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Out-of-field teaching is a global educational challenge. In particular, many teachers whose academic background and main teaching experience is in biology are called to teach middle school physics and have limited opportunities for productive professional development. Based on previous studies, we expect these teachers to hold different epistemic cognitions from the in-field teachers. The present study builds on this epistemic diversity and offers dialogic argumentation as a means to promote mutual learning among physics teachers from different disciplinary backgrounds. We describe guidelines for designing "interdisciplinary dialogic argumentation" activities that aim to encourage teachers to express their disciplinary perspectives in the context of inquiry-based physics and to facilitate a deliberative discourse among them. We demonstrate in a case study the ways in which the discourse of a group of in-field and out-of-field teachers unfolds under the proposed design guidelines. Using the Actor-Network methodology and an analysis of power relations, we uncover a complex interplay between the social and the epistemic in the discourse: when interactions become more dialogic and power relations more equalized, the out-of-field teachers take an active role in the discussion, foregrounding their epistemic practices and enhancing the epistemic practices of the group, including the in-field teacher.

Inquiry practices can be integrated into various settings that differ in terms of their constraints and hence in the scope and depth of the practices that students experience. Key policy papers suggest implementing a gradual learning sequence for inquiry practices so that students' learning experiences in more constrained settings can serve them later in extended research projects. What type of learning progression in inquiry is valued by students? To answer this question, students' views were examined while progressing from inquiry-oriented instructional labs to an extended research project. This was done in the context of the Research Physics program, a three-year program consisting of an introductory stage followed by a long-term ([approximately]18 months) research project. The group administered interactive questionnaire methodology was used to collect student reflections at the interface between the two stages of the program, both individually and in groups. Students were asked to identify inquiry practices they had encountered during the introductory stage and to evaluate their contribution to their projects. Findings showed that while students perceived the development of measurement, analysis, and self-monitoring skills as useful in preparing them for future research projects, this was not the case for the practices of teamwork and communication of knowledge. We explain these findings, using the boundary crossing theoretical lens, by looking at the different meanings these two practices take on when imported from the physicist's lab to the educational lab and suggest that this impedes the cultural boundary crossing between these two settings.

The instructional lab setting has been found to be dominated by prescribed tasks and pre-prepared lab kits. This was explained by teachers' need to guide students to simultaneously progress through a lab curriculum, which prompts them to standardize the lab experience. Nevertheless, prominent professional associations have persistently called to better represent experimental research practices in the lab, and to grant students more agency in the experimental process by orienting them towards more open-ended lab experiences. This paper reports a lab activity designed to advance students' agency in the practice of experimental design, in a setting governed by a high-stakes national matriculation exam. Three hundred teachers of advanced level high-school physics experienced the lab activity in a national network of professional learning communities (PLCs). The activity was anchored in an experiment to determine the relationship between the current through a battery and its terminal voltage. It was designed to problematize students' considerations underlying the choices of the location of the voltmeter and the measuring scale of the ammeter, and the possible implications for the validity of the experimental results; e.g. control of the variables, as well as the range and the accuracy of measurements. Teachers first performed the lab activity as learners, discussed it in the PLC meeting, and finally reflected on their experience. Individual responses to the lab worksheets and the reflections were analyzed. Initially, teachers' considerations did not portray key aspects related to the validity of the experimental results, such as how design choices related to the location of the voltmeter and the ammeter measuring scale impacted the accuracy and range of the measurements and the control of variables. The teachers were highly engaged in the peer discussion in the PLC and found the lab activity valuable in raising students' awareness of important considerations in experimental design.

This study focuses on science teachers' first encounter with computational modeling in professional development workshops. It examines the factors shaping the teachers' self-efficacy and attitudes towards integrating computational modeling within inquiry-based learning modules for 9th grade physics. The learning modules introduce phenomena, the analysis of measurement data, and offer a method for coordinating the experimental findings with a theory-based computational model. Teachers' attitudes and self-efficacy were studied using survey questions and workshop activity transcripts. As expected, prior experience in physics teaching was related to teachers' self-efficacy in teaching physics in 9th grade. Also, teachers' prior experience with programming was strongly related to their self-efficacy regarding the programming component of model construction. Surprisingly, the short interaction with computational modeling increased the group's self-efficacy, and the average rating of understanding and enjoyment was similar among teachers with and without prior programming experience. Qualitative data provides additional insights into teachers' predispositions towards the integration of computational modeling into the physics teaching.

