A Grounded Theory Investigation of Thinking and Reasoning with Multiple Representational Systems for Epistemological Change in Introductory Physics

Conceptual and epistemological change work in concert under the influence of representational systems, and are employed by introductory physics (IP) students in the thinking and reasoning that they demonstrate in various modelling and problem-solving processes. A grounded theory design was used to qualitatively assess how students used multiple representational systems (MRS) in their own thinking and reasoning along the way to personal epistemological change. This study was framed by the work of Piaget and other cognitive theorists and conducted in a college in Arizona; the sample size was 44. The findings herein suggest that thinking and reasoning are distinct processes that handle concepts and conceptual frameworks in different ways, and thus a new theory for the conceptual framework of thinking and reasoning is proposed. Thinking is defined as the ability to construct a concept, whereas reasoning is the ability to construct a conceptual framework (build a model). A taxonomy of conceptual frameworks encompasses thinking as a construct dependent on building a model, and relies on the interaction of at least four different types of concepts during model construction. Thinking is synonymous with the construction of conceptual frameworks, whereas reasoning is synonymous with the coordination of concepts. A new definition for understanding as the ability to relate conceptual frameworks (models) was also created as an extension of the core elements of thinking and reasoning about the empirically familiar regularizes (laws) that are part of Physics.