Categorization of Mechanics Problems by Students in Large Introductory Physics Courses: A Comparison with the Chi, Feltovich, and Glaser Study

Andrew J. Mason,Chandralekha Singh

doi:10.1119/perc.2013.inv.007

Abstract

With inspiration from the classic study by Chi, Feltovich, and Glaser [1], we asked introductory physics students in three introductory physics classes to categorize mechanics problems based upon similarity of solutions. To evaluate the effect of problem context on students' ability to categorize, two sets of problems were developed for categorization. Some problems in one of the problem sets that students were asked to categorize included those available from the prior study by Chi et al. Our findings, which contrast from those of Chi et al., suggest that there is a much wider distribution of expertise among introductory students.

Highlights

Categorizing or grouping together problems based upon similarity of solution is often claimed to be a hallmark of expertise [1,2,3,4,5]
In the classic study conducted by Chi, Feltovich and Glaser [1], eight introductory physics students in calculus-based courses were asked to categorize introductory mechanics problems based upon similarity of solution
It is striking that while none of the introductory students in the Chi study selected “expert” categories such as “Newton’s second law”, or “linear kinematics”, a significant number of introductory students chose these categories in our study

Summary

Introduction

Categorizing or grouping together problems based upon similarity of solution is often claimed to be a hallmark of expertise [1,2,3,4,5]. In the classic study conducted by Chi, Feltovich and Glaser [1] (here called the Chi study), eight introductory physics students in calculus-based courses were asked to categorize introductory mechanics problems based upon similarity of solution. With inspiration from the Chi study [1], we compare the categorization of physics problems by students in large calculus-based and algebra-based introductory courses. Within the theoretical framework that expert and novice categorizations differ, we investigate a potentially wider spectrum in students’ expertise in large introductory classes than was possible to capture by analyzing data from only 8 introductory student volunteers in the Chi study. Within the theoretical framework that expert and novice categorizations differ, we investigate a potentially wider spectrum in students’ expertise in large introductory classes than was possible to capture by analyzing data from only 8 introductory student volunteers in the Chi study. [1]

Methods

Results

Conclusion