Student reasoning about electrostatic and gravitational potential energy: An exploratory study with interdisciplinary consequences

Lindsey, Beth A.

doi:10.1103/physrevstper.10.013101

Cited by 22 publications

(29 citation statements)

References 16 publications

(24 reference statements)

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“…The most common justification for these incorrect responses was simply that the closer the objects are, the greater the energy of the system, without any further explanation. This response has been commonly observed in other contexts as well (Lindsey, 2014). Other common justifications provided by students to support their incorrect answers are summarized in Table 4.…”

Section: Demonstrating a Gap In Student Understandingmentioning

confidence: 88%

Student use of energy concepts from physics in chemistry courses

Nagel

Lindsey

2015

Chem. Educ. Res. Pract.

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This paper describes an interdisciplinary investigation of students' usage of ideas about energy from physics in the context of introductory chemistry. We focus on student understanding of the idea that potential energy is a function of distance between interacting objects, a concept relevant to understanding potential energy in both physical and chemical contexts. Data from student responses to written surveys and focus-group interviews reveal that students do not spontaneously make connections between ideas they have about energy from physics classes and the understanding of energy that they develop in chemistry. We describe the development of a sequence of questions that appears to aid students in drawing these connections appropriately. We also document students' as they are confronted with and struggle to resolve the mismatch between their energy ideas from physics and chemistry.

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Section: Demonstrating a Gap In Student Understandingmentioning

confidence: 88%

Student use of energy concepts from physics in chemistry courses

Nagel

Lindsey

2015

Chem. Educ. Res. Pract.

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“…Once again, the task still worked, but not as intended. The analogy is well-known in both German and US-American context, including the confusion between (potential) energy and potential [30].…”

Section: Treating a Constant Voltage Source As Amentioning

confidence: 99%

UsingTutorials in Introductory Physicson circuits in a German university course: observations and experiences

et al. 2016

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We describe the implementation of Tutorials in Introductory Physics in a German university course. In particular, we investigate if the conceptual challenges that gave rise to the development of Tutorials are also found among German students, which hurdles to the implementation of Tutorials are encountered in a German context, and how Tutorials are perceived in this different context. To that end, video recordings from workgroup sessions and guided group discussions with students and teaching assistants, as well as interviews with faculty are analysed. It was found that German students enter introductory physics courses with a different set of prior knowledge than their US-American counterparts, which together with implementation hurdles and negative perceptions by students, teaching assistants, and faculty led to the discontinuation of Tutorials after only one semester.

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“…Knowledge of prevalent student difficulties is implicitly represented in our student learning targets. Targets are separated into several broad categories: (A) connections of energy and everyday experiences [23][24][25]; (B) choice of system [26][27][28][29]; (C) identification of and differentiation between energy and other physics concepts [30,31]; (D) transfer of energy [32][33][34][35][36][37][38][39]; (E) use of mathematics; (F) use of representations [26,[32][33][34][35][36][37][38]; and (G) use of other science practices [40].…”

Section: B Content Knowledge For Teaching Energy Frameworkmentioning

confidence: 99%

Design of an assessment to probe teachers’ content knowledge for teaching: An example from energy in high school physics

Etkina

Gitomer

Iaconangelo

et al. 2018

Phys. Rev. Phys. Educ. Res.

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Research into teacher learning and practice over the last three decades shows that the teachers of a specific subject need to possess knowledge that is different from the knowledge of other content experts. Yet this specialized version of content knowledge that teachers need to plan instruction, respond to student ideas, and assess student understanding in real time is a theoretically elusive construct. It is crucial for the fields of precollege teacher preparation, teacher professional education, and postsecondary faculty professional development to (a) clarify the construct that underlies this specialized content knowledge, (b) operationalize it in some domain, (c) measure it in both static contexts and as it is enacted in the classroom, and (d) correlate its presence with "richness" of classroom instruction and its effect on student learning. This paper documents a piece of a multiyear, multi-institutional effort to investigate points (a)-(d) in the domain of energy in the first high school physics course. In particular, we describe the framework that we developed to clarify content knowledge for teaching in the context of high school energy learning. We then outline the process through which we developed, tested, and refined a "paper-and-pencil" assessment administered on a computer and discuss the substantive and psychometric features of several items based on a field test of the final form of the assessment. We choose to discuss these items for a dual purpose: to illustrate the application of our general framework and to present performance findings from a sample of 362 practicing high school teachers of physics.

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Student reasoning about electrostatic and gravitational potential energy: An exploratory study with interdisciplinary consequences

Cited by 22 publications

References 16 publications

Student use of energy concepts from physics in chemistry courses

Student use of energy concepts from physics in chemistry courses

UsingTutorials in Introductory Physicson circuits in a German university course: observations and experiences

Design of an assessment to probe teachers’ content knowledge for teaching: An example from energy in high school physics

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