We examined physics graduate teaching assistants' views about introductory physics problem "types," i.e., different ways of posing the same underlying physics problem, within the context of a semester-long teaching assistant (TA) professional development course. Here, we focus on TAs' views about two types of broken-into-parts problems that involve the same underlying physics scenario. One of these problem types does not involve explicit calculation, while the other does. The TAs were asked to list the pros and cons of these two types of broken-into-parts problems, rank them compared to other problem types (e.g., traditional textbook problem not broken-into-parts, context-rich problem, and multiple-choice problem) with the same underlying scenario in terms of their instructional benefit and the level of challenge they might produce for their students, and describe when and how likely they would be to use these types of problems in their own classes in different instructional situations if they had complete control of teaching the class. TAs reported that they found the broken-into-parts problem type to be the most instructionally beneficial out of all the problem types because of the guidance such problems offer, and would use a broken-into-parts problem type often and in a variety of ways (e.g., homework assignments, exams, and quizzes). While providing guidance to students is an appropriate instructional approach, our findings from interviews suggest that many TAs may be motivated to assign broken-into-parts problems out of a desire to make the problem-solving process easy and/or less stressful for students, especially because they felt that introductory students may not be capable of breaking a problem into subproblems on their own. The instructional benefits of gradually removing the scaffolding support to help students develop self-reliance in solving problems appeared to be overlooked by most TAs. In particular, in written responses or in interviews, most TAs did not mention a long-term goal of helping students develop more independence in problem solving for which one may start with broken-into-parts problems and gradually transition to problems that are not broken into parts. While the study findings that provide a snapshot of TA views in the middle and at the end of a TA professional development course may only apply to graduate TAs at a similar large university, at those institutions, professional development of TAs should take into account these findings and help TAs reflect on the important role that removing scaffolding support gradually and providing adequate challenge can play in helping introductory students develop self-reliance and become independent, expert-like problem solvers.

This article describes the redesign of a project-based course on soft and biological materials to include computational modeling. Including the construction of computational models in the course is described as a shift from constructivism--a theory that characterizes the development of formal reasoning, to constructionism--a theory that focuses on learning while constructing artifacts. This shift ameliorated two drawbacks in the original course: the limited conceptualization of entropy resulting from an unproductive use of the disorder metaphor, and the dependence of most students on the teacher for writing theoretical explanations for their final papers. In the redesigned curriculum, computer simulations provide concrete dynamic representations that students can draw upon for developing nuanced, formal reasoning on entropy and the 2nd law of thermodynamics. In addition, core computational models act as a flexible web that can be extended and modified, and allow a significant proportion of the students to build theoretical models on their own. We conclude that while the new design reflects a shift towards constructionism, we did not adopt a fully constructionist approach, rather a blend of constructivist and constructionist approaches.

Physics problems can be posed in different ways. Given a physics scenario, different problem types presenting that scenario in various ways can emphasize different instructional goals. In this investigation, we examined the views of physics graduate teaching assistants (TAs) enrolled in a semester-long TA professional development course about the instructional benefits of different types of introductory problems based upon the same problem scenario to generate discussion and reflection on their use in different instructional situations. The TAs were asked to list the pros and cons of the problem types, rank them in terms of their instructional benefit and the level of challenge they might produce for their students, and describe when and how often they would use different types of problems in their own classes if they had complete control of teaching the class. Here we report on TAs' views about two of these problem types that were regarded by TAs as the least instructionally beneficial of all problem types--the context-rich and multiple-choice formats. Many TAs listed no pros at all for these problem types, despite being explicitly asked for at least one pro. They viewed multiple-choice questions nearly exclusively as tools for high stakes summative assessment rather than their possible use as formative assessment tools, e.g., as clicker questions even in large classes. Similarly, TAs viewed context-rich problems as overly challenging, unnecessarily wordy, and too time consuming to be instructionally beneficial to their students. It is possible that in the written responses, TAs could have focused on the example problems provided to illustrate each problem type. Therefore, discussion in the TA professional development class and in the follow-up interviews explicitly included a focus on the general instructional benefits of well-designed multiple-choice and context-rich problems in different instructional contexts based upon the goals. It appears that TAs' sentiments were general views about these types of problems, and not just their views about the specific examples that the TAs were given in order to illustrate a problem type. While TAs' concerns have obvious validity and value, the benefits of well-designed multiple-choice questions as a formative assessment tool was not readily identified by them, nor did the TAs recognize the learning benefits associated with solving context-rich problems. Given the powerful ways multiple-choice and context-rich problems can be used for active engagement and formative assessment in different instructional contexts to meet diverse instructional goals, the lack of enthusiasm for these types of problems has implications for future TA professional development programs.

