Exploring and supporting student reasoning in physics by leveraging dual-process theories of reasoning and decision making

Speirs, J. Caleb; Stetzer, MacKenzie R.; Lindsey, Beth A.; Kryjevskaia, Mila

doi:10.1103/physrevphyseducres.17.020137

Cited by 18 publications

(13 citation statements)

References 31 publications

Supporting

Mentioning

Contrasting

Order By: Relevance

“…Students may not be reflecting carefully on the provided statements or recognizing that some conflict with their first-available mental model. Previous results in PER demonstrated that student response patterns were only altered when a chaining task included information that explicitly refuted the common incorrect response . Results reported here, with a chaining task that made no specific effort to refute the common incorrect model, are wholly consistent with that finding.…”

Section: Discussionsupporting

confidence: 89%

Implementation of Reasoning Chain Construction Tasks to Support Student Explanations in General Chemistry

Nagel

Lindsey

2021

J. Chem. Educ.

Self Cite

View full text Add to dashboard Cite

The assessment of student understanding, and of student reasoning skills more broadly, hinges upon the ability to elicit and interpret student-generated explanations. In practice, however, the explanations that students provide in response to traditional prompts do not always reveal as much about student reasoning as teachers and researchers in chemistry education might prefer. In this article, we describe the application of a novel methodology, the reasoning chain construction task, applied in a general chemistry course at a large research institution using a well-known question on chemical bonding. In a reasoning chain construction task, students respond to a chemistry question by drawing from a list of reasoning elements (all of which are true) in order to assemble a chain of reasoning in support of a conclusion. Our findings indicate that use of this type of task can lead students to generate richer explanations while not impacting the overall distribution of student conclusions. These explanations provide teachers and researchers with insights into what information students deem helpful and relevant for responding to a prompt that is wholly lacking from traditional free-response implementations of the same question. We interpret our results through the theoretical framework of dual-process theories of reasoning.

show abstract

Section: Discussionsupporting

confidence: 89%

Implementation of Reasoning Chain Construction Tasks to Support Student Explanations in General Chemistry

Nagel

Lindsey

2021

J. Chem. Educ.

Self Cite

View full text Add to dashboard Cite

show abstract

“…The idea that the intersection in Fig. 4 indicates the same height was prevalent in algebra-based students' responses as they are most likely to select "both children grow the same amount," consistent with prior research [32,33]. We suggest the resource of recognizing sameness could be leveraged in future learning about changing rates of change.…”

Section: Recommendations For Instructionsupporting

confidence: 81%

“…The context was modified for the GERQN and remains isomorphic to the original PIQL item. Much has been written in prior research about the intersection of these curves through both a dual process lens and other theoretical frameworks [27,32,33], and our data support the current understanding that the intersection is a tempting answer choice: 45% of calculus-based students and 55% of algebra-based students choose A.…”

Section: B Reasoning About Rates Of Changesupporting

confidence: 74%

“…4, illustrates the balance between reasoning about rates of change and requiring calculus procedures to solve a problem. Growth was originally developed for the PIQL based on an item from the Precalculus Concept Assesment and prior work in PER that use same or similarly shaped graphs, but in the context of two cars driving [27,32,33] . The context was modified for the GERQN and remains isomorphic to the original PIQL item.…”

Section: B Reasoning About Rates Of Changementioning

confidence: 99%

See 1 more Smart Citation

Assessing physics quantitative literacy in algebra-based physics: lessons learned

Zimmerman¹,

McCarty²,

Brahmia³

et al. 2022

2022 Physics Education Research Conference Proceedings

View full text Add to dashboard Cite

Physics quantitative literacy (PQL)-applying familiar mathematics in novel ways in the context of physicsis ubiquitous across physics classrooms. The Physics Inventory for Quantitative Literacy, or PIQL, is a recently published reasoning inventory that can be used to assess PQL from calculus-based introductory physics through upper division courses (White Brahmia et al. 2021). There remains a need, however, for assessment of quantitative reasoning at the algebra-based level which includes not only algebra-based college courses but also pre-college physics courses. We present recent work adapting the PIQL to an algebra-based context towards developing the GERQN-the Generalized Equation-based Reasoning inventory for Quantities and Negativity. We report lessons learned from our efforts to adapt items from the calculus-based PIQL to the algebra-based GERQN, and provide examples of how items were revised to be within students proximal zone. We also report on our experience translating the GERQN into Flemish as part of a larger, on-going research project, and what we learned about language accessibility for native and non-native English speakers alike for developing assessment items, curricular materials, and when speaking with students.

show abstract

“…To date, DPToR have been useful in accounting for and/or predicting patterns of inconsistent reasoning on physics questions [4,7,10]. Moreover, the DPToR framework has recently been used to guide the development of instructional interventions in physics [13,14,15]. Indeed, the work presented here is part of an ongoing, multiinstitutional effort to leverage DPToR to create instructional materials that better support students in reasoning effectively.…”

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

Insights from an intervention designed to support consistent reasoning

Fittswood¹,

Rosen²,

Stetzer³

2022

2022 Physics Education Research Conference Proceedings

Self Cite

View full text Add to dashboard Cite

An emerging body of research suggests that poor student performance on certain physics questions may stem, at least in part, from the nature of human reasoning itself. While students may demonstrate that they possess the requisite knowledge and skills to reason correctly on one question, they may abandon that same line of reasoning on an analogous question containing a salient distracting feature. As part of a larger effort to investigate and support student reasoning in physics by leveraging dual-process theories of reasoning, we developed and tested an intervention aimed at helping students draw upon the knowledge and skills they already possess to address such reasoning inconsistencies. In this study, we also explored specific factors to see if they were related to student reasoning and how students engage with the intervention. We found that the intervention was effective in helping students reason more productively and consistently, but its effectiveness appears to be related to students' cognitive reflection skills. In addition, out of the students who initially answered two analogous physics questions inconsistently, those who were able to successfully apply their correct reasoning from one question to the other question upon explicit prompting were more likely to revise their thinking and demonstrate consistent reasoning after the intervention.

show abstract

Exploring and supporting student reasoning in physics by leveraging dual-process theories of reasoning and decision making

Cited by 18 publications

References 31 publications

Implementation of Reasoning Chain Construction Tasks to Support Student Explanations in General Chemistry

Implementation of Reasoning Chain Construction Tasks to Support Student Explanations in General Chemistry

Assessing physics quantitative literacy in algebra-based physics: lessons learned

Insights from an intervention designed to support consistent reasoning

Contact Info

Product

Resources

About