Students’ epistemological framing in quantum mechanics problem solving

Modir, Bahar; Thompson, John D.; Sayre, Eleanor C.

doi:10.1103/physrevphyseducres.13.020108

Cited by 31 publications

(35 citation statements)

References 29 publications

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“…This type of class structure serves our research purposes well but is not typical of upper-division courses in physics. In related work [16], we used this framework to investigate students' small group problem solving in a quantum mechanics course with a more substantial lecture component. Students still solved problems in small groups, but problem solving episodes were shorter (usually a few minutes) and less common (only a small handful per week).…”

Section: Discussionmentioning

confidence: 99%

“…In our prior work in this course [8] and an interactivelytaught quantum mechanics course [16], we developed a framework for investigating students' framing along two axes: math to physics and conceptual to algorithmic. This math-in-physics framework has several affordances for our context and research questions.…”

Section: Theoretical Frameworkmentioning

confidence: 99%

“…Elsewhere, [8,16] we've exhaustively detailed these four frames and linked them to student discourse. To illustrate them here, we offer a brief example from electrostatics.…”

Section: Theoretical Frameworkmentioning

confidence: 99%

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Student and instructor framing in upper-division physics

Chari

Nguyen

Zollman

et al. 2019

American Journal of Physics

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Upper-division physics students spend much of their time solving problems. In addition to their basic skills and background, their epistemic framing can form an important part of their ability to learn physics from these problems. Encouraging students to move toward productive framing may help them solve problems. Thus, an instructor should understand the specifics of how student have framed a problem and understand how her interaction with the students will impact that framing. In this study we investigate epistemic framing of students in problem solving situations where math is applied to physics. To analyze the frames and changes in frames, we develop and use a twoaxis framework involving conceptual and algorithmic physics and math. We examine student and instructor framing and the interactions of these frames over a range of problems in an upper-division electromagnetic fields course. Within interactions, students and instructors generally follow each others' leads in framing.

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Section: Discussionmentioning

confidence: 99%

Section: Theoretical Frameworkmentioning

confidence: 99%

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Student and instructor framing in upper-division physics

Chari

Nguyen

Zollman

et al. 2019

American Journal of Physics

Self Cite

View full text Add to dashboard Cite

show abstract

Section: Conclusion and Discussionmentioning

confidence: 99%

“…It has been reported elsewhere that students' epistemological framing of the problem can impact how they answer questions [35]. For example, students who enter an algorithmic math frame [35] would spend a considerable amount of time setting up a series of algebra-based steps such as evaluating integrals, taking derivatives, etc. Students in a conceptual physics frame [35] would try to think in terms of the features of the physical system and might coordinate between different representations such as graphical, geometric, or gestural to visualize the physical system.…”

Section: Conclusion and Discussionmentioning

confidence: 99%

Student difficulties with boundary conditions in the context of electromagnetic waves

Ryan

Wilcox

Pollock

2018

Phys. Rev. Phys. Educ. Res.

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Identifying and understanding student difficulties with physics content in a wide variety of topical areas is an active research area within the physics education research community. Of particular value are investigations of physics topics that appear multiple times in different contexts across the undergraduate physics curriculum. As these common topics reappear, students' difficulties can perpetuate from one context to the next, or new difficulties can emerge as students encounter new physical contexts. One example of such a topic is boundary conditions, which is broadly considered to be an important topic that advanced physics undergraduates are expected to understand and apply in multiple topical areas including classical mechanics, quantum mechanics, and throughout electricity and magnetism. We report findings from an investigation of student difficulties using boundary conditions while focusing on the context of electromagnetic waves. Our data sources include student responses to traditional exam questions, conceptual survey questions, and thinkaloud interviews. The analysis was guided by an analytical framework that characterizes how students activate, construct, execute, and reflect on boundary conditions during physics problem solving. Commonly observed student difficulties include activating boundary conditions in appropriate contexts, constructing a complex expression for the electromagnetic waves, mathematically simplifying and manipulating complex exponentials, and checking if the reflection and transmission coefficients are physical. We also present potential pedagogical implications based on our observations.

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Beliefs versus resources: a tale of two models of epistemology

DeGlopper

Russ

Sutar

et al. 2023

Chem. Educ. Res. Pract.

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Compelling evidence, from multiple levels of schooling, suggests that teachers’ knowledge and beliefs about knowledge, knowing, and learning (i.e., epistemologies) play a strong role in shaping their approaches to teaching and learning. Given the importance of epistemologies in science teaching, we as researchers must pay careful attention to how we model them in our work. That is, we must work to explicitly and cogently develop theoretical models of epistemology that account for the learning phenomena we observe in classrooms and other settings. Here, we use interpretation of instructor interview data to explore the constraints and affordances of two models of epistemology common in chemistry and science education scholarship: epistemological beliefs and epistemological resources. Epistemological beliefs are typically assumed to be stable across time and place and to lie somewhere on a continuum from “instructor-centered” (worse) to “student-centered” (better). By contrast, a resources model of epistemology contends that one's view on knowledge and knowing is compiled in-the-moment from small-grain units of cognition called resources. Thus, one's epistemology may change one moment to the next. Further, the resources model explicitly rejects the notion that there is one “best” epistemology, instead positing that different epistemologies are useful in different contexts. Using both epistemological models to infer instructors’ epistemologies from dialogue about their approaches to teaching and learning, we demonstrate that how one models epistemology impacts the kind of analyses possible as well as reasonable implications for supporting instructor learning. Adoption of a beliefs model enables claims about which instructors have “better” or “worse” beliefs and suggests the value of interventions aimed at shifting toward “better” beliefs. By contrast, modeling epistemology as in situ activation of resources enables us to explain observed instability in instructors’ views on knowing and learning, surface and describe potentially productive epistemological resources, and consider instructor learning as refining valuable intuition rather than “fixing” “wrong beliefs”.

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Students’ epistemological framing in quantum mechanics problem solving

Cited by 31 publications

References 29 publications

Student and instructor framing in upper-division physics

Student and instructor framing in upper-division physics

Student difficulties with boundary conditions in the context of electromagnetic waves

Beliefs versus resources: a tale of two models of epistemology

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