TY - JOUR
T1 - Conceptual problem solving in high school physics
AU - Docktor, Jennifer L.
AU - Strand, Natalie E.
AU - Mestre, José P.
AU - Ross, Brian H.
N1 - Publisher Copyright:
© 2015 authors. Published by the American Physical Society. Published by the American Physical Society under the terms of the http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/3.0 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.
PY - 2015/9/1
Y1 - 2015/9/1
N2 - 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.
AB - 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.
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U2 - 10.1103/PhysRevSTPER.11.020106
DO - 10.1103/PhysRevSTPER.11.020106
M3 - Article
AN - SCOPUS:84951162484
SN - 1554-9178
VL - 11
JO - Physical Review Special Topics - Physics Education Research
JF - Physical Review Special Topics - Physics Education Research
IS - 2
M1 - 020106
ER -