Students' success in physics problem-solving extends beyond conceptual knowledge of physics, relying significantly on their mathematics skills. Understanding the specific contributions of different mathematics skills to physics problem-solving can offer valuable insights for enhancing physics education. Yet such studies are rare, particularly at…

This study aimed to investigate the effects of feedback types and opportunities to change answers on the learners' achievement and their ability to solve physics problems. We compared three feedback types, namely (1) static feedback with hints, (2) reducing feedback with hints, and (3) knowledge of response, and two types of opportunities to…

Pre-service science teachers learn about metacognitive knowledge theoretically in their pedagogy courses; however, teaching practice in science classes reveals the theory-practice gap in their metacognitive knowledge, which has practical importance for prospective teachers. This paper reports on an experiment conducted to investigate the influence…

While Physics Education Research has a rich tradition of problem-solving scholarship, most of the work has focused on more traditional, well-defined problems. Less work has been done with ill-structured problems, problems that are better aligned with the engineering and design-based scenarios promoted by the Next Generation Science Standards. This…

Self-diagnosis activities require students to self-diagnose their solutions to problems they solved on their own by detecting and explaining their errors. Worked examples, a step-by-step demonstration of how to solve a problem, are often used to support students in self-diagnosis activities. However, studies indicate that students often fail to…

Students in upper secondary education encounter difficulties in applying mathematics in physics. To improve our understanding of these difficulties, we examined symbol sense behavior of six grade 10 physics students solving algebraic physic problems. Our data confirmed that students did indeed struggle to apply algebra to physics, mainly because…

The interrelationship between mathematics and science education has frequently been emphasized, and common goals and approaches have often been adopted between disciplines. Improving students' problem-solving skills in mathematics and science education has always been given special attention; however, the problem-posing approach which plays a key…

We all know that they do it, but what do students laugh "about" when learning science together? Although research has shown that students do use humor when they learn science, the role of humor in science education has received little attention. In this study, undergraduate students' laughter during collaborative work in physics has been…

Studies have investigated various aspects of the use of questions in science lessons, but there is still a lack of research that demonstrates how, during peer reflection, teachers learn through identifying and overcoming obstacles to their own questioning in their professional development process. The present study is aimed at analyzing the types…

The purpose of this article is to explore how a group of four university physics students addressed mechanics problems, in terms of student direction of attention, problem solving strategies and their establishment of and ways of interacting. Adapted from positioning theory, the concepts "positioning" and "storyline" are used to describe and to…

In mathematics education, a vast amount of research has shown that students of different ages have a strong tendency to apply linear or proportional models anywhere, even in situations where they are not applicable. For example, in geometry it is known that many students believe that if the sides of a figure are doubled, the area is doubled too.…

The research outlined in this paper investigated how student teachers perceived the development of their knowledge and attitudes towards physics through video recorded practical workshops based on experiments and subsequent group discussions. During an 8-week physics course, 40 primary science student teachers worked in groups of 13-14 on…

How do students bridge everyday life views into physics understanding? We report from in-depth analysis of one group of four students, video-recorded over 135 min solving a context rich problem (CRP). Through transcripts of the group's conversations and from flow-charts made of the group talk we have categorised how students' experiences develop…

The study we present tries to explore how first year engineering students formulate hypotheses in order to construct their own problem solving structure when confronted with problems in physics. Under the constructivistic perspective of the teaching-learning process, the formulation of hypotheses plays a key role in contrasting the coherence of…

We report on an investigation of students' ideas about gravity after a semester of instruction in physics at university. There are two aspects to the study which was concerned with students' answers to a carefully designed qualitative examination question on gravity. The first aspect is a classification of the answers and a comparative study of…