Mapping university students’ epistemic framing of computational physics using network analysis

Solving physics problem in university physics education using a computational approach requires knowledge and skills in several domains, for example, physics, mathematics, programming, and modeling. These competences are in turn related to students’ beliefs about the domains as well as about learning. These knowledge and beliefs components are referred to here as epistemic elements, which together represent the students’ epistemic framing of the situation. The purpose of this study was to investigate university physics students’ epistemic framing when solving and visualizing a physics problem using a particle-spring model system. Students’ epistemic framings are analyzed before and after the task using a network analysis approach on interview transcripts, producing visual representations as epistemic networks. The results show that students change their epistemic framing from a modeling task, with expectancies about learning programming, to a physics task, in which they are challenged to use physics principles and conservation laws in order to troubleshoot and understand their simulations. This implies that the task, even though it is not introducing any new physics, helps the students to develop a more coherent view of the importance of using physics principles in problem solving. The network analysis method used in this study is shown to give intelligible representations of the students’ epistemic framing and is proposed as a useful method of analysis of textual data

Computational problem solving in university physics education : Students’ beliefs, knowledge, and motivation

Solving physics problem in university physics education with a computational approach requires knowledge and skills in several domains, for example, physics, mathematics, programming, and modelling. These competences are in turn related to students' beliefs about these domains as well as about learning, and their motivation to learn. The purpose of this thesis was to investigate the role of university physics students' knowledge, beliefs and motivation when solving and visualizing a physics problem using a computational approach. The results showed that expert-like beliefs about physics and learning physics together with prior knowledge were important predictors of the quality of performance. Feelings corresponding to control and concentration, i.e., emotions that are expected to be good indicators of students' motivation were also good predictors of performance. However, intrinsic motivation, as indicated by enjoyment and interest, together with beliefs expressing students' personal interest and utility value, did not predict performance to any higher extent. Instead, my results indicate that integration and identification of expert-like beliefs about learning and concentration and control emotions during learning are more influential on the quality of performance. Thus, the results suggest that the development of students' epistemological beliefs is important for students' ability to learn from realistic problem-solving situations with many degrees of freedom in physics education. In order to investigate knowledge and beliefs structures network modeling has been applied as a novel tool for analysis. Students' epistemic frames are analyzed before and after the task in computational physics using a network analysis approach on interview transcripts, producing visual representations of mental models. The results show that students change their epistemic framing from a modelling task, with expectancies about learning programming, to a physics task, in which they are challenged to use physics principles and conservation laws in order to troubleshoot and understand their simulations. This implies that the task, even though it is not introducing any new physics, helped the students to develop a more consistent view of the importance of using physics principles in problem solving. When comparing students' framing with teachers,' it is shown that although teachers and students agree on the main features of simulation competence in physics, differences in their epistemic networks can be distinguished. For example, while teachers believe that numerical problem solving facilitates fundamental understanding of physics and mathematics, this is not obvious to students. This implies that university teachers need to be aware of these differences as well as students' beliefs in order to challenge students' expectations and to give support concerning the learning objectives of the assignment.

Role of beliefs and emotions in numerical problem solving in university physics education

Numerical problem solving in classical mechanics in university physics education offers a learning situation where students have many possibilities of control and creativity. In this study, expertlike beliefs about physics and learning physics together with prior knowledge were the most important predictors of the quality of performance of a task with many degrees of freedom. Feelings corresponding to control and concentration, i.e., emotions that are expected to trigger students’ intrinsic motivation, were also important in predicting performance. Unexpectedly, intrinsic motivation, as indicated by enjoyment and interest, together with students’ personal interest and utility value beliefs did not predict performance. This indicates that although a certain degree of enjoyment is probably necessary, motivated behavior is rather regulated by integration and identification of expertlike beliefs about learning and are more strongly associated with concentration and control during learning and, ultimately, with high performance. The results suggest that the development of students’ epistemological beliefs is important for students’ ability to learn from realistic problem-solving situations with many degrees of freedom in physics education