Do First Year College Female and Male Students Hold Different Misconceptions about Force and Motion

Abstract

Our main purpose of the current research project is to improve the whole physics educational process at our university, not only the learning side from our students but also the teaching side from us instructors. In this report we discuss the part of the big project dedicated to the study of common dominant misconceptions among male and female students about force and motion. We used the force concept inventory (FCI) as a study tool for this work and was given to our students as a pre and post test. Although our previous study showed an outperformance of our male students over females in almost all items from the inventory, this study shows that both groups are still holding the same kind of misconceptions. We were able to find a full list of common misconceptions between the two groups using the method of dominant incorrect answers.