Cognition for Interpreting Scientific Concepts: A Study of Acceleration

Reif, Frederick; Allen, Sue

doi:10.1207/s1532690xci0901_1

Cited by 139 publications

(100 citation statements)

References 18 publications

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“…The use of confidence levels in mathematics or science education research is limited, but has been applied in chemistry (Potgieter, Rogan & Howie, 2005), mathematics (Yazdani, 2006), biology (Bowen & Roth, 1999) and mechanics (Oliva, 1999;Reif & Allen, 1992). Planinic et al (2006) have also used certainty of response (self-reported confidence) coupled with performance to explore relative strengths of misconceptions in different areas of physics.…”

Section: Literature Reviewmentioning

confidence: 99%

Confidence versus Performance as an Indicator of the Presence of Alternative Conceptions and Inadequate Problem‐Solving Skills in Mechanics

Potgieter

Malatje²,

Gaigher

et al. 2009

International Journal of Science Education

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This study investigated the use of performance-confidence relationships to signal the presence of alternative conceptions and inadequate problem-solving skills in mechanics. A group of 33 students entering physics at a South African university participated in the project. The test instrument consisted of 20 items derived from existing standardized tests from literature, each of which was followed by a self-reported measure of confidence of students in the correctness of their answers. Data collected for this study included students' responses to multiple-choice questions and open-ended explanations for their chosen answers. Fixed response physics and confidence data were logarithmically transformed according to the Rasch model to linear measures of performance and confidence. The free response explanations were carefully analysed for accuracy of conceptual understanding. Comparison of these results with raw score data and transformed measures of performance and confidence allowed a re-evaluation of the model developed by Hasan, Bagayoko and Kelley in 1999 for the detection of alternative conceptions in mechanics. Application of this model to raw score data leads to inaccurate conclusions. However, application of the Hasan hypothesis to transformed measures of performance and confidence resulted in the accurate identification of items plagued by alternative conceptions. This approach also holds promise for the differentiation between over-confidence due to alternative conceptions or due to inadequate problem-solving skills. It could become a valuable tool for instructional design in mechanics. IntroductionIn order to ensure a smooth transition between secondary and tertiary education, it is imperative for lecturers of physics to be well informed about the baseline knowledge and understanding of students upon entry to tertiary education. Furthermore, where lack of preparedness is identified lecturers should ideally be able to distinguish between a lack of knowledge about specific concepts and the presence of strong alternative conceptions. It is widely accepted that the instructional design for conceptual change of firmly rooted alternative conceptions will differ markedly from that aimed at acquisition of new knowledge or development of problem-solving skills. Hasan, Bagayoko, and Kelley (1999) proposed that a student's self-reported certainty of response could be used in conjunction with the answer to a conceptual test item to differentiate between lack of knowledge and the presence of misconceptions in mechanics. While acknowledging that their hypothesis is best utilised for individual students, they have expanded it for application to groups of students in an attempt to enable the lecturer to extract this information with relative ease for large groups of students. This paper investigated the use of the relationship between confidence and performance to signal not only the presence of alternative conceptions but also inadequate problem-solving skills in mechanics and as such serve as a practitioner's tool in ...

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Section: Literature Reviewmentioning

confidence: 99%

Confidence versus Performance as an Indicator of the Presence of Alternative Conceptions and Inadequate Problem‐Solving Skills in Mechanics

Potgieter

Malatje²,

Gaigher

et al. 2009

International Journal of Science Education

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show abstract

“…18 This gap between expert and novice problem solvers has been well studied with an emphasis on classifying the differences between students and experts in an effort to discover how students can become more expertlike in their approach to problem solving. [19][20][21][22] However, introductory physics students will rarely achieve this higher-level problem solving expertise during their first year in college, nor are they necessarily expected to. What is expected is that they begin to learn to develop a coherent knowledge structure, which they can then learn to access and "activate" appropriately in order to solve problems.…”

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

Phenomenographic study of students’ problem solving approaches in physics

Walsh¹,

Howard²,

Bowe³

2007

Phys. Rev. ST Phys. Educ. Res.

