Exploring and supporting student reasoning in physics by leveraging dual-process theories of reasoning and decision making

Because of the focus of introductory physics courses on improving students’ problem-solving and reasoning skills, researchers in physics education have been developing and refining theoretical frameworks for how students reason through physics problems. Recently, researchers have begun to apply dual...

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Autores principales:	J. Caleb Speirs, MacKenzie R. Stetzer, Beth A. Lindsey, Mila Kryjevskaia
Formato:	article
Lenguaje:	EN
Publicado:	American Physical Society 2021
Materias:	Special aspects of education LC8-6691 Physics QC1-999
Acceso en línea:	https://doaj.org/article/141a004f6b0444e9855c97d9234ec369
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spelling	oai:doaj.org-article:141a004f6b0444e9855c97d9234ec3692021-11-24T15:08:42ZExploring and supporting student reasoning in physics by leveraging dual-process theories of reasoning and decision making10.1103/PhysRevPhysEducRes.17.0201372469-9896https://doaj.org/article/141a004f6b0444e9855c97d9234ec3692021-11-01T00:00:00Zhttp://doi.org/10.1103/PhysRevPhysEducRes.17.020137http://doi.org/10.1103/PhysRevPhysEducRes.17.020137https://doaj.org/toc/2469-9896Because of the focus of introductory physics courses on improving students’ problem-solving and reasoning skills, researchers in physics education have been developing and refining theoretical frameworks for how students reason through physics problems. Recently, researchers have begun to apply dual-process theories of reasoning (DPToR), from cognitive science and psychology, to support mechanistic predictions of student reasoning in physics. In this article, we employ a novel methodology involving reasoning chain construction tasks in order to test DPToR-based predictions for two physics questions in which salient distracting features have been found to cue incorrect first-available mental models. In a reasoning chain construction task, students respond to a physics question by drawing from a list of reasoning elements (all of which are true) in order to assemble a chain of reasoning that leads to a conclusion. Two sets of experiments were conducted to test the hypothesis that students would be unlikely to abandon an incorrect first-available model unless they were provided with information that called into question the satisfactoriness of that model. We found that providing increased access to information relevant to the correct line of reasoning did not produce large differences in student answering patterns. However, providing increased access to information refuting the first-available model did produce large differences in student answering patterns, but only among those students who demonstrated that they possessed the relevant mindware (i.e., conceptual understanding). Our findings are consistent with DPToR and further illustrate the applicability of such reasoning frameworks in the context of physics.J. Caleb SpeirsMacKenzie R. StetzerBeth A. LindseyMila KryjevskaiaAmerican Physical SocietyarticleSpecial aspects of educationLC8-6691PhysicsQC1-999ENPhysical Review Physics Education Research, Vol 17, Iss 2, p 020137 (2021)
institution	DOAJ
collection	DOAJ
language	EN
topic	Special aspects of education LC8-6691 Physics QC1-999
spellingShingle	Special aspects of education LC8-6691 Physics QC1-999 J. Caleb Speirs MacKenzie R. Stetzer Beth A. Lindsey Mila Kryjevskaia Exploring and supporting student reasoning in physics by leveraging dual-process theories of reasoning and decision making
description	Because of the focus of introductory physics courses on improving students’ problem-solving and reasoning skills, researchers in physics education have been developing and refining theoretical frameworks for how students reason through physics problems. Recently, researchers have begun to apply dual-process theories of reasoning (DPToR), from cognitive science and psychology, to support mechanistic predictions of student reasoning in physics. In this article, we employ a novel methodology involving reasoning chain construction tasks in order to test DPToR-based predictions for two physics questions in which salient distracting features have been found to cue incorrect first-available mental models. In a reasoning chain construction task, students respond to a physics question by drawing from a list of reasoning elements (all of which are true) in order to assemble a chain of reasoning that leads to a conclusion. Two sets of experiments were conducted to test the hypothesis that students would be unlikely to abandon an incorrect first-available model unless they were provided with information that called into question the satisfactoriness of that model. We found that providing increased access to information relevant to the correct line of reasoning did not produce large differences in student answering patterns. However, providing increased access to information refuting the first-available model did produce large differences in student answering patterns, but only among those students who demonstrated that they possessed the relevant mindware (i.e., conceptual understanding). Our findings are consistent with DPToR and further illustrate the applicability of such reasoning frameworks in the context of physics.
format	article
author	J. Caleb Speirs MacKenzie R. Stetzer Beth A. Lindsey Mila Kryjevskaia
author_facet	J. Caleb Speirs MacKenzie R. Stetzer Beth A. Lindsey Mila Kryjevskaia
author_sort	J. Caleb Speirs
title	Exploring and supporting student reasoning in physics by leveraging dual-process theories of reasoning and decision making
title_short	Exploring and supporting student reasoning in physics by leveraging dual-process theories of reasoning and decision making
title_full	Exploring and supporting student reasoning in physics by leveraging dual-process theories of reasoning and decision making
title_fullStr	Exploring and supporting student reasoning in physics by leveraging dual-process theories of reasoning and decision making
title_full_unstemmed	Exploring and supporting student reasoning in physics by leveraging dual-process theories of reasoning and decision making
title_sort	exploring and supporting student reasoning in physics by leveraging dual-process theories of reasoning and decision making
publisher	American Physical Society
publishDate	2021
url	https://doaj.org/article/141a004f6b0444e9855c97d9234ec369
work_keys_str_mv	AT jcalebspeirs exploringandsupportingstudentreasoninginphysicsbyleveragingdualprocesstheoriesofreasoninganddecisionmaking AT mackenzierstetzer exploringandsupportingstudentreasoninginphysicsbyleveragingdualprocesstheoriesofreasoninganddecisionmaking AT bethalindsey exploringandsupportingstudentreasoninginphysicsbyleveragingdualprocesstheoriesofreasoninganddecisionmaking AT milakryjevskaia exploringandsupportingstudentreasoninginphysicsbyleveragingdualprocesstheoriesofreasoninganddecisionmaking
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Exploring and supporting student reasoning in physics by leveraging dual-process theories of reasoning and decision making

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