Date of Award
Summer 8-2017
Level of Access Assigned by Author
Open-Access Thesis
Degree Name
Master's of Science in Teaching (MST)
Department
Physics
Advisor
Jonathan Shemwell
Second Committee Member
Mitchell Bruce
Third Committee Member
MacKenzie Stetzer
Abstract
A significant challenge in learning science and mathematics is coordinating different types of mental models, such as mathematical and physical mental models, that represent different aspects of a given phenomenon. This challenge is illustrated in the present study, in which we observed a small number of college students reasoning about forces as both physical and mathematical quantities as they reasoned about a physical system. Using video analysis of the students’ gesture and as they reasoned qualitatively and mathematically about the system, we documented the construction and coordination of participants’ mental models. We found that participants constructed mathematical mental models as imagined lines uniquely to physical mental models as imagined pulls. Moreover, students rarely exhibited the coordination of these two mental models. These findings suggest that instructors that they cannot assume that students generate models, even circumstances designed to support them.
Recommended Citation
Lodge-Scharff, Savannah E., "Investigating Student Mental Models at the Intersection of Mathematics and Physical Reasoning in Physics" (2017). Electronic Theses and Dissertations. 2718.
https://digitalcommons.library.umaine.edu/etd/2718