Using of the Cartesian plane and gestures as resources in teaching practice

In this article we report how a secondary school physics teacher in Mexico City used the Cartesian plane and gestures as resources to promote the understanding on the concept of reference frame among his students (between ages 16 and 18). The teacher’s use of resources arose from a question posed to him by one of his students while solving a problem linked to the concept of acceleration. This is a qualitative research supported by the theory of use of resources as a means of reflection during teaching practice in the classroom. This theory is linked to the documentational genesis (Gueudet & Trouche, 2009; 2012), and was used in the analysis of our data. The data collection was done by video-recording of the class when the physics teacher worked with his students. Our results suggest that even this physics teacher has difficulties understanding the concepts related with the movement of objects.