| Prior problem solving research has primarily focused on differences between expert and novice problem solvers. Few studies have made any effort to describe the transition from novice to expert. Also, most problem solving studies have been set in laboratories, so few have taken place in actual classrooms. In an effort to learn more about these unexplored areas, a series of studies was designed.; One portion of this work tracked the development of a set of physics problem solving skills with documented differences between experts and novices. These included the drawing and use of physical representations, writing general or specific initial equations, writing algebraic or numerical initial equations, insertion of numbers, word usage, and fractionation. The evolution of these skills was followed by examining written exam data from two quarters of physics. A small probe was made for indications of potential transfer by examining a final exam problem from an engineering statics course in which a small portion of the initial research sample was enrolled.; To gain additional information about students in the transitional stage, several interview tasks were designed. Two of these, which were also administered to faculty for comparison purposes, involved evaluation of previously written solutions. The first provided the subjects with a solution written by a student in an introductory course and asked whether the solution was a good one or not. The second asked the subjects to classify various problem solutions as written by either students or instructors. A third task for students was to solve two complex electricity and magnetism problems in a think-aloud interview. This task was designed to check the validity of the methods developed to analyze the written exam solutions.; This research was conducted in the context of a two-quarter introductory physics sequence for honors engineering freshmen. It was not the purpose of this study to evaluate the instruction of the course, but rather to describe the development of the students in this particular environment. The interviews and probe into the transfer issue took place the following quarter. Both qualitative and quantitative research methods were used to analyze the data. |
