Learning Physics Concepts Research Articles

Simplifications and Idealizations in High School Physics in Mechanics: A Study Of Slovenian Curriculum And Textbooks

This article presents the results of an analysis of three Slovenian textbooks for high school physics, from the point of view of simplifications and idealizations in the field of mechanics. In modeling of physical systems, making simplifications and idealizations is important, since one ignores minor effects and focuses on the most important characteristics of the systems and processes. In high school physics, simplified and idealized models play a fundamental role in learning physics concepts and laws, so it is of crucial importance that textbooks present them carefully. The review shows that in two textbooks more than a half of analyzed simplifications are not properly presented.

A Comparison of Students’ Approaches to Inquiry, Conceptual Learning, and Attitudes in Simulation-Based and Microcomputer-Based Laboratories

The purpose of this project was to investigate the effects of virtual versus physical manipulation using a simulation-based laboratory activity (SBL) and a microcomputer-based laboratory activity (MBL). Both the SBL and the MBL used computers to collect, graph, and analyze data. A major difference was that the MBL allowed the students to manipulate physical materials, whereas in the SBL activity they manipulated virtual materials. In this quasi-experimental design, two 11th-grade classes (N = 68) at an urban public high school in Taipei were assigned to the SBL and MBL settings. The participants conducted the Boyle's law experiment without having done any relevant prior experiment. Their science concepts, performance of inquiry tasks, and attitudes toward the SBL/MBL were examined by pre- and postconceptual tests, an inquiry-based lab manual, and postlaboratory interviews. The results showed that both groups performed equally well and had remarkable gains in their pre- to posttest learning achievement. Nevertheless, physical manipulation may have contributed to inquiry practices such as creating practical ideas for conducting and improving the experiment and interpreting the data and may have increased the enjoyment of the laboratory. This study concludes that virtual manipulation is as effective as physical manipulation in learning physics concepts, but that the former gives learners some naive expectations and induces certain learning strategies that seem to lead to mindless planning and conducting of experiments and hinders them from generating ideas to improve experiments.

Learning from Physics Education Research: Lessons for Economics Education

We believe that economists have much to learn from educational research practices and related pedagogical innovations in other disciplines, in particular physics education. In this paper we identify three key features of physics education research that distinguish it from economics education research - (1) the intentional grounding of physics education research in learning science principles, (2) a shared conceptual research framework focused on how students learn physics concepts, and (3) a cumulative process of knowledge-building in the discipline - and describe their influence on new teaching pedagogies, instructional activities, and curricular design in physics education. In addition, we highlight four specific examples of successful pedagogical innovations drawn from physics education - context-rich problems, concept tests, just-in-time teaching, and interactive lecture demonstrations - and illustrate how these practices can be adapted for economic education.

Using Laboratory Exercises to Help Students Actively Learn Physics Concepts

Using Laboratory Exercises to Help Students Actively Learn Physics Concepts

Explorations in promoting conceptual change in electrical concepts via ontological category shift

Chi (1992, 1993) Chi et al. (1994) suggests that many of the difficulties encountered by students in learning Physics concepts arise because they attribute the ontology of material substances to these concepts. These concepts are actually a special type of process - 'Constraint-Based Interactions' (CBI). Slotta and Chi (1996) reported on a study where a group of students explicitly trained in the CBI ontology showed significant gains over a control group in problem solving performance in eight simple electric circuit problems. This paper reports on a series of four studies which explore the usefulness of the ontological categorization framework in investigating students' alternative conceptions of electric circuits and in developing a teaching strategy for promoting conceptual change in the learning of basic electric circuitry concepts.

The influence of a multimedia physics tutor and user differences on the development of scientific knowledge

This research examines high school students' performance on an interactive multimedia tutorial for learning physics concepts in conjunction with their individual differences. Students' performance were compared between two sections of the tutorial, the initial portion where the students learned concepts and the final portion that required the students to apply the concepts. Results indicated students most troubled with the concepts exhibited their best performance in conjunction with learning the concepts and with less abstract material presented early in each program segment. Also, students exhibiting right-hemispheric preferences (global, intuitive), performed better than left-hemispheric (i.e., linear, sequential, logical) students in the initial phase of the tutorial. These findings counter previous research associating left-hemispheric preferences with computer aptitude, and are discussed in terms of the special demands of working with computers for instructional, rather than programming purposes. The final phase of the tutorial appeared to be more difficult for all students. Implications in terms of the design of future student models for interactive multimedia tutorials that take into account individual differences are discussed. Recommendations for future research that explores the development of mental models of scientific phenomena via instructional strategies appealing to visual or verbal cognitive processing are suggested.

A computer-assisted approach to learning physics concepts

A study is described that tested the effectiveness of computer-assisted tutorial modules in dispelling common student misconceptions in first-year mechanics. Most of the subject matter for the tutorial modules was based on examples drawn from kinematics and dynamics, which one would find on many first-year physics tests. One of the examples, involving qualitative comparison of speeds of two differently moving objects, has been the subject of investigations of student misconceptions conducted by other workers. The present study involved a total of 96 student volunteers drawn from all of our first-year physics courses. The results of the study suggest that computer-assisted tutorials of the kind described here can be effective in teaching material that presents conceptual difficulties, and is often not learned directly from textbooks or from lectures delivered to large classes.