written by Balasubrahmanya Hegde and B. N. Meera

A perceived difficulty is associated with physics problem solving from a learner's viewpoint, arising out of a multitude of reasons. In this paper, we have examined the microstructure of students' thought processes during physics problem solving by combining the analysis of responses to multiple-choice questions and semistructured student interviews. Design of appropriate scaffoldings serves as pointers to the identification of student problem solving difficulties. An analysis of the results suggests the necessity of identification of the skill sets required for developing better problem solving abilities.

• Download PhysRevSTPER.8.010109.pdf - 387kb Adobe PDF Document

Released under a Published by the American Physical Society under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution 3.0 License. The citation is: B. Hegde and B. Meera, How do they solve it? An insight into the learner's approach to the mechanism of physics problem solving, Phys. Rev. ST Phys. Educ. Res. 8 (1), 010109 (2012), 10.1103/PhysRevSTPER.8.010109>.

Published March 9, 2012
Last Modified May 22, 2012