The Importance of an Enhanced Problem Representation: On the Role of Elaborations in Physics Problem Solving
Abstract
This study of physics problem-solving identifies reasoning mechanisms that enable the problem-solver to achieve the transformation to a physics structure of the problem situation. Elaboration is explored as a mechanism in fulfilling this transformation by providing beginning problem-solvers with elaborations that they failed to infer. A card sorting experiment was employed in which two versions of physics problem descriptions had to be sorted. A comparison is made between proficient and weak students. Findings provide evidence that the reasoning processes in weak students may be qualitatively different from the reasoning processes in proficient students, and that the major problem for weak problem-solvers is not that they do not know problem types but rather that they fail to elaborate on a given situation properly. (http://www1.phys.uu.nl/savelsbe/enhance.pdf)