Towards an analytic framework for characterizing student use of models

Abstract

Engaging with models has been considered central to the practice of doing science as it facilitates sensemaking of the world around us. Therefore, engaging students in the practice of using models is an important component of their science education. But to do so effectively, we also need to understand how students use models in their work. Consequently, we require a way to analyzing students' use of models. In the current work, we present an analytical framework which characterizes students' use of models by considering common themes from the existing literature on modeling in physics. These themes present themselves as five components: (i) Presence of a real-world phenomenon, (ii) Use of representation(s) depicting the phenomenon, (iii) Invoking of conceptual knowledge organized around representation(s), (iv) Presence of explanation/prediction about the phenomenon and (v) Linking the explanation/prediction to a representation through appropriate reasoning. Analysis of students' written and verbal responses to physics problems through these components indicate that students seldom link the predictions made to the representations through reasoning, and, when they do, representations are often mathematical equations even though diagrams are present in their solution.