You will read a physics education research (PER) paper(attached). This is one of the few PER papers I could find about high school physics. The topic is a framework for problem-solving with a specific example about conservation of energy.Directions:Read J.L. Docktor, N.E. Strand, J.P. Mestre, and B.H. Ross, “Conceptual problem solving in high school physics,” Phys. Rev. ST – PER 11, 020106 (2015).Respond to the following prompts:1. How would you adapt conceptual problem-solving for your classes? What do you think the advantages and disadvantages would be?2. This paper details all of the complications and difficulties of conducting physics education research in high school. What ideas do you have for conducting a successful study in a high school setting? Minimum 2 pages and 2 references. Please use the details from the paper.
conceptual_problem_solving_in.pdf
Unformatted Attachment Preview
PHYSICAL REVIEW SPECIAL TOPICS – PHYSICS EDUCATION RESEARCH 11, 020106 (2015)
Conceptual problem solving in high school physics
Jennifer L. Docktor,1 Natalie E. Strand,2,3 José P. Mestre,2,3,4,* and Brian H. Ross3,5
1
Department of Physics, University of Wisconsin–La Crosse, La Crosse, Wisconsin 54601, USA
2
Department of Physics, University of Illinois, Urbana, Illinois 61801, USA
3
Beckman Institute for Advanced Science and Technology, University of Illinois,
Urbana, Illinois 61801, USA
4
Department of Educational Psychology, University of Illinois, Champaign, Illinois 61820, USA
5
Department of Psychology, University of Illinois, Champaign, Illinois 61820, USA
(Received 30 April 2015; published 1 September 2015)
Problem solving is a critical element of learning physics. However, traditional instruction often
emphasizes the quantitative aspects of problem solving such as equations and mathematical procedures
rather than qualitative analysis for selecting appropriate concepts and principles. This study describes the
development and evaluation of an instructional approach called Conceptual Problem Solving (CPS) which
guides students to identify principles, justify their use, and plan their solution in writing before solving a
problem. The CPS approach was implemented by high school physics teachers at three schools for major
theorems and conservation laws in mechanics and CPS-taught classes were compared to control classes
taught using traditional problem solving methods. Information about the teachers’ implementation of the
approach was gathered from classroom observations and interviews, and the effectiveness of the approach
was evaluated from a series of written assessments. Results indicated that teachers found CPS easy to
integrate into their curricula, students engaged in classroom discussions and produced problem solutions of
a higher quality than before, and students scored higher on conceptual and problem solving measures.
DOI: 10.1103/PhysRevSTPER.11.020106
PACS numbers: 01.40.ek, 01.40.Fk, 01.40.gb
I. INTRODUCTION
Physics teaching in both high school and college places
an emphasis on problem solving [1–8], and although
students demonstrate reasonable competence in traditional
assessments of problem solving skills, there is evidence that
understanding of fairly fundamental concepts is weak or
lacking following completion of introductory courses
[9–14]. Students in introductory physics courses solve
problems largely using a process termed means-ends
analysis, whereby they search for equations containing
the quantities in a problem and try to reduce the “distance”
between the goal state and their current state in the solution
process [5,8,15,16]. Students are not taught to solve
problems simply by manipulating equations since instructors typically mention the concepts and principles that they
are applying, but students rightly perceive the equations
as being central to obtaining quantitative answers and tend
to ignore conceptual information. This approach can be
effective at getting answers, but falls short in understanding
the conceptual underpinnings of the solution process. It is,
therefore, not surprising that students learn or retain little
*
mestre@illinois.edu
Published by the American Physical Society under the terms of
the Creative Commons Attribution 3.0 License. Further distribution of this work must maintain attribution to the author(s) and
the published article’s title, journal citation, and DOI.
1554-9178=15=11(2)=020106(13)
conceptual knowledge following introductory physics
courses.
Although physics instructors at all levels would agree that
integrating conceptual knowledge with problem solving is a
desirable goal in physics instruction, traditional materials
tend to promote, albeit inadvertently, equation manipulation
at the expense of conceptual understanding. Standard
physics textbooks present equations in terms of general
symbols and elaborate upon what those symbols stand for;
however, there is little guidance for students regarding when
it is useful to apply a particular relation to a problem [15].
