Identification of high school students' problem-solving skills on rotational dynamics

Abstract

This study aimed to identify students' problem-solving skills on rotational dynamics. Thirty-two high school students were given five multiple-choice questions where the students should explain their answers. Then, the students' explanations were analysed to identify their problem-solving skills according to five aspects, including useful description, physics approach, specific application of physics, mathematical procedure, and logical progression. The students' skills in each aspect were categorised into expert and novice solvers. The results showed that the average percentage of expert solver students in the five aspects were 64.4%, 70.6%, 51.9%, 35.2%, and 38.1%. Students who were in the expert category on the aspect of useful description, physics approach, and specific application of physics were not certainly categorised as an expert on the mathematical procedure aspect. The mistakes in mathematical procedures were mainly caused by the students' carelessness in formulating a moment arm or their failure on the previous steps. This finding can be used as a useful input for designing a learning sequence to improve students' problem-solving skills, especially in the aspect of mathematical procedure about rotational dynamics.