Making sense of how students make sense of mechanical waves

Physics Teacher

Volumn 37, Issue 1, 1999, Pages 15-21

  Wittmann, Michael C ^a   Steinberg, Richard N ^a   Redish, Edward F ^a  

^a Bldg 142   (United States)

Author keywords

[No Author keywords available]

Indexed keywords

EID: 85008256555     PISSN: 0031921X     EISSN: 19434928     Source Type: Journal    
DOI: 10.1119/1.880142     Document Type: Article

References (12)

1. L. C. McDermott and E. F. Redish, "Resource Letter on Physics Education Research," submitted to AAPT Resource Letters.
2. For examples of research and how it can lead to effective curriculum, see a) E. F. Redish, J. M. Saul, and R.N. Steinberg, "On the effectiveness of active-engagement microcomputer-based laboratories," Am. J. Phys. 65, 45 (1997)
3. b) L. C. McDermott, P. S. Shaffer, and M. D. Somers, "Research as a "guide for teaching introductory mechanics: An illustration in the context of the Atwood's machine," Am. J. Phys. 62, 46 (1994)
4. c) R. K. Thornton and D. R. Sokoloff, "Learning motion concepts using real-time microcomputer-based laboratory tools," Am J. Phys. 58, 858 (1990).
5. For an overview of the relevance of mental models to an understanding of physics education, see E. F. Redish, "Implications of cognitive studies for teaching physics," Am. J. Phys. 62, 796 (1994). (This paper is also available at: URL:http://www.physics.umd.edu/rgroups/ripe/papers/cogsci.html4. For another example of how mental models are used to analyze student understanding, see I. Galili, "Students' conceptual change in geometrical optics," Int. J. Sci.Educ. 18 (7), 847 (1996) and references therein.
6. a) L. C. McDermott, P. S. Shaffer, and the Physics Education Group at the University of Washington, Seattle, Tutorials in Introductory Physics (Prentice-Hall, Upper Saddle River, NJ, 1998)
7. b) For tutorials developed by UMD PERG, see Ref. 2a and R. N. Steinberg, M. C. Wittmann, and E. F. Redish, "Mathematical tutorials in introductory physics," in The Changing Role of Physics Departments in Modern Universities, AIP Conference Proceedings 399, 1075 (AIP, 1997). URL:http://www.physics.umd.edu/perg/abp/icupemsc.htm
8. R. N. Steinberg and M. S. Sabella, "Performance on multiple-choice diagnostics and complementary exam problems," Phys. Teach. 35, 150 (1997).
9. Our tutorials use prerecorded videos of propagating waves, available on the VideoPointTM CD-ROM (Lenox Softworks, Lenox, MA).
10. This work was developed out of our experience implementing University of Washington tutorials (see Ref.5a) in our local environment. Several UW tutorials address difficulties described in this paper.
11. For a discussion of the use of asymmetric pulses in investigations of student understanding of waves, see A. B. Arons, A Guide to Introductory Physics Teaching (Wiley, New York, 1990), p. 200.
12. I. Halloun and D. Hestenes, "Common sense beliefs in mechanics," Am. J. Phys. 53 (11), 1056 (1985).