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Prior research suggests that many students believe that the magnitude of the static frictional force is always equal to its maximum value. Here, we examine introductory students' ability to learn from analogical reasoning (with different scaffolding supports provided) between two problems that are similar in terms of the physics principle involved but one problem involves static friction, which often triggers the misleading notion. To help students process through the analogy deeply and contemplate whether the static frictional force was at its maximum value, students in different recitation classrooms received different scaffolding support. We discuss students' performance in different groups. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

External representations, including pictures, graphs, text, gestures, and utterances, are key components of all curricular materials in physics. Such representations play a key role in cognitive function, particularly insofar as individuals interpret the meanings of and apply meanings to these representations. We previously proposed a model of how individuals can make meaning of and with external representations through layered analogies and applied this model to learning abstract ideas in physics, i.e. EM waves. [1] [2] We extend this model in two ways. (1) We distinguish individuals’ interpretations of representations, which can be highly variable and fleeting, from the physics community’s agreed upon interpretations, which are more stable and coherent. (2) We describe these two dimensions of representation use: abstraction based on the community consensus of concepts and salience based on readily accessible pieces of knowledge for an individual. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

In physics instruction we often begin by presenting students with an abstract principle, and then illustrating the principle with one or more examples. We hope that students will use the examples to refine their understanding of the principle and be able to transfer the principle to new situations. However, research in cognitive science has shown that students’ understanding of a new principle may become bound up with the example(s) used to illustrate it. We report on a study with physics students to see if this “specificity effect” was present in their reasoning. The data show that even students who understand and can implement a particular physics principle have a strong tendency to discard that principle when the transfer task appears superficially similar to their training example. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This paper focuses on the dynamics as students reason using analogies. We describe analogical scaffolding, a model of cognitive processes by which students can use prior knowledge to learn new material, and apply this model to demonstrate its utility in describing the dynamics of student reasoning about EM waves in an interview. The present finegrained analysis confirms prior large-scale findings, that representations play a key role in student use of analogy. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Research in cognitive science has shown that students typically have a difficult time acquiring deep conceptual understanding in domains like mathematics and physics and often rely on textbook examples to solve new problems. The use of prior examples facilitates learning, but the advantage is often limited to very similar problems. One reason students rely so heavily on using prior examples is that they lack a deep understanding for how the principles are instantiated in the examples. We review and present research aimed at helping students learn the relations between principles and examples through generating explanations and making analogies. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

In a series of large-scale (N>100) studies of analogy use in college physics, we have explored how, when, and why analogies affect student reasoning. In the first of these studies, we demonstrated that analogies affect student reasoning when taught in a large enrollment physics course. In the present follow-up study, we demonstrate that teaching EM waves concepts implicitly via analogy leads to greater conceptual change compared to teaching explicitly without analogies. Students were divided into two groups, one taught using analogies (string and sound waves) and the other taught without analogies (EM waves only). On a targeted concept question given before and after instruction, students who were taught with analogies outperformed those taught without analogies demonstrating that analogies can affect student reasoning in productive ways, even when taught implicitly. We propose framing as a mechanism to begin to explain why analogies can be productive when used implicitly. © 2007 American Institute of Physics [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The purposes of this qualitative study were (a) to investigate the factors that support the generation of spontaneous analogies (SAs) by students, and (b) to investigate the factors that interfere with comprehension of the analogy target of an SA. To promote the generation of SAs, eight algebra-based physics students were asked to participate in two group problem-solving sessions and one individual explaining session. Overall, 18 spontaneous analogies were generated. Two factors appeared to support the spontaneous generation of analogies: (1) sufficient prior understanding of the analogy target, and (2) the existence of previous analogical examples from other students. Two factors appeared to interfere with the comprehension of the SA analogy target: (1) an incorrect perception of the type of analogy between target and base (attributes, relationships), and (2) an incorrect understanding of the analogy base. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]