Abstract
The modeling instruction pedagogy for the teaching of physics has been proven to be quite effective at increasing the conceptual understanding and problem-solving abilities of students to a much greater extent than that of nonmodeling students. Little research has been conducted concerning the cognitive and metacognitive skills that modeling students develop that allow for these increases. Two studies were designed to answer the following question: In what ways do the knowledge structures, metacognitive skills, and problem-solving abilities differ between modeling and nonmodeling students? In study 1, the knowledge structures developed by two groups of high school physics students taught using differing pedagogies (modeling instruction in physics and traditional methods) were determined using a card-sort task. The student's knowledge structures were then correlated with the scores they obtained on two measures: the force concept inventory (FCI) and a problem-solving task (PS task) developed for this study. The modeling students had a more expertlike knowledge structure, while the nonmodeling students produced structures that were novicelike. In addition, the expert score correlated highly with performance on both the FCI and PS task scores demonstrating that a higher expert score predicted a higher value on each of these measures while a higher surface feature score predicted a lower score on both of these measures. In study 2, a verbal protocol design allowed for a detailed study of the problem-solving and metacognitive skills utilized by the two groups. It was determined that the skills utilized by the modeling instruction students were more expertlike. In addition, the modeling students produced significantly fewer physics errors while catching and repairing a greater percentage of their errors.
Highlights
Modeling instruction in physics is a high school physics pedagogy that is built on the premise that active engagement is necessary and as such it is constructivist based.[1]
These findings clearly demonstrate that the modeling pedagogy allows for the production of a more expertlike knowledge structure to develop which allows the participants to perform better on both qualitative and quantitative tests than traditional students
This study determines how modeling and nonmodeling students differ in knowledge organization, the type and use of problem-solving and metacognitive skills, and types of errors produced
Summary
Modeling instruction in physics is a high school physics pedagogy that is built on the premise that active engagement is necessary and as such it is constructivist based.[1]. It was demonstrated that novice students’ knowledge was fragmented and poorly organized around surface features, while an expert’s knowledge was organized around principles.[6,7] It is possible that the coherent organization developed by the modeling students allows them to demonstrate more expertlike problem-solving skills Evidence for this assertion that the structure of one’s knowledge may play an important role was uncovered when Hinsley et al.[8] demonstrated that competent problem solvers in algebra did utilize schemas and that these schemas seemed to direct their problem-solving strategy. They went on to explore if the students used these categories to solve problems They discovered that they did utilize them to help solve problems and that the categories included information about “useful equations and diagrams and appropriate procedures for making relevant judgments.”[8] In addition, the physics education research group at the University of Massachusetts in a series of experiments showed that novice students taught a more expertlike knowledge structure. The purpose of the studies presented here is to more directly attempt to analyze the cognitive structures developed by modeling students and to determine how these structures aid in problem solving
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