Helping students become proficient problem solvers Part I: A brief review

Understanding issues involved in expertise in physics problem solving is important for helping students become good problem solvers. In part 1 of this article, we summarize the research on problem-solving relevant for physics education across three broad categories: knowledge organization, information processing and cognitive load, and metacognition and problem-solving heuristics. We also discuss specific strategies discussed in the literature for promoting development of problem-solving skills in physics. This review article can be valuable in helping instructors develop students' problem-solving, reasoning, and metacognitive skills in physics and other related disciplines. Additionally, this review article is relevant across educational contexts in countries that may have different educational paradigms and challenges.Comment: 21 page

A study of why some physic concepts in the South African Physical Science curriculum are poorly understood in order to develop a targeted action-research intervention for Newton’s second law

Globally, many students show a poor understanding of concepts in high school physics and lack the necessary problem-solving skills that the course demands. The application of Newton’s second law was found to be particularly problematic through document analysis of South African examination feedback reports, as well as from an analysis of the physics examinations at a pair of well-resourced South African independent schools that follow the Independent Examination Board curriculum. Through an action-research approach, a resource for use by students was designed and modified to improve students’ understanding of this concept, while modelling problemsolving methods. The resource consisted of brief revision notes, worked examples and scaffolded exercises. The design of the resource was influenced by the theory of cognitive apprenticeship, cognitive load theory and conceptual change theory. One of the aims of the resource was to encourage students to translate between the different representations of a problem situation: symbolic, abstract, model and concrete. The impact of this resource was evaluated at a pair of schools using a mixed methods approach. This incorporated pre- and post-tests for a quantitative assessment, qualitative student evaluations and the analysis of examination scripts. There was an improvement from pre- to post-test for all four iterations of the intervention and these improvements were shown to be significant. The use of the resource led to an increase in the quality and quantity of diagrams drawn by students in subsequent assessments