Understanding the “conditions of applicability” for a principle and the procedures for determining whether the
necessary conditions have been met are essential for
proficient problem solving, and these conceptual aspects
need to be made explicit during instruction [6,14,17].
The equation-centered approach favored by beginners is
in contrast to the more strategic approach favored by skilled
problem solvers. Skilled problem solvers organize their
solution strategies around major principle(s) or concept(s)
[2,5,18]. For skilled problem solvers, principles or concepts
in memory are also bundled with contexts or conditions in
which they can be applied and with procedures for applying
them [2,15,19]. This type of integration of major ideas,
contexts, and procedures provides skilled solvers with a
hierarchically structured, well-integrated knowledge base
that guides their problem solving [17,18,20]. Since building such a knowledge base takes considerable time and
effort, an important consideration is whether there is benefit
020106-1
Published by the American Physical Society
DOCKTOR et al.
PHYS. REV. ST PHYS. EDUC. RES 11, 020106 (2015)
in attempting to help students in introductory courses
develop the type of knowledge needed for skilled problem
solving. Several studies suggest an affirmative answer.
One intervention in introductory mechanics with undergraduates began with a conceptual overview of the material
in qualitative form [21]. Students learned to reason about
phenomena qualitatively, using various representations
(e.g., free-body diagrams and energy bar charts) for the
concepts learned. After students learned qualitative ways of
describing and reasoning about physical phenomena, they
then experienced a second pass at the same content but this
time with mathematical descriptions. They also worked on
multistep problems that required application of knowledge
from different parts of the course, thus integrating knowledge across course components. Additional activities
included problem categorization, where students identified
the major principle(s) or concept(s) needed to solve problems without actually solving them. Students experiencing
this intervention outperformed students in a traditional
course in conceptual and problem solving assessments,
and were also better able to retain conceptual knowledge
long after the course was over. The same results were
replicated with at-risk students at a different university [22].
Another attempt to integrate conceptual knowledge within
problem solving used a computer-based tool that allowed
users to analyze problems in terms of the principles or
concepts needed to solve them [23,24]. To analyze problems
using the tool, students made selections from a series of
menus, with each subsequent menu becoming increasingly
specific and building on choices made in previous menus.
By selecting appropriate principle(s) or concept(s) (e.g.,
work-energy theorem or conservation of energy), and
specifying initial conditions and problem context (e.g.,
whether or not frictional forces were present, whether a
body possessed kinetic and/or potential energies in some
initial state), conceptual qualitative analyses of problems
could be performed, which in turn resulted in one or more
equations that the tool generated to fit the specific analysis
performed. Compared to students who experienced a more
traditional control treatment, students who used the analysis
tool were better able to categorize problems according to the
underlying principle [25] and to solve problems.
Yet another study [26] conducted in a large introductory
mechanics college course asked that students write
conceptual, qualitative “strategies” [descriptions of the
principle(s) needed to solve a problem, a justification for
why the principle(s) applied to the problem, and a procedure
for applying the principle(s)] for problems in homework and
exams prior to generating a solution. Course instructors
modeled writing quality strategies in lecture and discussion
sections, and posted solutions for the weekly homework
assignments that displayed both strategies and solutions for
all problems. When compared with students undergoing
traditional instruction, students who practiced strategy writing displayed benefits in conceptual measures, including
better ability to categorize problems according to principles,
and better ability to identify the major ideas covered in the
course several months later.
At the high school level, studies of the impact of
integrating conceptual knowledge in problem solving on
students’ conceptual understanding are rare, although there
is a curriculum [27] that targets the development of physics
conceptual knowledge, and a program [28] specifically
aimed at helping students overcome misconceptions.
However, both are designed in a context outside of problem
solving and with no mathematics. One high school study
[29] did compare the impact of “explicit problem solving
instruction” to traditional problem solving instruction on
various conceptual and problem solving measures. Both
approaches included five steps:
• Explicit problem solving: (a) focus the problem;
(b) describe the physics; (c) plan the solution;
(d) execute the plan; and (e) evaluate the solution.
• Traditional problem solving: (a) Draw a sketch;
(b) define known and unknown quantities; (c) select
equations; (d) solve equations; and (e) check the
answer.
