of Cajazeiras. The theoretical referential used in the work is based on the theoretical concepts of Jean Piaget, David Ausubel and Gaston Bachelard, considered by researchers as forerunners studies in research on alternative conceptions in human individuals. This qualitative and quantitative nature of work, is a Work of Conclusion of Licentiate Degree Course in Physics of the Teacher Training Center of the Federal University of Campina Grande (CFP/UFCG), in the municipality of Cajazeiras, Semiarid of Paraiba. As an instrument of obtaining information was used to apply a semi-structured questionnaire. In this sense, we built a synthetic table with the alternative conceptions identified: understand that a force acts when they see a movement; They understand that a force produces a motion (ceasing the cause ceases the effect); They understand that the motion variation is related to the actuation or not of a force; it was found that alternative conceptions identified in this study were similar to concepts identified in other studies with this perspective on the concept of inertia. Therefore, with the alternative conceptions identified and explained in this work, we conclude that it is of great importance to recovery of prior knowledge to school, alternative conceptions during the teaching-learning process. The understanding and appreciation of these conceptions can contribute to (re)construction of knowledge related to Physics.We believe that this work could contribute to the teacher of Physics in High School use methodological strategies that aim to conceptual change considering this aspect of Research in Physics Teaching.