Analysis of students’ difficulties about work and energy

Abstract

Abstract Identification of students’ difficulties is an important part of designing a quality learning. This research used survey method that aims to identify the difficulties experienced by students in understanding the concept of work and energy. The research subjects consisted of 142 undergraduate students in physics education (46 first-year students, 39 second-year students, and 57 third-year students). Data collection was carried out from 2018-2019. There are 10 multiple choices questions that are used to uncover the difficulties experienced by students. Based on the results obtained it can be concluded that many students still have difficulty in understanding the concepts of work and energy. The percentage of students who answered correctly are 20.42% in concept of work as a result of dot product multiplication; 11.26% in the work-energy theorem; 38.03% in the concept of spring potential energy, and 22.54% in the conservation law of mechanical energy.