Refining Students’ Explanations of an Unfamiliar Physical Phenomenon-Microscopic Friction

The first phase of this multiphase study involves modeling of college students’ thinking of friction at the microscopic level. Diagnostic interviews were conducted with 11 students with different levels of physics backgrounds. A phenomenographic approach of data analysis was used to generate categor...

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Bibliographic Details
Published inResearch in science education (Australasian Science Education Research Association) Vol. 49; no. 5; pp. 1177 - 1211
Main Authors Corpuz, Edgar De Guzman, Rebello, N. Sanjay
Format Journal Article
LanguageEnglish
Published Dordrecht Springer Netherlands 01.10.2019
Springer
Springer Nature B.V
Subjects
Cognitive ability
College Science
College Students
Concept Formation
Data analysis
Diagnostic systems
Education
Experience
Friction
Hands on Science
Logical Thinking
Mechanical stimuli
Physics
Rubbing
Science Education
Science Instruction
Scientific Concepts
Sequences
Students
Teaching Methods
Conceptual change
Refinement of students’ models
Teaching interview
Transfer
Microscopic friction
Scaffolding activities
Modeling
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Summary:The first phase of this multiphase study involves modeling of college students’ thinking of friction at the microscopic level. Diagnostic interviews were conducted with 11 students with different levels of physics backgrounds. A phenomenographic approach of data analysis was used to generate categories of responses which subsequently were used to generate a model of explanation. Most of the students interviewed consistently used mechanical interactions in explaining microscopic friction. According to these students, friction is due to the interlocking or rubbing of atoms. Our data suggest that students’ explanations of microscopic friction are predominantly influenced by their macroscopic experiences. In the second phase of the research, teaching experiment was conducted with 18 college students to investigate how students’ explanations of microscopic friction can be refined by a series of model-building activities. Data were analyzed using Redish’s two-level transfer framework. Our results show that through sequences of hands-on and minds-on activities, including cognitive dissonance and resolution, it is possible to facilitate the refinement of students’ explanations of microscopic friction. The activities seemed to be productive in helping students activate associations that refine their ideas about microscopic friction.
ISSN:0157-244X
1573-1898
DOI:10.1007/s11165-017-9650-2