Chronology Current Month Current Thread Current Date
[Year List] [Month List (current year)] [Date Index] [Thread Index] [Thread Prev] [Thread Next] [Date Prev] [Date Next]

[Phys-l] Do Undergraduates Comprehend "Concept"?



Some subscribers to Phys-L might be interested in a post "Do Undergraduates Comprehend "Concept"? [Hake (2010b)]. The abstract reads:

*********************************
ABSTRACT: In response to my post "Re: Algebra based/calculus based laboratory"[Hake (2010a) regarding the suitability of the same conceptual labs for both algebra and calculus-based introductory physics courses, a POD subscriber wrote to me:

"Do you know of any study that has been done to evaluate the average undergraduate's comprehension of 'concept'?"

Students' comprehension of "concept" has recently been considered by Gupta, Hammer, & Redish (2010) in "The Case for Dynamic Models of Learners' Ontologies in Physics." They wrote (paraphrasing):

"Chi et al. have contended that a reason for students' difficulties in learning physics is that they think about concepts as *things* rather than as *processes*, and that there is a significant barrier between these two ontological categories. We contest this view, arguing that expert and novice reasoning often and productively traverses ontological categories."
*********************************

To access the complete 9 kB post please click on <http://tinyurl.com/ydge6w5>.

Richard Hake, Emeritus Professor of Physics, Indiana University
24245 Hatteras Street, Woodland Hills, CA 91367
Honorary Member, Curmudgeon Lodge of Deventer, The Netherlands
President, PEdants for Definitive Academic References (PEDAR)
<rrhake@earthlink.net>
<http://www.physics.indiana.edu/~hake>
<http://www.physics.indiana.edu/~sdi>
<http://HakesEdStuff.blogspot.com>
<http://iub.academia.edu/RichardHake>

REFERENCES [Tiny URL's courtesy <http://tinyurl.com/create.php>.]
Hake, R.R. 2010a. "Re: Algebra based/calculus based laboratory," online at <http://groups.yahoo.com/group/Net-Gold/message/32442>. Post of 9 April 2010 15:14:00-0700 to AERA-L, Net-Gold, and Phys-L. The abstract and link to the complete post are also being transmitted to various discussion lists and are also online at <http://hakesedstuff.blogspot.com/2010/04/re-algebra-basedcalculus-based.html> with a provision for comments.

Hake, R.R. 2010b. "Do Undergraduates Comprehend "Concept"?" online on the OPEN! AERA-L archives at <http://tinyurl.com/ydge6w5>. Post of 11 Apr 2010 17:20:09-0700 to AERA-L, Net-Gold, and POD. The abstract and link to the complete post are also: being transmitted to various discussion lists.