Why do students make errors on physics problems? For the past several decades, physics education researchers have focused on one compelling explanation: students arrive in the classroom with pre-formed ideas about how the world works. Students’ prior knowledge has been built through rational, if imperfect, processes of observation and analysis, and any new ideas presented in the classroom must likewise be built, not simply received.
In this seminar, recent efforts to improve both conceptual understanding and reasoning skills will be discussed. Examples will be chosen from first-year university-level physics.
