Designing Questions to Elicit Students’ Mechanistic Explanations
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[1] Seattle Pacific University
Seattle Pacific University
Estados Unidos
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- Localización: The Physics Teacher, ISSN 0031-921X, Vol. 64, Nº. 7, 2026, págs. 588-591
- Idioma: inglés
- Texto completo no disponible (Saber más ...)
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Resumen
Active-learning physics classes often use conceptual physics problems with several (overlapping) aims: to elicit students’ ideas for further discussion, to confront common difficulties, and/or to assess and solidify students’ conceptual understanding.1,2 For instructors who want to use conceptual physics questions as part of a cycle of formative assessment3,4—where student answers inform instructional planning—the ideal response gives enough insight into students’ mental model(s)5,6 that the instructor can choose instructional steps that are responsive to student thinking.7,8 Questions that tap into both conceptual models and students’ sense of underlying mechanisms are especially useful for this kind of teaching—i.e., ideas about forces, energy transfers and transformations, or motion/flow.9,10 This article discusses insights from years of research on students’ conceptual thinking, alongside our experiences as physics instructors, about constructing questions that elicit mechanistic explanations.
