An exploration of university physics students’ epistemological mindsets towards the understanding of physics equations

Domert, Daniel; Airey, John; Linder, Cedric; Kung, Rebecca Lippmann

doi:10.5617/nordina.389

Cited by 32 publications

(24 citation statements)

References 28 publications

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“…At university level, Domert et al (2007) interviewed 20 students and categorized their answers in six epistemological mindsets that range from the superficial identification of descriptive aspects (e.g., recognize the symbols of the equation) to a more theoretical understanding (e.g., recognize the underlying physics of the equation or its structure). In high school level, Hechter (2010) asked the same question to 42 students and grouped their answers in the following categories: Pragmatic position-Know where and how to use the equation; Mathematical evolution-Know the process to obtain the equation (derivation); Independent pieces-Know what every term/variable means; Literal/ personal meaning-being able to explain the equation fully to someone.…”

Section: Understanding Equations (An Epistemological Motivation)mentioning

confidence: 99%

Quod erat demonstrandum: Understanding and Explaining Equations in Physics Teacher Education

Karam

Krey

2015

Sci & Educ

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In physics education, equations are commonly seen as calculation tools to solve problems or as concise descriptions of experimental regularities. In physical science, however, equations often play a much more important role associated with the formulation of theories to provide explanations for physical phenomena. In order to overcome this inconsistency, one crucial step is to improve physics teacher education. In this work, we describe the structure of a course that was given to physics teacher students at the end of their master's degree in two European universities. The course had two main goals: (1) To investigate the complex interplay between physics and mathematics from a historical and philosophical perspective and (2) To expand students' repertoire of explanations regarding possible ways to derive certain school-relevant equations. A qualitative analysis on a case study basis was conducted to investigate the learning outcomes of the course. Here, we focus on the comparative analysis of two students who had considerably different views of the math-physics interplay in the beginning of the course. Our general results point to important changes on some of the students' views on the role of mathematics in physics, an increase in the participants' awareness of the difficulties faced by learners to understand physics equations and a broadening in the students' repertoire to answer ''Why?'' questions formulated to equations. Based on this analysis, further implications for physics teacher education are derived.

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Section: Understanding Equations (An Epistemological Motivation)mentioning

confidence: 99%

Quod erat demonstrandum: Understanding and Explaining Equations in Physics Teacher Education

Karam

Krey

2015

Sci & Educ

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“…An alternative approach is given by the learning tool developed by Bagno et al (2008), where conceptual statements related to the interpretation of physics formulas are requested. With a similar goal, Domert et al (2007) propose a set of six ''epistemological mindsets'' to categorize university physics students' understanding of equations. In order to deeply understand the abstract structures behind college students' reasoning, Sherin (2001) investigated the meanings they assign to formulas.…”

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confidence: 99%

Modelling Mathematical Reasoning in Physics Education

et al. 2011

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Many findings from research as well as reports from teachers describe students' problem solving strategies as manipulation of formulas by rote. The resulting dissatisfaction with quantitative physical textbook problems seems to influence the attitude towards the role of mathematics in physics education in general. Mathematics is often seen as a tool for calculation which hinders a conceptual understanding of physical principles. However, the role of mathematics cannot be reduced to this technical aspect. Hence, instead of putting mathematics away we delve into the nature of physical science to reveal the strong conceptual relationship between mathematics and physics. Moreover, we suggest that, for both prospective teaching and further research, a focus on deeply exploring such interdependency can significantly improve the understanding of physics. To provide a suitable basis, we develop a new model which can be used for analysing different levels of mathematical reasoning within physics. It is also a guideline for shifting the attention from technical to structural mathematical skills while teaching physics. We demonstrate its applicability for analysing physical-mathematical reasoning processes with an example.

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“…Shaffer [45] described epistemic frames as not only containing information about knowing what and how but also about knowing with, forming an organizing principle for practices, which was found useful in interactive learning environments where students could adapt epistemic frames in educational role playing in order to help students deal more efficiently with real-life situations. In another study, epistemological mindsets, similar to epistemic framing, of students' understanding of physics equations were identified in six different context-dependent epistemological components which could be present in a student's frame about physics problem solving [46]. An important aspect of the epistemic frame is thus, as argued earlier, not only the collection of epistemic elements but also how these are interrelated.…”

Section: Epistemic Framingmentioning

confidence: 98%

Mapping university students’ epistemic framing of computational physics using network analysis

Bodin

2012

Phys. Rev. ST Phys. Educ. Res.

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Solving physics problem in university physics education using a computational approach requires knowledge and skills in several domains, for example, physics, mathematics, programming, and modeling. These competences are in turn related to students’ beliefs about the domains as well as about learning. These knowledge and beliefs components are referred to here as epistemic elements, which together represent the students’ epistemic framing of the situation. The purpose of this study was to investigate university physics students’ epistemic framing when solving and visualizing a physics problem using a particle-spring model system. Students’ epistemic framings are analyzed before and after the task using a network analysis approach on interview transcripts, producing visual representations as epistemic networks. The results show that students change their epistemic framing from a modeling task, with expectancies about learning programming, to a physics task, in which they are challenged to use physics principles and conservation laws in order to troubleshoot and understand their simulations. This implies that the task, even though it is not introducing any new physics, helps the students to develop a more coherent view of the importance of using physics principles in problem solving. The network analysis method used in this study is shown to give intelligible representations of the students’ epistemic framing and is proposed as a useful method of analysis of textual data

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An exploration of university physics students’ epistemological mindsets towards the understanding of physics equations

Cited by 32 publications

References 28 publications

Quod erat demonstrandum: Understanding and Explaining Equations in Physics Teacher Education

Quod erat demonstrandum: Understanding and Explaining Equations in Physics Teacher Education

Modelling Mathematical Reasoning in Physics Education

Mapping university students’ epistemic framing of computational physics using network analysis

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