Promoting Reflective Habits of Mind in Physics Problem Solving
Leading team:
- Prof. Edit Yerushalmi
Project team:
- Dr. Sawsan Ailabouni
- Dr. Elisheva Cohen
- Ms. Esther Magen
- Ms. Korina Pollinger
- Dr. Menashe Pyuterkovski
Brief
Problem solving is considered by many Physics instructors as a learning opportunity intended to promote both conceptual understanding as well as the development of expert-like approaches to cope with novel problems. Yet, traditional instructional practices in the physics classroom (both in high school and in college) often focus on the procedural aspects of solving familiar problems and do not materialize the learning opportunity to its full potential. A series of research and development activities took place, involving three interrelated research foci: a) the study of students' learning processes in the context of problem solving; b) the study of views and norms of physics instructors related to problem solving; and c) research based design of instructional resources and professional development frameworks to support physics teachers in directing their work to promote reflective habits of mind in physics problem solving.
Research focus 1 characterizes the processes by which learners refine their conceptual understanding when they reflect on erroneous solutions and study worked out examples. In particular, we studied students' capacity to self-repair (acknowledge and resolve possible conflicts between a scientifically acceptable approach/solution to a problem and the student's own approaches) when reflecting on their own solutions to a problem. We compared students' self-repair in the context of self-diagnosis tasks in which learners are provided with time, credit and resources to search for, detect and explain errors in their own solutions. The study of these tasks highlights students' difficulties in self-diagnosing their solutions, shows that with appropriate external support students with low prior knowledge benefit the most from self-diagnosis activities, and suggest the kinds of external support needed to help students to self-diagnose their solutions (see papers 1-5 in the reading list below).
Research focus 2 characterizes instructors' practices and attitudes towards the design of instructional in the context of problem solving (e.g. the design of problems, worked out examples and assessment). The research showed that college faculty views align with the view of cognitive researchers regarding the learning habits through which students develop conceptual understanding via problem solving. However, they did not perceive it as their role to develop these learning habits. Conflicting sets of values were also identified for teaching assistants (in the US) and with high school teachers' first enactment of troubleshooting activities (see papers 6-14 in the reading list below).
Research focus 3: Research-based development of instructional strategies and materials to support physics teachers in promoting reflective habits of mind in physics problem solving. In particular, we examined the impact of an educational intervention containing a series of computerized troubleshooting activities that support students in diagnosing teacher made incorrect solutions. The student is required to perform a diagnosis anchored in physical principles and concepts and the system provides feedback to students on their diagnosis. The study focused on high school physics students, and the activities were adapted to the contents of the advanced level high school physics syllabus in Israel. Pairs of students engaged in the activities were found to discuss criteria that differentiate between scientifically accepted interpretations and alternative interpretations of the concepts and principles discussed. A yearlong intervention with repeated computerized troubleshooting activities was found to enhance students' inclination and ability to self-repair in comparison to a more traditional self-diagnosis intervention. Another direction is the design of professional development frameworks for teachers (see papers 15-19 in the reading list below).
Further reading:
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Students' learning processes in the context of problem solving;
- Yerushalmi, E., & Magen, E. (2006). Same old problem, new name? Alerting students to the nature of the problem solving process. Educ., 41, 161-167.
- Yerushalmi, E., & Polingher, C. (2006). Guiding students to learn from mistakes, Educ., 41, 532-538.
- Yerushalmi, E., Cohen, E., Mason, A., & Singh, C., (2012), What do students do when asked to diagnose their mistakes? Does it help them? I: An atypical quiz context, Phys Rev – ST PER 8, 020109.
- Yerushalmi, E., Cohen, E., Mason, A. & Singh, C., (2012), What do students do when asked to diagnose their mistakes? And does it help them? II. A more typical quiz context, accepted for publication, Phys Rev – ST PER 8, 020110.
- Mason, A., Yerushalmi, E., Cohen, E., & Singh, C. (2016). Learning from mistakes: The effect of students' written self-diagnoses on subsequent problem solving. The Physics Teacher, 54(2), 87-90.
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The study of views and norms of physics instructors related to problem solving
- Henderson, , Yerushalmi, E., Heller, P., Kuo, V., & Heller, K. (2004). Grading student problem solutions: The challenge of sending a consistent message, Am. J. Phys., 72, 164-169.
- Yerushalmi, E., Henderson, C., Heller, K., Heller, P., & Kuo, V. (2007). Physics faculty beliefs and values about the teaching and learning of problem solving part I: Mapping the common core. Phys Rev – ST PER, 3, 020109.
- Henderson, C. Yerushalmi, E., Heller, K., Heller, P., & Kuo, V. (2007). Physics faculty beliefs and values about the teaching and learning of problem solving part II: Procedures for measurement and analysis. Phys Rev – ST PER, 3.
- Yerushalmi, E., Cohen, E., Heller, K., Heller, P., & Henderson, C. (2010), Instructors reasons for choosing problem features in a calculus-based introductory physics course, Phys Rev – ST PER 6, 020108.
- Lin, S., Henderson, C., Mamudi, W., Singh, C., & Yerushalmi, E., (2013), Teaching assistants’ beliefs regarding example solutions in introductory physics, Phys Rev – ST PER 9, 010120.
- Good, M., Marshman, E., Yerushalmi, E., & Singh, C. (2018). Physics teaching assistants’ views of different types of introductory problems: Challenge of perceiving the instructional benefits of context-rich and multiple-choice problems. Phys Rev - PER, 14(2), 020120.
- Marshman, E., Sayer, R., Henderson, C., Yerushalmi, E., & Singh, C. (2018). The challenges of changing teaching assistants’ grading practices: Requiring students to show evidence of understanding. Canadian Journal of Physics, 96(4), 420-437.
- Marshman, E. M., Maries, A., Sayer, R. T., Henderson, C., Singh, C., & Yerushalmi, E. (2020). Physics postgraduate teaching assistants’ grading approaches: Conflicting goals and practices. European Journal of Physics.
- Good, M., Marshman, E., Yerushalmi, E., & Singh, C. (2020). Graduate teaching assistants’ views of broken-into-parts physics problems: Preference for guidance overshadows development of self-reliance in problem solving. Phys Rev - PER, 16(1), 010128.
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Research based design of instructional resources and professional development frameworks
- Yerushalmi, E., Puterkovski, M., & Bagno, E., (2012), Knowledge integration while interacting with an online troubleshooting activity, J Sci Educ Technol.
- R., & Yerushalmi, E., (2013), Problem Solving vs. Diagnosing Incorrect Solutions: the Case of Sixth Grade Students Studying Electric Circuits, Int. J. of Sci. and Math. Ed.
- Yerushalmi, E., & Eylon, B., (2013), Supporting Teachers who introduce Curricular Innovations into Their Classrooms: a Problem-Solving Perspective. Phys Rev – ST PER .9, 010121.
- Ailabouni, S., Safadi, R., & Yerushalmi, E. (2014), The Impact of Diagnosing Teacher-Made Erroneous Solutions, Aided by Online Prompts and Feedback, On Students' Diagnostic Skills, In Eshet-Alkalai, Y., Caspi, A., Geri, N., Kalman, Y., Silber-Varod, V. & Yair, Y. (Eds.), Learning in the Technological Era: Proceedings of the the 9th Chais Conference for the Study of Innovation and Learning Technologies, 2014. The Open University of Israel, Raanana.
- Magen, E., Ailabouni, S., Safadi, R., & Yerushalmi, E. (2014), Computerized Troubleshooting Tasks In Geometrical Optics And 1-D Waves For 10th Grade – In Arabic and Hebrew, MALAM