Teaching assistants (TAs) are often responsible for grading in introductory physics courses at large research universities. Their grading practices can shape students' approaches to problem solving and learning. Physics education research recommends grading practices that encourage students to provide evidence of understanding via explication of the problem-solving process. However, TAs may not necessarily grade in a manner that encourages students to provide evidence of understanding in their solutions. Within the context of a semester-long TA professional development course, we investigated whether encouraging TAs to use a grading rubric that appropriately weights the problem- solving process and having them reflect upon the benefits of using such a rubric prompts TAs to require evidence of understanding in student solutions. We examined how the TAs graded realistic student solutions to introductory physics problems before they were provided a rubric, whether TAs used the rubric as intended, whether they were consistent in grading similar solutions, and how TAs' grading criteria changed after discussing the benefits of a well-designed rubric. We find that many TAs typically applied the rubric consistently when grading similar student solutions, but did not require students to provide evidence of understanding. TAs' written responses, class discussions, and individual interviews suggest that the instructional activities involving the grading rubrics in this study were not sufficient to change their grading practices. Interviews and class discussions suggest that helping TAs value a rubric that appropriately weights the problem-solving process may be challenging partly due to the TAs' past educational experiences and the departmental context. Key words: teaching assistants, grading, assessment, problem solving, rubric. Les auxiliaires d'enseignement (AE/TA) sont souvent responsables de la correction ou evaluation des travaux dans les cours d'introduction a la physique dans les grandes universites. La pratique de la correction ou evaluation peut former l'approche des etudiants a la solution de probleme et a l'apprentissage. La recherche en apprentissage de la physique recommande des methodes d'evaluation qui encouragent les etudiants a demontrer leur comprehension via l'explication du processus de solution de probleme. Cependant, les auxiliaires d'enseignement ne corrigent pas necessairement d'une facon qui encourage les etudiants a expliciter leur comprehension dans leur solution de probleme. Dans le cadre d'un cours de developpement professionnel des AE sur un semestre, nous evaluons si, en encourageant les AE a utiliser une grille ou rubrique de correction qui pese de facon appropriee le processus de solution de probleme et les amenant a reflechir sur les benefices d'une telle grille, cela amenera les AE a exiger que les etudiants mettent leur comprehension en evidence dans leur solution de probleme. Nous examinons a la suite, comment les AE evaluent des solutions typiques d'etudiants dans des cours d'introduction a la physique avant de leur fournir une grille, si les AE utilisent la grille tel qu'indique, s'ils sont coherents en evaluant des solutions similaires et comment les AE modifient leurs criteres de correction apres discussion des benefices d'une grille bien faite. Nous observons que plusieurs AE appliquent la grille de facon coherente en evaluant des solutions similaires des etudiants, mais n'exigent pas des etudiants de demontrer leur niveau de comprehension. Les reponses par ecrit des AE, les discussions en classe et les interviews individuels suggerent que les activites d'enseignement impliquant les grilles d'evaluation dans cette etude ne sont pas suffisantes pour changer leurs pratiques d'evaluation. Les interviews et les discussions en classe suggerent qu'aider les AE a apprecier une grille d'evaluation qui pese de facon appropriee le processus de solution de probleme peut etre un defi, en partie du a l'experience educationnelle des AE et au contexte du departement. [Traduit par la Redaction] Mots-cles : auxiliaires d'enseignement, correction/evaluation, solution de probleme, grille/rubrique d'evaluation., 1. Introduction At large research institutions in the U.S., graduate students in physics play an important role in the education of undergraduate students in physics courses. In particular, it is [...]