129

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This paper describes ongoing research investigating student approaches to quantitative and qualitative problem solving in physics. This empirical study was conducted using a phenomenographic approach to analyze data from individual semistructured problem solving interviews with 22 introductory college physics students. The main result of the study is a hierarchical set of categories that describe the students' problem solving approaches in the context of introductory physics.

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“…Such comparisons fall short in explaining high and exceptional performance among professionals. In many domains, substantial performance differences exist among professionals not varying in length of experience (Reif & Allen, 1990;Simmons & Lunetta, 1993;Sonnentag, 1995).This article describes a study on expertise in professional software design. To expand psychological knowledge about expertise and to be relevant for applied settings, expertise was operationalized as high performance and not as length of experience.…”

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confidence: 99%

Expertise in professional software design: A process study.

Sonnentag

1998

Journal of Applied Psychology

169

115

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A Process StudyForty professional software designers participated in a study in which they worked on a software design task and reported strategies for accomplishing that task. High performers were identified by a peer-nomination method and performance on a design. Verbal protocol analysis based on a comparison of 12 high and 12 moderate performers indicated that high performers structured their design process by local planning and showed more feedback processing, whereas moderate performers were more engaged in analyzing requirements and verbalizing task-irrelevant cognitions. High performers more often described problem comprehension and cooperation with colleagues as useful strategies. High and moderate performers did not differ with respect to length of experience. None of the differences between the two performance groups could be explained by length of experience.Starting with de Groot' s (1978) early study on worldclass chess players, expertise research became a quickly expanding research area within cognitive psychology (Chi, Glaser, & Farr, 1988; Ericsson & Smith, 1991b). More recently, Ford and Kraiger (1995) stressed the importance of expertise research for applied purposes. When designing training and personnel selection procedures, organizations need detailed information about skills and other characteristics required in the work process. In this context, identifying characteristics of expert professionals is extremely useful.Ericsson and Smith (1991a) characterized the goal of expertise research as being able to "understand and account for what distinguishes outstanding individuals in a domain from less outstanding individuals" (p. 2). Thus, on the conceptual level expertise is equated with high and exceptional performance. However, within most studies, advanced students or professionals within a domain were This research was supported by a grant from the German Research Community (DFG; So 295/1-1 and 1-2) that is gratefully acknowledged. I thank Dieter Ronge, Arndt Sommer, and Rabea Munzert for their help in categorizing the data and Michael Frese and Doris Fay for helpfu! comments on an earlier version of this report. Preliminary results of this study were presented at the Annual Meeting of the Academy of Management in Cincinnati, Ohio, August 1996, and at the 26th International Congress of Psychology in Montreal, Quebec, Canada, August 1996.Correspondence concerning this article should be addressed to Sabine Sonnentag, Department of Psychology, University of Amsterdam, Roetersstraat 15, NL-1018 WB Amsterdam, the Netherlands. Electronic mail may be sent to ao_sonnentag@ macmail.psy.uva.nl. 703 regarded as the experts whose cognitive processes and knowledge structures were compared with those of beginner students and other less experienced persons, the socalled novices (e.g., Chi, Glaser, & Rees, 1982; Jeffries, Turner, Poison, & Atwood, 1981;Patel & Groen, 1991). Such comparisons fall short in explaining high and exceptional performance among professionals. In many domains, substantial perform...

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Cognition for Interpreting Scientific Concepts: A Study of Acceleration

Cited by 139 publications

References 18 publications

Confidence versus Performance as an Indicator of the Presence of Alternative Conceptions and Inadequate Problem‐Solving Skills in Mechanics

Confidence versus Performance as an Indicator of the Presence of Alternative Conceptions and Inadequate Problem‐Solving Skills in Mechanics

Phenomenographic study of students’ problem solving approaches in physics

Expertise in professional software design: A process study.

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