Contributions to the study of students' ideas about the kinematics concepts velocity and acceleration: Implications in the didactic of the kinematic

The concepts velocity and acceleration are within first whereupon all course of introductory physics begins and, later, they are continually applied in the development of the course when discussing dynamics, energy, electricity and waves, among other subjects. Therefore, this pair of concepts deserves special attention in the process of teaching and learning of physics.; In this study, the ideas of the university students related to the velocity and acceleration concepts were identified and analyzed, and was determined the degree or level of understanding of such concepts. The study is of descriptive nature, and the results from this study it is tried to improve an aspect of the teaching and learning process in the course of physics.; The guide questions were What are the previous conceptions on velocity and acceleration that university students have from courses of General Physics I (FISI 3001) and University Physics I (FISI 3011)? What is the genesis of those conceptions? How defer the previous ideas between students from different sex? What are the conceptual categories that stand out in the previous ideas of the students on velocity and acceleration? What difficulties find the students in the process of learning the concepts of velocity and acceleration? What degree of understanding have the students about the concepts of velocity and acceleration at the end of the semester compared to the beginning?; The previous ideas that had the participants of low, average, and high academic performance about the concepts velocity and acceleration were identified by means of the analysis of the data obtained through questionnaires and interviews. This information allowed to suggest changes in the content, and the methodology, so that it was more relevant and can be more effective in accomplish objectives.; The degree of understanding of the concepts velocity and acceleration was determined by means of the criterion of the ability that the student has to apply correctly such concepts in the interpretation of simple movements of objects.; The most important finding in this study was the identification of thirty-two preconceptions, of which four were correct, twenty-two were not correct, and six were correct in certain cases; from those that were no correct, eleven are related to velocity and eleven with acceleration. In addition, the six conceptual categories were outstanding three related to velocity and three related to acceleration.