What Factors Hinder Elementary Students' Understanding of Friction Concepts? Insights From Quantitative Descriptive Data

This study explores the factors affecting elementary school students’ understanding of force concepts, particularly friction. Using a quantitative descriptive approach, 61 randomly-selected fifth-grade students participated in a concept understanding test, which covered seven indicators: explaining, comparing, inferring, summarizing, classifying, providing examples, and interpreting. Results showed that students performed well in explaining (70.49%) and inferring (77.05%), while comparing (26.23%), classifying (37.7%), providing examples (22.95%), and interpreting (26.23%) had lower success rates. The main challenges identified were limited hands-on activities, insufficient teaching tools, and a lack of contextual learning. The study suggests that incorporating more interactive and experiment-based teaching methods, tied to real-life contexts, could enhance students’ understanding. Additionally, the study highlights the importance of considering factors such as teaching methods, prior knowledge, real-world experiences, and individual differences in learning styles and motivation to improve conceptual understanding.