The step of “focus the problem” guides students to state a
general approach in terms of concepts and principles,
however, it does not emphasize the justification for the
appropriateness of those principles in the manner that the
Conceptual Problem Solving method does [30,31].
Although there were some advantages for the explicit
problem solving group, the two groups performed equivalently in tasks requiring conceptual knowledge, such as
planning solutions and conceptual questions.
The current study investigated a question with dual
goals: Can pedagogical approaches that have been shown
to be effective at promoting CPS among college students be
adapted for use in a HS setting in ways that allow flexible
adoption by teachers, and that promote measurable positive
outcomes in students? The need for flexibility in adoption
among high school teachers is important. The college
studies reviewed above that promote conceptual development within problem solving were both developed and
implemented by the same faculty member or researcher,
thus creating investment or ownership as well as insuring
fidelity of implementation. On the other hand, it is
unrealistic to have high school instructors adopt wholesale
an approach handed to them by university researchers.
High school teachers face constraints and challenges in
teaching their physics courses that may place limits on the
time they devote to implementing the new approach, as
well as to the style in which they implement it; for example,
the time that can be devoted to implement a new approach
as well as to administer assessments to measure outcomes
was limited. It was impossible, therefore, to design a
classroom-based high school study in which the teachers
adopted or delivered the approach in carefully controlled
ways that one could achieve in the researchers’ laboratory.
020106-2
CONCEPTUAL PROBLEM SOLVING IN HIGH…
PHYS. REV. ST PHYS. EDUC. RES 11, 020106 (2015)
The intervention was designed to provide teachers with
ways of highlighting the role of conceptual knowledge in
problem solving while keeping the implementation of the
intervention flexible, thereby allowing teachers ways of
promoting conceptual problem solving in ways to fit their
curricular demands. Materials were developed to encourage
students to perform qualitative analyses of problems
(similar to the strategies described in Ref. [26]), and then
to use those strategies in formulating quantitative solutions
to problems. The intervention attempted to steer students’
tendencies away from equation hunting and toward following a general framework for solving problems that began
with identifying principles to apply, justifying why they
could be applied to the problem, and then generating a
solution plan to generate an answer.
The second goal was equally important, namely, measuring whether the approach had an impact on student
outcomes. Assessments needed to be developed that
attempted to measure conceptual understanding as well
as problem solving. The assessments developed took more
time to administer than teachers typically had available to
devote to noncourse-related assessments. Teachers had the
flexibility to decide how much class time they would
devote to administering study assessments subject to their
curricular constraints, as well as to which particular assessments would be administered.
There were additional challenges facing the study.
Whereas almost all the studies cited above evaluating
interventions to promote conceptual problem solving were
done with college students who had declared an interest in
pursuing a STEM major, the high school students in our
study had much more diverse interests and mathematical
preparations. In addition, unlike the college studies cited
earlier where those designing and implementing the intervention were physicists, the high school teachers in this
study reflected the background of teachers nationwide—
some were teaching out of field while others had degrees in
physics. Finally, the number of students participating in
each class in our study was small given physics enrollments
at the participating high schools and the high schools
were different enough that we felt it best to analyze each
separately, placing constraints on the interpretation of the
findings. Even though this limitation requires a focus on
trends across schools, we believe the trends are fairly
strong. In summary, the study reported here was challenging, looking for what were likely to be somewhat subtle
changes in problem solving and conceptual understanding
resulting from an intervention that was implemented in
different ways over different durations by teachers with
varying degrees of physics competence to students with
varying degrees of physics interest and mathematical
preparation.
The next section describes the materials, participants,
and experiment design in more detail. It is then followed by
the study results and a general discussion of the findings.
II. METHOD
A. Materials
1. Learning materials
Conceptual Problem Solving (CPS) is not a curriculum,
but rather is a framework for solving physics problems that
can be easily adapted to existing course materials. The
features of CPS are adapted from Ref. [26] and modified
Problem: At point A on a roller-coaster, a 150 kg car is traveling at 13 m/s and
is 3 m above the ground. Calculate the speed of the car at point B, when it is
5 m above the ground.
Principle:
Conservation of energy: the total mechanical energy of an isolated system (sum of
kinetic and potential energies) is the same in the initial and final states.
