Instructional Strategies that Foster Effective Problem-Solving

Abstract

Helping students become proficient problem solvers is a major goal of many physics courses from introductory to advanced levels. In fact, physics has often been used by cognitive scientists to investigate the differences between the problem-solving strategies of expert and novice problem solvers because it is a domain in which there is reasonably good agreement about what constitutes good problem-solving. Since the laws of physics are encapsulated in compact mathematical form, becoming an expert physics problem solver entails learning to unpack and interpret those physical laws as well as being able to apply them in diverse situations while solving problems. A physics expert must have a well-organized knowledge structure of relevant physics and math concepts and be able to manage cognitive load and do metacognition while solving complex problems. In this chapter, we review foundational research on expertise in physics problem-solving and then discuss research on instructional strategies that promote effective problem-solving as well as challenges in changing the instructional practices of physics instructors and teaching assistants via professional development to promote and support effective problem-solving approaches.

34 pages, 3 figures

References in corpus (4)

• Do students benefit from drawing productive diagrams themselves while solving introductory physics problems? The case of two electrostatic problems
• Effectiveness of interactive tutorials in promoting "which-path" information reasoning in advanced quantum mechanics
• Can students apply the concept of "which-path" information learned in the context of Mach Zehnder Interferometer to the double-slit experiment?
• The challenges of changing teaching assistants' grading practices: Requiring students to show evidence of understanding