Students' Performance on Problem-Solving Tasks in Teaching/Learning Interviews*
Dong-Hai Nguyen and N. Sanjay Rebello
Department of Physics
116 Cardwell Hall - Kansas State University
Manhattan KS 66506
Learning how to solve problems in different contexts, domains, and representational forms is at the heart of training future scientists and engineers. We conducted individual teaching/learning interviews with 20 students in a calculus-based physics course. A total of four interviews per student were conducted during the semester, with each coming after an exam in their physics class. During each interview, students were asked to solve a problem that had been selected from their exam along with one or two more problems that shared deep physical similarities but had surface differences from the first problem. The differences might have been in representation, in context, or both. We present some of the interview protocols, the common difficulties that students encountered and the hints we provided to help them overcome those difficulties.
* Suppoter in part by grant U.S. NSF 0816207.
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