The Physics Problem-Solving Taxonomy (PPST): Development and Application for Evaluating Student Learning

Moshe Barak,Larisa Shakhman

doi:10.29333/ejmste/109266

Abstract

This study addresses the development and evaluation of the Physics Problem-Solving Taxonomy (PPST), comprising five levels: retrieval, diagnosis, strategy, conceptual, and creative thinking. The taxonomy draws on Bloom’s revised taxonomy in the cognitive domain, the Types of Knowledge Taxonomy, and the Problem-Solving Taxonomy in engineering. The study includes applying PPST to analyze the content of the Israeli national physics exam (the Bagrut), student Bagrut scores (n = 18,000), and student answers to a school-level physics exam (n = 164). The findings indicate that in both the Bagrut and the school exam, the higher an item ranks on PPST, the lower the students’ grades on this item. In addition, the distribution of student scores on the two exams is similar, indicating high reliability and validity of the PPST scale. This tool could help physics teachers to rank difficulty levels of the high school physics exam questions, and create high school physics questions, to foster students’ proficiency in physics problem solving.

Highlights

It is widely agreed that a major objective of science education, especially physics teaching, is to foster student proficiency in problem solving
This study addresses the development and evaluation of the Physics Problem-Solving Taxonomy (PPST), comprising five levels: retrieval, diagnosis, strategy, conceptual, and creative thinking
O’Neill and Murphy (2010) note that learning taxonomies are classification tools for describing different kinds of learning behaviors and characteristics that we wish our students to develop, to identify different stages of learning development, or to determine the appropriateness of learning outcomes for particular module levels within our programs. We can regard these taxonomies as educational aids or heuristics rather than precise tools for teaching a specific curriculum. We found it necessary to develop the Physics Problem-Solving Taxonomy (PPST) discussed in this study because our experience showed that novice physics teachers, very experienced ones or even official pedagogic instructors for teaching physics require a tool to gauge difficult levels of a physics problem and design physics problems of different difficulty levels

Summary

Introduction

It is widely agreed that a major objective of science education, especially physics teaching, is to foster student proficiency in problem solving. Many students enrolled in introductory physics courses are novice problem solvers who may memorize problem types or apply a set of solutions to problems with similar surface features. To address these issues, it is essential to provide educators with tools that can help them carefully design the types and difficulty levels of problems presented to students in class, homework, or exams that allow learners to progress gradually from solving simple problems to coping with more challenging questions and problems. Recommendations about using the PPST for curriculum development and school teaching are proposed

Objectives

Findings

Discussion

Conclusion