Learning about wave optics: The effects of combining external visualizations with extreme case reasoning

Abstract

In this study, we investigated whether combining external visualizations with extreme case reasoning may the development of a conceptual understanding of wave optics. For purposes of answering our research question, we conducted a pretest-posttest quasi-experiment, which included 179 students from a first-year introductory physics course at the University of Zagreb, Croatia. Students who were guided through extreme case reasoning in their wave optics seminars significantly outperformed their peers who received conventional teaching treatment. Findings from our study suggest that combining external visualizations with extreme case reasoning facilitates the development of visually rich internal representations, which are a good basis for performing mental simulations about wave optics phenomena. Besides, it has been also found that many students use the “closer to the source implicates greater effect” p-prim when reasoning about certain relationships, such as the relationship between fringes’ dimension and slits-screen separation.