Force, velocity, and work: The effects of different contexts on students’ understanding of vector concepts using isomorphic problems

In this article we compare students’ understanding of vector concepts in problems with no physical context, and with three mechanics contexts: force, velocity, and work. Based on our “Test of Understanding of Vectors,” a multiple-choice test presented elsewhere, we designed two isomorphic shorter ve...

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Autores principales:	Pablo Barniol, Genaro Zavala
Formato:	article
Lenguaje:	EN
Publicado:	American Physical Society 2014
Materias:	Special aspects of education LC8-6691 Physics QC1-999
Acceso en línea:	https://doaj.org/article/c2f37842ef3548828a4201d36d843bc2
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spelling	oai:doaj.org-article:c2f37842ef3548828a4201d36d843bc22021-12-02T11:53:05ZForce, velocity, and work: The effects of different contexts on students’ understanding of vector concepts using isomorphic problems10.1103/PhysRevSTPER.10.0201151554-9178https://doaj.org/article/c2f37842ef3548828a4201d36d843bc22014-08-01T00:00:00Zhttp://doi.org/10.1103/PhysRevSTPER.10.020115http://doi.org/10.1103/PhysRevSTPER.10.020115https://doaj.org/toc/1554-9178In this article we compare students’ understanding of vector concepts in problems with no physical context, and with three mechanics contexts: force, velocity, and work. Based on our “Test of Understanding of Vectors,” a multiple-choice test presented elsewhere, we designed two isomorphic shorter versions of 12 items each: a test with no physical context, and a test with mechanics contexts. For this study, we administered the items twice to students who were finishing an introductory mechanics course at a large private university in Mexico. The first time, we administered the two 12-item tests to 608 students. In the second, we only tested the items for which we had found differences in students’ performances that were difficult to explain, and in this case, we asked them to show their reasoning in written form. In the first administration, we detected no significant difference between the medians obtained in the tests; however, we did identify significant differences in some of the items. For each item we analyze the type of difference found between the tests in the selection of the correct answer, the most common error on each of the tests, and the differences in the selection of incorrect answers. We also investigate the causes of the different context effects. Based on these analyses, we establish specific recommendations for the instruction of vector concepts in an introductory mechanics course. In the Supplemental Material we include both tests for other researchers studying vector learning, and for physics teachers who teach this material.Pablo BarniolGenaro ZavalaAmerican Physical SocietyarticleSpecial aspects of educationLC8-6691PhysicsQC1-999ENPhysical Review Special Topics. Physics Education Research, Vol 10, Iss 2, p 020115 (2014)
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 Pablo Barniol Genaro Zavala Force, velocity, and work: The effects of different contexts on students’ understanding of vector concepts using isomorphic problems
description	In this article we compare students’ understanding of vector concepts in problems with no physical context, and with three mechanics contexts: force, velocity, and work. Based on our “Test of Understanding of Vectors,” a multiple-choice test presented elsewhere, we designed two isomorphic shorter versions of 12 items each: a test with no physical context, and a test with mechanics contexts. For this study, we administered the items twice to students who were finishing an introductory mechanics course at a large private university in Mexico. The first time, we administered the two 12-item tests to 608 students. In the second, we only tested the items for which we had found differences in students’ performances that were difficult to explain, and in this case, we asked them to show their reasoning in written form. In the first administration, we detected no significant difference between the medians obtained in the tests; however, we did identify significant differences in some of the items. For each item we analyze the type of difference found between the tests in the selection of the correct answer, the most common error on each of the tests, and the differences in the selection of incorrect answers. We also investigate the causes of the different context effects. Based on these analyses, we establish specific recommendations for the instruction of vector concepts in an introductory mechanics course. In the Supplemental Material we include both tests for other researchers studying vector learning, and for physics teachers who teach this material.
format	article
author	Pablo Barniol Genaro Zavala
author_facet	Pablo Barniol Genaro Zavala
author_sort	Pablo Barniol
title	Force, velocity, and work: The effects of different contexts on students’ understanding of vector concepts using isomorphic problems
title_short	Force, velocity, and work: The effects of different contexts on students’ understanding of vector concepts using isomorphic problems
title_full	Force, velocity, and work: The effects of different contexts on students’ understanding of vector concepts using isomorphic problems
title_fullStr	Force, velocity, and work: The effects of different contexts on students’ understanding of vector concepts using isomorphic problems
title_full_unstemmed	Force, velocity, and work: The effects of different contexts on students’ understanding of vector concepts using isomorphic problems
title_sort	force, velocity, and work: the effects of different contexts on students’ understanding of vector concepts using isomorphic problems
publisher	American Physical Society
publishDate	2014
url	https://doaj.org/article/c2f37842ef3548828a4201d36d843bc2
work_keys_str_mv	AT pablobarniol forcevelocityandworktheeffectsofdifferentcontextsonstudentsunderstandingofvectorconceptsusingisomorphicproblems AT genarozavala forcevelocityandworktheeffectsofdifferentcontextsonstudentsunderstandingofvectorconceptsusingisomorphicproblems
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Force, velocity, and work: The effects of different contexts on students’ understanding of vector concepts using isomorphic problems

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