Newton’s Second Law Teaching Strategies—Identifying Opportunities for Educational Innovation

Bibliographic Data

ID22047051
AuthorsVictor Ricardo Parra-Zeltzer (Catholic University of the Maule), Jaime Huincahue (0000-0003-0749-0551, Catholic University of the Maule, corresponding author), Diana Abril (0000-0002-5530-762X, Catholic University of the Maule)
Year2025
Volume15
Issue6
Pages748
Publication date2025-06-13
Open AccessYes
TypeARTICLE
VenueEducation Sciences (JOURNAL)
Journal identifiersISSN: 2227-7102 • E-ISSN: 2227-7102
PublisherMDPI AG (PUBLISHER • IT)
DOI10.3390/educsci15060748
OpenAlexW4411338507
LanguageEN
Citations received1
References cited45

Physics teaching faces challenges due to students’ limited understanding of fundamental concepts such as force and motion, as well as the restricted pedagogical strategies often employed by instructors and the limited variety of approaches to physical foundations. This difficulty is aggravated by the perception of physics as distant from everyday life and by the traditional approach focused on solving mathematical problems. Despite the importance of Newton’s second law, many students confuse the relationships between mass, force, and acceleration, which highlights the need to innovate in teaching practices toward active learning trends. To explore the state of teaching Newton’s second law, a systematic review of the literature was conducted using the PRISMA methodology, analyzing twenty-six articles from the Web of Science and Scopus databases. This revealed an increase in interest in teaching this law, especially in 2023. However, the limited number of studies (only 26) also indicates that research on this topic remains scarce and underexplored. Most studies focus on primary and secondary school students (43%) and employ quantitative methodologies (38%). Teaching strategies include problem-solving (40%), simulations (27%), practical activities (14%), and group discussions (12%). Furthermore, it was identified that Newton’s law is primarily represented in scalar form, with limited inclusion of vector approaches, which highlights the need to discuss didactic alternatives that consider both approaches

Mathematics education · Sociology · Teaching method · Computer Science · Education and Critical Thinking Development · Innovative Teaching Methods · Psychology · Science Education and Pedagogy

Tools

Open DOIOpen Access