Instructors� Ideas about Problem Solving � Setting Goals

Abstract

This paper presents preliminary hypotheses about the relationship between faculty goals for the introductory calculus-based physics course and their beliefs about student learning of problem solving. All faculties have problem solving as a major goal for their courses. There appears to be however, an instructional paradox. When discussing how students learn to solve problems in their own courses, faculty indicates that reflective-practice skills are a necessary prerequisite, and that average students enter the course with these skills. When discussing general problem solving skills, however, faculty seem to believe that similar reflective-practice skills cannot be learned in an introductory physics course, and should be a long-term goal of university education.