| Summary: | Thesis (PhD (Education))--University of Stellenbosch, 1998. === This dissertation deals with typical, widespread student errors with respect to kinematic graphs
as revealed by a literature survey, as well as an own empirical investigation into the nature and
extent of these misconceptions. The fact that certain misconceptions turned out to be more
widespread than initially believed, has serious consequences for educators' assumptions about
students' understanding of graphs in general, as well as their ideas on how to minimise some
generally occurring "alternative views on graphs".
Students' graphing skills are analysed and described in terms of a number of translations
between various representations of physical events involving motion. A special focus is placed
on graph transformations, which are translations from one graphical representation to another.
It turned out that this provides valuable information about a learner's graphing skills, as well as
his understanding of the relevant kinematic quantities and conventions required to make
successful transformations.
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