Physics education researchers have many valuable ways of describing
student reasoning while learning physics. One can describe the
correct physics and look at specific student difficulties, though
that doesn't quite address the issue of how the latter develops into
the former. A recent model (building on work by A.A. diSessa and D.
Hammer) is to use resource graphs, which are networks of connected
small-scale ideas that describe reasoning about a specific physics
topic in a specific physics context. The representation describes
several well documented forms of conceptual change and suggests
others. We use resource graphs to describe content knowledge or the
ideas in play when working through a problem. We draw resource graphs
of correct physics reasoning and also use resource graphs to describe
common issues in how students reason about seemingly very different
topics, such as vector subtraction and the choice of signs in a
differential equation.
Last modified: Tue Apr 17 14:20:09 2007