Evaluation of the understanding of mechanical waves using a multiple-choice test in Spanish

Abstract The “Mechanical Waves Conceptual Survey (MWCS)”, is the most important multiple-choice test designed to date to evaluate the understanding of university students in four themes of mechanical waves: propagation, superposition, reflection, and standing waves. In this study, we present a significant modification of this test in Spanish. We administered the test to 418 students who finished a course that covers the topics tested by the survey in a private Mexican university. The four objectives of this article are: (1) to present the test in Spanish and its redesign process, (2) to show that it is a reliable evaluation instrument with adequate discriminatory power, (3) to present a detailed analysis of students' understanding on the concepts evaluated in the test, and (4) to establish specific recommendations, based on the previous analyzes, for the instruction of these concepts. In this way, this article offers a comprehensive analysis of understanding difficulties, research-based recommendations and the test available in the appendix that can be used by researchers in the field of physics education, and by teachers who teach the subject of mechanical waves in physics courses in Spanish-speaking countries.