Bulletin of the American Physical Society
APS April Meeting 2011
Volume 56, Number 4
Saturday–Tuesday, April 30–May 3 2011; Anaheim, California
Session H6: Physics Education Research: Solved Problems and Open Questions |
Hide Abstracts |
Sponsoring Units: FEd Chair: John Thompson, University of Maine Room: Terrace A-F |
Sunday, May 1, 2011 10:45AM - 11:21AM |
H6.00001: Physics Education Research in Perspective: An Historical and Conceptual Overview Invited Speaker: I will discuss the evolution of physics education research (PER) within an historical perspective that begins in the 1860s, focuses on developments in the post-World War II period, and extends towards diverse future pathways. PER has incorporated a broad array of themes that resonate with past developments in science education; however, it also provides unique perspectives that offer promise of potential breakthroughs in areas previously underexplored. Nonetheless, there is a long road from promise to realization, and I will try to identify key aspects of past accomplishments as well as of present and future challenges. [Preview Abstract] |
Sunday, May 1, 2011 11:21AM - 11:57AM |
H6.00002: Physics Education Research: Adapting to new topics and student populations Invited Speaker: The number of physics education researchers has grown dramatically in the past few decades, and the goals and methods of this research have diversified. I will describe a review of physics education research papers that suggests some patterns to this growth, and discuss possible factors that have influenced the evolution of the field. The move toward investigating more challenging topics has implications for how we interpret our research results, and the models we use for student thinking have become more varied as a result. A second focus of this talk will be what I see as a disparity between the student populations that are most commonly studied by physics education researchers and the overall distribution of students taking physics. Because the research population tends to be selected from better prepared student populations and from more challenging courses, we may be in danger of developing an overly optimistic view of what students can do and of the effectiveness of research-based interventions. [Preview Abstract] |
Sunday, May 1, 2011 11:57AM - 12:33PM |
H6.00003: What causes the patterns in students' incorrect answers to physics questions? Invited Speaker: Science education researchers agree on one thing: the empirical finding that students often answer questions about simple physical phenomena in ways that are not only specific and contrary to the scientific view, but also remarkably similar to answers of other students. What causes these answering patterns? Most efforts focus on students' explicit reasoning, yet it still remains an open question to what extent implicit, automatic learning processes play a role. We provide evidence that such automatic cognitive mechanisms likely play an important role in student responses to science questions. For example, we find that students often choose to base their answer on the dimensions of a problem that are processed the fastest (even if the dimension is incorrect), and forcing a few-second delay can improve their performance. This suggests that respondents are capable of answering correctly, but instead they tend to answer quickly. We also provide evidence suggesting that repetitive training can shift attention to more relevant dimensions in a problem and increase performance, possibly because processing time is decreased. [Preview Abstract] |
Follow Us |
Engage
Become an APS Member |
My APS
Renew Membership |
Information for |
About APSThe American Physical Society (APS) is a non-profit membership organization working to advance the knowledge of physics. |
© 2024 American Physical Society
| All rights reserved | Terms of Use
| Contact Us
Headquarters
1 Physics Ellipse, College Park, MD 20740-3844
(301) 209-3200
Editorial Office
100 Motor Pkwy, Suite 110, Hauppauge, NY 11788
(631) 591-4000
Office of Public Affairs
529 14th St NW, Suite 1050, Washington, D.C. 20045-2001
(202) 662-8700