We compared the materialization of knowledge integration processes in class discussions that followed troubleshooting (TS) and problem-solving (PS) tasks and examined the impact of these tasks on students' conceptual understanding. The study was conducted in two sixth-grade classes taught by the same teacher, in six lessons that constituted a third of a unit on simple electric circuits. In these lessons, one class was assigned PS tasks where students were asked to solve conceptual problems. Later they were asked to share their work in a class discussion. The other class was assigned TS tasks where students were asked to identify, explain, and correct the mistakes in "teacher-made" erroneous solutions to these same problems. They were also engaged later in a class discussion. We found that students' performance on subsequent transfer problems was significantly higher for the TS class, in particular for students with low prior knowledge. We account for the difference in learning outcomes by the differences in the learning process: the TS tasks elicited more naïve ideas both in students' worksheets as well as in class discussions, and the TS discussions involved more episodes where students developed criteria to discern scientifically acceptable and naive ideas. We also found differences in the format of students' participation, where lower-achieving students participated in the TS discussions. The implications of these findings for future research are discussed.

When a system exchanges energy with a constant-temperature environment, the entropy of the surroundings changes. A lattice model of a fluid thermal reservoir can provide a visualization of the microscopic changes that occur in the surroundings upon energy transfer from the system. This model can be used to clarify the consistency of phenomena such as crystallization or similar phase transitions with the second law of thermodynamics; in those phenomena, students intuitively grasp that the system entropy decreases, but may not have a clear picture of how it is compensated by an increase in the reservoir entropy. The model may be used in the classroom to visually demonstrate how processes in which the entropy of the system decreases can occur spontaneously; specifically, it shows how the reservoir temperature affects the magnitude of the entropy change that occurs upon energy transfer from the system.

A troubleshooting activity was carried out by an e-tutor in two steps. First, students diagnosed a mistaken statement and then compared their diagnosis to a teacher's diagnosis provided by the e-tutor. The mistaken statement involved a widespread tendency to over-generalize Ohm's law. We studied the discourse between pairs of students working with the e-tutor to examine whether and how the activity attained its objective of engaging students in knowledge integration processes; namely to "elicit" students' ideas, "add" scientifically acceptable or non-acceptable ideas and support them in "developing criteria" to "sort out" their ideas. We focus here on two case studies involving a pair of students with high prior knowledge and a pair with poor prior knowledge. The micro-analysis of these two pairs shows how the activity triggered students to explicate multiple alternative interpretations of the principles and concepts involved and attempts to align conflicting conceptions. We discuss how successive emendations gradually culminated in the elaboration of the students' understanding of these concepts.

As part of a larger study to understand instructors' considerations regarding the learning and teaching of problem solving in an introductory physics course, we investigated beliefs of first-year graduate teaching assistants (TAs) regarding the use of example solutions in introductory physics. In particular, we examine how the goal of promoting expert-like problem solving is manifested in the considerations of graduate TAs' choices of example solutions. Twenty-four first-year graduate TAs were asked to discuss their goals for presenting example solutions to students. They were also provided with different example solutions and asked to discuss their preferences for prominent solution features. TAs' awareness, preferences, and actual practices related to solution features were examined in light of recommendations from the literature for the modeling of expert-like problem-solving approaches. The study concludes that the goal of helping students develop an expert-like problem-solving approach underlies many TAs' considerations for the use of example solutions. TAs, however, do not notice and do not use many features described in the research literature as supportive of this goal. A possible explanation for this gap between their belief and practices is that these features conflict with another powerful set of values concerned with keeping students engaged, setting adequate standards, as well as pragmatic considerations such as time requirements and the assignment of grades. (Contains 4 tables and 13 figures.)

"Self-diagnosis tasks" aim at fostering students' learning in an examination context by requiring students to present diagnoses of their solutions to quiz problems. We examined the relationship between students' learning from self-diagnosis and the typicality of the problem situation. Four recitation groups in an introductory physics class ([approximately equal to] 200 students) were divided into a control group and three intervention groups in which different levels of guidance were provided to aid students in their performance of self-diagnosis activities. The self-diagnosis task was administered twice, first in an atypical problem situation and then in a typical one. In a companion paper we reported our findings in the context of an atypical problem situation. Here we report our findings in the context of a typical problem situation and discuss the effect of problem typicality on students' self-diagnosis performance and subsequent success in solving transfer problems. We show that the self-diagnosis score was correlated with subsequent problem-solving performance only in the context of a typical problem situation, and only when textbooks and notebooks were the sole means of guidance available to the students for assisting them with diagnosis. (Contains 10 tables and 6 figures.)

