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ORIGINAL RESEARCH article
Front. Educ.
Sec. Digital Education
Volume 10 - 2025 | doi: 10.3389/feduc.2025.1472385
Altering Misconceptions: How e-Rebuttal Texts on Newton's Laws Reconstructs Students' Mental Models
Provisionally accepted
Andi Suhandi 1*
Achmad Samsudin 2 Nuzulira Janeusse Fratiwi 2*
Nurdini Nurdini 2* Selly Feranie 3
Muhammad Guntur Purwanto 4 Suharto Linuwih 5 Bayram Coştu 6- 1 Science Education Program, Universitas Pendidikan Indonesia, Bandung, West Java, Indonesia
- 2 Physics Education Study Program, Universitas Pendidikan Indonesia, Bandung, West Java, Indonesia
- 3 Physics Study Program, Universitas Pendidikan Indonesia, Bandung, West Java, Indonesia
- 4 Department of Curriculum and Instruction, College of Education and Human Development, University of Minnesota Twin Cities, Minneapolis, Minnesota, United States
- 5 Physics Education Program, universitas negeri semarang, Semarang, Indonesia
- 6 Department of Science Education, Yıldız Technical University, Istanbul, Türkiye
This study aims to explore how e-rebuttal texts on Newton's Laws can reconstruct students' mental models by altering existing misconceptions. A mixed methods approach (quantitative and qualitative) was used in the research. Participants were 31 students (15 boys and 16 girls, aged 15-16 years) in the 10th grade of one public high school in Sukabumi, West Java, Indonesia. The instrument used Multirepresentation On Tier Instrument of Newton's laws (MOTION), consists of 36 subject matter questions about Newton's First Law, Newton's Second Law, Newton's Third Law, and the type of forces. The data were analyzed using the categories of conception, mental model, and correction of a mental model. The result shows positive changes in each mental model from the pre-test to the posttest. The rate of correction in students' mental models from pre-test to post-test occurred primarily in the Acceptable Correction (ACo) category. It was concluded that e-rebuttal texts can be used to reconstruct students' mental models in conceptual change to become Scientific (SC) models. Other researchers may use learning models and strategies to involve students in groups to facilitate the discussion process.
Keywords: Conceptual Change, e-rebuttal texts, mental model, misconceptions, Newton's laws
Received: 29 Jul 2024; Accepted: 04 Mar 2025.
Copyright: © 2025 Suhandi, Samsudin, Fratiwi, Nurdini, Feranie, Purwanto, Linuwih and Coştu. This is an open-access article distributed under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution License (CC BY). The use, distribution or reproduction in other forums is permitted, provided the original author(s) or licensor are credited and that the original publication in this journal is cited, in accordance with accepted academic practice. No use, distribution or reproduction is permitted which does not comply with these terms.
* Correspondence:
Andi Suhandi, Science Education Program, Universitas Pendidikan Indonesia, Bandung, West Java, Indonesia
Nuzulira Janeusse Fratiwi, Physics Education Study Program, Universitas Pendidikan Indonesia, Bandung, West Java, Indonesia
Nurdini Nurdini, Physics Education Study Program, Universitas Pendidikan Indonesia, Bandung, West Java, Indonesia
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