Abstract
The results of the National High School Examination (ENEM) are an important tool for a diagnosis of educational deficiencies at the end of a training cycle. This exam is a relevant source of data for the evaluation of what is learned by high school students. In this paper, twelve selected questions are presented, from the Natural Sciences exam in the period between 2009 and 2014, questions that were classified as "physics questions", in which the alternatives reveal well-delimited non-scientific conceptions described in the literature. From the students' performance on these items, observations about the learning process in physics in basic education are made. This study reveals that there are some permanent difficulties in understanding basic concepts of mechanics, thermal phenomena and geometric optics. Many of these questions point to the presence and even predominant role of non-scientific conceptions described in the research literature in physics teaching. Even knowing how difficult it is to modify these conceptions, the results reveal that, despite all the research effort in physics teaching since the 1980s, there was little impact of the results in the learning process, and only a few changes incorporating this knowlege in the didactic materials and in the teacher training courses.
Keywords:
physics teaching; ENEM; non-scientific conceptions