"Self-diagnosis tasks" are aimed at fostering diagnostic behavior by explicitly requiring students to present diagnosis as part of the activity of reviewing their problem solutions. Recitation groups in an introductory physics class of about 200 college students were distributed into a control group and three intervention groups in which different levels of guidance were provided for performing self-diagnosis activities. We investigated how well students self-diagnose their solutions in the different interventions and examined the effect of students' self-diagnosis on subsequent problem solving in the different intervention groups. We found that in the context of an atypical quiz, while external support altered the self-diagnosis performance, the self-diagnosis score was not correlated with subsequent problem-solving performance on a transfer problem. We discuss possible explanations for our findings. (Contains 16 tables, 10 figures and 2 footnotes.)

This study investigates how the beliefs and values of physics faculty influence their choice of physics problems for their students in an introductory physics course. The study identifies the goals these instructors have for their students, the problem features they believe facilitate those goals, and how those features correspond to problems they choose to use in their classes. This analysis comes from an artifact-based interview of 30 physics faculty teaching introductory calculus-based physics at a wide variety of institutions. The study concludes that instructors' goals and the problem features they believe support those goals align with research-based curricular materials intended to develop competent problem solvers. However, many of these instructors do not use the beneficial problem features because they believe these features conflict with a more powerful set of values concerned with clarity of presentation and minimizing student stress, especially on exams. (Contains 12 figures.)

To identify and describe the basis upon which instructors make curricular and pedagogical decisions, we have developed an artifact-based interview and an analysis technique based on multilayered concept maps. The policy capturing technique used in the interview asks instructors to make judgments about concrete instructional artifacts similar to those they likely encounter in their teaching environment. The analysis procedure alternatively employs both an a "priori" systems view analysis and an emergent categorization to construct a multilayered concept map, which is a hierarchically arranged set of concept maps where child maps include more details than parent maps. Although our goal was to develop a model of physics faculty beliefs about the teaching and learning of problem solving in the context of an introductory calculus-based physics course, the techniques described here are applicable to a variety of situations in which instructors make decisions that influence teaching and learning. (Contains 3 tables, 5 figures, and 52 notes.)

Often, students repeat the mistakes they have made in answering exam questions, even after classroom discussion of their errors. They do not appear to have "learned from their mistakes". One possible solution is to guide students through a more active process of addressing their mistakes. We will describe a classroom study focused on the assignment of analysing an "Incorrect Answers" page of mistaken statements collected from students' test answers. The students were required to diagnose the statements as part of their homework, and subsequently discuss their answers in class. We will focus on students' difficulties with the process of analysing incorrect statements, specifically in structuring arguments. We will suggest how teachers can direct their practice to foster students' learning in this context.

Students frequently misconceive the process of problem-solving, expecting the linear process required for solving an exercise, rather than the convoluted search process required to solve a genuine problem. In this paper we present an activity designed to foster in students realization and appreciation of the nature of the problem-solving process, in comparison with the exercise-solving process. The activity focuses on comparing two problems that are similar in regard to the physics principles required to solve them, yet differ in the solution process. One is "context-rich", and requires the student to engage in analysis and planning stages; the other, that we labelled "context-poor", does not. We studied the impact of this activity on the students and found that students recognized the differences required in the problem-solving process between context-rich and context-poor problems, that students were able to perform many parts of the task of transforming a context-rich problem into a context-poor form, and that students perceived the activity as useful in developing analysis and planning skills in problem solving. We concluded that the activity achieved its goal.

Grading sends a direct message to students about what is expected in class. However, often there is a gap between the assigned grade and the goals of the instructor. In an interview study of faculty teaching calculus-based introductory physics, we verified that this gap exists and identified three themes that appear to shape grading decisions: (1) a desire to see student reasoning, (2) a reluctance to deduct points from a student solution that might be correct, and (3) a tendency to project correct thought processes onto a student solution. When all three themes were expressed by an instructor, the resulting conflict was resolved by placing the burden of proof on either the instructor or the student. The weighting of the themes with the burden of proof criterion explains our finding that although almost all instructors reported telling students to show their reasoning in problem solutions, about half graded problem solutions in a way that would likely discourage students from showing this reasoning.