The impact of students' epistemological framing on a task requiring representational consistency

Abstract

The ability to flexibly transform between different representations (e.g., from mathematical to graphical representations) of the same concept is a hallmark of expertise. Prior research suggests that many introductory physics students show lack of representational consistency, e.g., they may construct two representations of the same concept in the same situation that are inconsistent with one another. In this case study, we asked students to construct two representations for the electric field for a situation involving Gauss’s law with spherical symmetry (charged conducting sphere surrounded by charged conducting spherical shell). Prior research also suggests that this type of problem results in many students constructing representations that are not consistent with one another. Here we present findings from individual interviews with three students about this problem which suggest that students’ lack of representational consistency may partly be attributed to the type of knowledge that the graphical and mathematical representations trigger. In the epistemic games framework terminology, the two representations students are asked to construct (mathematical vs. graphical) in the problem may lead them to play two different epistemic games. We discuss how students’ epistemological framing may contribute to their lack of representational consistency.