What Does it Mean to Understand a Physics Equation?
Comparing the Views of Students and Teachers
Josefine Grundström Lindqvist Supervisor: John Airey
Department of physics and astronomy
Background
Despite their importance in the representation of physics knowledge, physics equations have
received surprisingly little attention in the literature.
The work that has been done has tended to focus on the use of equations in problem solving (see Hsu, Brewe, Foster, & Harper, 2004 for an
overview and Hegde & Meera, 2012 for a more recent example). One significant study is that of Sherin (2001) who examined students ability to construct equations.Very little work has
examined what it means to understand a physics equation, the only work we could locate was that of Domert, 2007 and Hechter, 2010.
References
Domert, D., Airey, J., Linder, C., & Kung, R. (2007). An exploration of university physics students‘ epistemological mindsets towards the understanding of physics equations. NorDiNa, Nordic Studies in Science Education(3), 15-28.
Hechter, R. P. (2010). What does 'I understand the equation' really mean? Physics Education, 45(132)
Hegde, B. Meera, B. N. (2012). How do they solve it? An insight into the learner's approach to the mechanism of physics problem solving. Phys.
Rev. ST Phys. Educ. Res. 8, 010109
Hsu, L., Brewe, E., Foster, T. M., & Harper, K. A. (2004). Resource Letter RPS-1: Research in problem solving. American Journal of Physics, 72(9), 1147-1156.
Sherin, B. L. (2001). How students understand physics equations. Cognitive Instruction, 19, 479-541.
Previous project
Building on these two sources a study that
examined how university students understand a physics equation was recently carried out by the authors.
The result of that study is a number of
questions that the authors suggest can be used by students or lecturers to develop the
understanding of physics equations.
These questions were generated by the answers that over a hundred students in Sweden and a hundred students from Australia and USA gave to the question:
“How do you know when you understand a physics equation?”.
Current status
This project has just begun and at the moment the precise question for the lecturers to answer is
being formulated.
The Resulting Questions
• Can you describe the meaning of each of the components of the equation?
• Do you know where the equation can and cannot be used?
• Can you link this equation to other equations you already understand?
• Can you derive the equation?
• Do you know the historical roots of the equation?
• What status does the equation have for the area of physics it belongs to?
• Do you understand the maths and physics behind the equation?
• Can you use the equation to solve a problem in different contexts?
• Can you draw conclusions with the help of the equation?
• How does a change in one variable affect the other variables in the equation?
• Can you use the equation to describe a real-life situation?
• Can you explain the equation to someone else?
Purpose
The purpose of this study has two parts:
• To ask lecturers when they think that students believe that they understand a physics
equation and compare the lecturer’s answers to the student’s answers.
• To discuss an equation using the resulting questions with students in a focus group interview, as a method to see if these
questions can be helpful while trying to understand an equation.
Expected results
The result expected from this study is:
• That it will tell whether providing these 12
questions is actually useful for student learning
• That it will find out what questions lecturers believe will be useful for student learning.
