Students’ pre-instruction fragmented understanding of momentum and impulse across verbal and mathematical representations

Abstract

This study analyses students’ pre-instruction understanding of momentum and impulse across verbal and mathematical representations, focusing on misconceptions and fragmented understanding. A descriptive study was conducted with 58 high school students using a four-tier diagnostic test. Results show that students’ understanding is largely partial and varies across representations. Students perform better on verbal representation but are more prone to misconceptions. Consistency analysis indicates low levels of stable understanding, reflecting fragmented knowledge structures. The greatest difficulty appears in items involving the relationship between momentum and impulse. These findings suggest that students’ understanding is fragmented and representation-dependent.