Investigating the epistemology of physics students while reflecting on solutions

Abstract

Reflecting on one’s solution is widely recognized as an important part of the problem-solving process, though the cognitive processes underlying this action are not well understood. In previous work, we identified certain strategies students used while reflecting on a solution but found that strategies most often used by experts were not often used by students and were often used incorrectly. In this paper, we present the results of a study that more carefully examines why this could be the case. We conducted think-aloud interviews with students from a variety of physics backgrounds and asked them to check the answer to a particular static equilibrium problem (there were two different problems, but each student saw only one). We found that students’ strategy use varied both by problem features and level of experience. We found students’ epistemological framing to be more stable across problem-difficulty but still correlated with experience. We further noticed more frequent shifting of epistemological frames among intermediate students. Altogether, the results point to an epistemological transition from solution reflection as an algorithmic procedure to be performed using whatever strategy is most useful, to a conceptual procedure more aligned with sense-making as students gain more experience with physics. This will be useful for instructors when thinking about the best ways to encourage novice students to engage in meaningful solution reflection or mathematical sense-making more broadly.