Brasil Final Report - Department of Physics - The Ohio State University

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effective approach for helping students understand the relationships and differences among concepts
is to engage them actively in the model-building process. Not only does this approach promote
conceptual development, it also provides some direct experience with the nature of scientific
inquiry.
Growth in reasoning ability often does not result from traditional instruction. Scientific
reasoning skills must be expressly cultivated.
Conceptual models in physics are often inseparably linked with particular lines of reasoning.
We believe that conceptual models and the chain of reasoning through which they are developed and
applied must be learned concurrently. A critical element in the development of a functional
understanding is that students be given the opportunity to go step-by-step through the reasoning
involved in the development and application of important concepts. We have found that when they
do so, they can significantly deepen their understanding of even very difficult material.
Certain conceptual difficulties are not overcome by traditional instruction. Persistent
conceptual difficulties must be explicitly addressed in multiple contexts.
Some difficulties that students have in learning a body of material are addressed through standard
instruction or gradually disappear as instruction progresses. However, research has shown that
certain conceptual difficulties are persistent and highly resistant to instruction. For most students,
explanations by an instructor are inadequate. They need a different type of assistance to bring
about a significant change in their thinking.
Teaching by telling is an ineffective mode of instruction for most students. Students must be
intellectually active to develop a functional understanding.
We have found in a variety of topics that on certain types of questions, student performance in
traditional courses is essentially the same: before and after instruction, in calculus-based and
algebra-based physics, with and without a standard laboratory, with and without demonstrations, in
large and small classes, and irrespective of the lecturer. The role of the lecturer is clearly important.
He or she is the one who motivates the students and the one to whom they look for guidance about
what they need to learn. The lecturer, however, cannot do the students’ thinking for them. They
must do it for themselves. Regardless of how lucid explanations are, significant conceptual change
does not take place without a major intellectual commitment by the students.
DEVELOPMENT OF A RESEARCH-BASED CURRICULUM
To illustrate the approach that our group takes to curriculum development, we give a brief
description of Tutorials in Introductory Physics. 13 The emphasis in the tutorials is on constructing
concepts, developing reasoning skills, and relating the formalism of physics to the real world, not on
transmitting information and solving standard problems.
Instructional context
Each tutorial sequence consists of a pretest, worksheet, homework assignment, and one or more
examination questions. The 10-minute pretest helps focus student attention on the topic to be
addressed in the tutorial. The pretest serves to elicit specific conceptual and reasoning difficulties
that have been identified by research or teaching experience. During the subsequent 50-minute
tutorial sessions, students work collaboratively in groups of 3 or 4. The structure is provided by
worksheets that consist of carefully sequenced questions and exercises that guide students through
the reasoning necessary to develop a functional understanding of important concepts. In designing