Diagnosing Student Problems Using the Results and Methods of Physics Education Research.

This paper summarizes the recent work of the Maryland Physics Education Research Group on analyzing student learning in introductory university physics. This work is carried out in a model of student thinking and learning based on principles from cognitive science. The model permits a better understanding of, and diagnosis for, the state of both individual students and classes. For the study and teaching of university physics, the research summarized here indicates that the context that determines a particular student response includes not only the question or problem and the classroom environment, but also unobservable (and uncontrollable) elements of the student's internal state. (Contains 17 notes.) (WRM)