The differences in solutions to context rich physics problems between more and less successful students

Abstract

The differentiation from the metacognitive perspective between more successful and less successful groups of students in solving a physics " car on the hill " question should give an insight into how to help less successful students improve their ability in solving problems typically encountered in a university physics course. This portion of the research centred on using context-rich physics problems to identify the differences in metacognition between more successful (MS) and less successful (LS) students. A qualitative research design was used and the data was collected and analyzed using the Verbal Protocol Analysis (VPA). A total of 21 students with a physics background at the university level were used. Two field studies were set up, with ten students participating in the first and eleven in the second. The first had the purpose of verifying the difficulty level of the physics task (Physics Problem Solving Achievement Test, PPSAT) and to refine the coding schemes (Coding Metacognitive in the Thinking Aloud Protocol, CMBTAP). All of the respondents solved four pencil and paper problems while they were allowed to " talk themselves through. " No time limitation were given for the respondents to answer the problems, right after the test each one was videotaped during interviews. During these, the written answers to each of the problems were shown to them and they were asked to recollect their thinking as they worked on the problems. According to Polya's problem solving strategy, the phases; early, middle and end were assigned and the observations during each phase were classified accordingly. In conclusion, this study showed that context rich problems required students to engage in metacognitive skill such as planning, monitoring and evaluating even if the student did not have the structure or knowledge to derive the correct numerical solution.