Alternative conceptions in Galilean relativity: frames of reference

In this paper we investigate how students handle the abstract conceptual tool, namely, ‘frames of reference’, that is needed for the formulation and exploitation of the principle of relativity in physics. The methodology of probing into students' constructs is partly holistic and partly analytical. First, through a free‐response test and selected clinical interviews, we obtain holistic impressions of students' notions and assign them to a number of interpretative categories of responses. These are then grouped under a smaller number of superordinate categories of students' alternative conceptions. Guided by this phenomenology, a diagnostic forced‐option test is designed using a variety of situational contexts. The test is administered on a sample of 111 physics undergraduates drawn from different Bombay colleges. Students' responses are analysed to see the extent to which the alternative conceptions are held, and the consistency or otherwise between their various aspects. Our data show unmistakably that t...