Assessing students' epistemic logic using clause topics during problem comparison

Abstract

Physics courses ideally facilitate both students understanding of fundamental physical principles, as well as strengthen students' problem solving repertoire. In this study we look at how students divide and/or aggregate various elements of problem statements and how useful distinct principles and concepts, formulae, and general problem contexts are for pairing problems assigned in the same week. Students in an algebra-based physics course were asked to choose two problems from each of their homework assignments which they found to be most similar. The two problems selected were then explicitly compared and contrasted in writing. The written statements were then divided by clause topics and further categorized into levels of epistemic reasoning. This paper presents the qualitative analysis used and provides observed trends that appear in students' homework responses.