Justification:
There are no non-conservative forces doing work on the roller coaster car as it
travels along the track (we neglect air drag and friction). Therefore no energy is
gained or lost and the energy of the car at point A is equal to the energy of the car
at point B.
Plan:
1. Draw a picture and assign symbols for quantities in the problem. Choose a
coordinate system.
2. Write an equation for conservation of mechanical energy. Expand this
equation to include the initial and final kinetic and potential energy terms.
3. Solve for the final speed of the roller coaster car. Substitute values and
calculate a numerical answer.
FIG. 1.
Sample problem and strategy (principle-justification-plan).
020106-3
DOCKTOR et al.
PHYS. REV. ST PHYS. EDUC. RES 11, 020106 (2015)
Plan Step
1. Draw a picture and assign symbols for
quantities in the problem. Choose a
coordinate system.
Equation(s) used in step
m = 150 kg
vi = 13 m/s
hi = 3 m
hf = 5 m
vf = ?
2. Write an equation for conservation of
mechanical energy. Expand this
equation to include the initial and final
kinetic and potential energy terms.
3. Solve for the final speed of the roller
coaster car. Substitute values and
calculate a numerical answer.
E
Ei
0
KE i
1
2
mvi
2
Ef
PEi
KE f
1
2
mv f
2
mghi
PE f
mgh f
1
1
2
2
mv f
mvi mghi mgh f
2
2
1
2
mvi mghi mgh f
2
2
vf
1
m
2
2
vf
vi
vf
13 m / s
vf
FIG. 2.
mass of car
initial speed of car (at A)
initial height of car
final height of car (at B)
final speed of car (at B)
2 g hi
2
hf
2 9.8 m / s 2 3m 5m
11 m / s
Sample two-column solution.
to be more suitable to a high school student population.
The strategies used in Ref. [26] for the study with university
STEM majors were intended to be prose descriptions of the
principle(s), justification(s), and procedure(s) needed to
solve problems, but no specific guidance was provided for
how to write strategies other than telling them that a good
strategy had to be a logical discussion of how to solve a
problem that contained the three pieces above. For the high
school student population we broke down this process into
more specific stages to provide more guidance to students
on what was expected of them. Further, because writing
qualitative descriptions for solving problems is a high level,
difficult task, we deemed it important to provide as much
structure as possible to help students succeed in writing
strategies, while at the same time not being overly
burdensome in our requirements. The CPS approach that
we finally decided upon contained three separate parts:
Principle (the principle or concept applicable to the
problem), justification (explanation of why the concept
or principle is appropriate), and plan (numbered steps that
provide the “recipe” for solving the problem and the
equations that do with each step in the plan. Students
carry out their plan for solving the problem by formatting
their solution as two columns: A left column describing the
plan step, and a right column consisting of equations or
mathematics that go along with the step [32]. When the
method is first introduced, scaffolding is provided in the
form of headings or blank worksheet templates that prompt
students to complete each part. A sample strategy is
presented in Fig. 1 and its accompanying two-column
solution is presented in Fig. 2.
It is important to note that students were not required to
write the principle, justification, and plan before carrying
out the quantitative solution on the right-hand side of the
two-column solution, although most students did, as did
instructors when illustrating the approach to students. Here,
as in Ref. [26], the aim was to highlight the role of
conceptual knowledge in problem solving, and this could
be accomplished by writing the principle, justification,
and plan either before or after generating a solution with
equations.
A sample set of problems, strategies, two-column
solutions, and blank worksheet templates were written
by the authors prior to classroom implementation of
020106-4
CONCEPTUAL PROBLEM SOLVING IN HIGH…
PHYS. REV. ST PHYS. EDUC. RES 11, 020106 (2015)
CPS. Typically 10 or more problems were developed for
each physics topic, exhibiting a range in problem
complexity and difficulty. The topics included motion in
one and two dimensions, Newton’s laws, momentum
(Impulse-Momentum Theorem and Conservation of
Momentum), and energy (Work-Energy Theorem and
Conservation of Energy). Upon request from participating
teachers, a few problems were also written for minor topics
including vectors and torque. The files for these problems
and solutions were provided to teachers participating in the
study, who were given the option to use these problems as
written, modify these problems, or to use their own problems
but format them to look similar to th …
Purchase answer to see full
attachment
Recent Comments