Comparison of Student Understanding of Line Graph Slope in Physics and Mathematics

Planinić, Maja; Milin-Šipuš, Željka; Katic, Helena; Sušac, Ana; Ivanjek, Lana

doi:10.1007/s10763-012-9344-1

Cited by 114 publications

(89 citation statements)

References 24 publications

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“…Such findings echo the results of previous research contrasting graphing in a physics context with a mathematics or everyday context [2,11,20] and are consistent with a socially situated perspective of graphing [23]. Many factors could influence the differences in students graph construction and interpretation between the two labs, including the physics concepts involved or the differences in variables plotted (e.g., the y-axis variable was tension in Lab 1, initial potential energy minus the final translational kinetic energy of the hanging mass in Lab 2).…”

Section: Discussionsupporting

confidence: 89%

“…Particularly prevalent are slope-height confusion [11,18,20,21] and graph as picture error [11,12,18,21]. Most of these studies involved asking students to interpret graphs for which they had no context.…”

Section: Literature Reviewmentioning

confidence: 99%

“…Similarly, this perspective suggests that graphing ability in one context may not transfer to graphing ability in another context. This has been shown between disciplines (e.g., mathematics and physics) [2,11,20], but has not been investigated between physics topics.…”

Section: Literature Reviewmentioning

confidence: 99%

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Undergraduate student construction and interpretation of graphs in physics lab activities

Nixon

Godfrey

Mayhew

et al. 2016

Phys. Rev. Phys. Educ. Res.

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Lab activities are an important element of an undergraduate physics course. In these lab activities, students construct and interpret graphs in order to connect the procedures of the lab with an understanding of the related physics concepts. This study investigated undergraduate students' construction and interpretation of graphs with best-fit lines in the context of two physics lab activities. Students' graphs were evaluated for overall graph quality and for the quality of the best-fit line. The strategies students used and their understanding of the meaning of the graph were accessed through interviews. The results suggest that undergraduate introductory physics students can successfully construct graphs with best-fit lines while not connecting the meaning of the graph to the underlying physics concepts. Furthermore, results indicated that the most challenging aspect of constructing a graph is setting up the scale, and that graphing is situated in specific contexts.

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Section: Discussionsupporting

confidence: 89%

Section: Literature Reviewmentioning

confidence: 99%

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Undergraduate student construction and interpretation of graphs in physics lab activities

Nixon

Godfrey

Mayhew

et al. 2016

Phys. Rev. Phys. Educ. Res.

View full text Add to dashboard Cite

show abstract

“…Therefore, in a quality evaluation, the correct connection between phenomenological description and mathematical representation must be taken into account, responding for example to the students' difficulties with graphs both in physics and mathematics (Planinic, Milin-Sipus, Katic, Susac & Ivanjek, 2012). Indeed, Park and Choi (2013) have suggested the importance of understanding scientific phenomena as a 'function', because when scientific phenomena are understood as a function revealing the relationship of variables, the abstract and theoretical mathematical representations could meaningfully combine with the concrete and realistic scientific phenomena, and this induces meaningful learning.…”

Section: Applet Quality Evaluation -Current Situationmentioning

confidence: 99%

“…Our aim was to implement the answer to this question as a set of quality evaluation criteria linked to the degree of fulfillment of specific aspects. These were inferred from the literature quoted above (Christian et al, 2003;Altherr et al, 2004: Jiménez et al, 2009Planinic et al, 2012) and/or our team's reflections on our own practical evaluations of real applets from the Internet.…”

Section: Start Question and Practical Goalsmentioning

confidence: 99%

An evaluation tool for physics applets

Pejuan

Bohigas

Jaén

2016

J. Technol. Sci. Educ.

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Physics applets are well known appealing resources to teach and learn physics, and a large number of them are available on the Internet. Nevertheless, not all of them are of the same quality, because such applets do not fit every specific teaching/learning purpose. The start question was which features should have a physics applet in order that it can be considered a good applet according to our experience as teachers or lecturers. The answer should be based on practical evaluations of applets from the Internet, taking quality evaluation criteria already published into account. In this way, an evaluation tool was developed as a rubric which draws attention to the different aspects of an applet that are relevant for teaching or learning a physics topic, grouping these aspects into five categories. Each category is given a separate scoring based on a preparatory qualitative evaluation of the aforementioned aspects. This evaluation tool has been tested on five physics applets by four secondaryschool teachers as experts in first-year students' background. The results show the suitability degree of each of these applets as resources for different teaching/learning environments, as well as the suitability of the evaluation tool itself. In addition, the evaluation tool simplifies the interchange of information on physics applets among teachers and lecturers.

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Seeing with the Mind: The Relationship Between Spatial Ability and Inferring Dynamic Behaviour from Graphs

Veldhuis

Korzilius

2016

Syst. Res

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Research has shown that many individuals have difficulties solving tasks that involve a principal component of dynamic systems: accumulation. They incorrectly assume that the behavioural pattern of a stock resembles that of its flows and vice versa. This has become known as correlation heuristic reasoning. Much less is known about the underlying causes of this inability to correctly infer dynamic behaviour from graphs. We tested if two dimensions of spatial ability, spatial visualization and spatial relations, are related to selecting correct or correlation heuristic answers in tasks involving graphs over time. The analyses show that spatial visualization is positively related to performance in some systems thinking inventory tasks and is negatively related to responses that show correlation heuristic reasoning. We conclude by discussing avenues for future research into this phenomenon. Copyright © 2016 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.

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Comparison of Student Understanding of Line Graph Slope in Physics and Mathematics

Cited by 114 publications

References 24 publications

Undergraduate student construction and interpretation of graphs in physics lab activities

Undergraduate student construction and interpretation of graphs in physics lab activities

An evaluation tool for physics applets

Seeing with the Mind: The Relationship Between Spatial Ability and Inferring Dynamic Behaviour from Graphs

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