Choosing the right solution approach: The crucial role of situational knowledge in electricity and magnetism

dc.creator	Elwin R. Savelsbergh
dc.creator	Ton de Jong
dc.creator	Monica G. M. Ferguson-Hessler
dc.date	2011-03-01T00:00:00Z
dc.date.accessioned	2015-08-12T11:24:15Z
dc.date.available	2015-08-12T11:24:15Z
dc.identifier	1554-9178
dc.identifier	https://doaj.org/article/897223d8177a42bc98f49c9ce2356c51
dc.identifier.uri	http://evidence.thinkportal.org/handle/123456789/29882
dc.description	Novice problem solvers are rather sensitive to surface problem features, and they often resort to trial and error formula matching rather than identifying an appropriate solution approach. These observations have been interpreted to imply that novices structure their knowledge according to surface features rather than according to problem type categories. However, it may also be the case that novices do know problem types, but cannot map the problem at hand to a known type, because they fail to create a sufficiently well-elaborated problem representation. This study aims to distinguish between these explanations. In this study novice physics students at high and low levels of proficiency completed two problem-sorting tasks from the domain of electricity and magnetism, one with and one without elaboration support. Results confirm that these students do distinguish problem types in accordance with their required solution approaches, and that their problem-sorting performance improves with elaboration support. Therefore, it was concluded that their major difficulty lies in the process of matching concrete problems to a proper category. Within-group analysis revealed that the performance of proficient novices clearly improved with elaboration support, whereas the effect for less proficient novices remained inconclusive. The latter finding is explained from the less proficient novices’ problem representations being too fragmented to integrate new information. These results suggest that, in order to promote schema-based problem solving, instruction in the domain of electricity and magnetism should be based not so much on restructuring the conceptual knowledge base but rather on enriching situational knowledge.
dc.language	English
dc.publisher	American Physical Society, APS
dc.relation	http://link.aps.org/doi/10.1103/PhysRevSTPER.7.010103
dc.relation	https://doaj.org/toc/1554-9178
dc.source	Physical Review Special Topics. Physics Education Research, Vol 7, Iss 1 (2011)
dc.subject	Education (General)
dc.subject	L7-991
dc.subject	Education
dc.subject	L
dc.subject	DOAJ:Education
dc.subject	DOAJ:Social Sciences
dc.subject	Education (General)
dc.subject	L7-991
dc.subject	Education
dc.subject	L
dc.subject	DOAJ:Education
dc.subject	DOAJ:Social Sciences
dc.subject	Education (General)
dc.subject	L7-991
dc.subject	Education
dc.subject	L
dc.subject	Education (General)
dc.subject	L7-991
dc.subject	Education
dc.subject	L
dc.subject	Education (General)
dc.subject	L7-991
dc.subject	Education
dc.subject	L
dc.title	Choosing the right solution approach: The crucial role of situational knowledge in electricity and magnetism
dc.type	article