Education

 

Probing students' critical thinking processes by presenting ill-defined physics problems

 

N. Erceg^a, I. Aviani^b, and V. Mešic^c

 

^a Department of Physics, University of Rijeka, R.Matejcic2, 51000 Rijeka, Croatia.

^b Institute of Physics, BijeniCka c. 46, Hr-10002 Zagreb, Croatia and Faculty of Science, University of Split, Teslina 12, 21000 Split, Croatia.

^c Faculty of Science, University of Sarajevo, Zmaja od Bosne 33-35, 71000 Sarajevo, Bosnia and Herzegovina.

 

Received 7 March 2013;
Aaccepted 26 April 2013.

 

Abstract

Students' reflections on the meaningfulness of physics problem statements and solutions were investigated. The sample consisted of 276 Croatian high school/university students. The students, being at the different learning levels, were all familiar with the physical concepts concerned. Students' critical thinking processes were explored based on their responses to two open-ended ill-defined problems. Further, the teachers' ability to predict the typical students' approach to problem solving was investigated. For this purpose, 48 teachers were administered the closed-ended questionnaire composed of the empirically obtained students' responses to the two ill-defined problems. The results show that ill-defined problems have the potential of eliciting a whole diversity of deep-rooted students' ideas regarding the meaningfulness of problem statements and solutions. Further, the results indicate that the level of students' critical thinking is low regardless of their educational level and curriculum. It seems that traditional teaching does not sufficiently develop critical thinking. The teachers correctly judge the students' ability to consider the meaningfulness of the solution but they significantly overestimate their criticism towards the problem statement. We believe this kind of problems could facilitate the teachers' efforts directed at systematically developing the students' critical thinking processes. Consequently, students' coping with ill-defined problems could help them to improve their real-life competencies, as well as to develop the habit of taking a critical attitude towards the statements and solutions of physics problems.

Keywords: Critical thinking; ill-defined problem; problem statement; students' problem solving.

 

Resumen

Hemos investigado las habilidades estudiantiles de revisar la definición de un problema físico y la significatividad de la solución. La muestra constaba de 276 estudiantes de secundaria y universitarios croatas. Los estudiantes, que estaban en niveles diferentes de educacion, estaban familiarizados con los conceptos físicos correspondientes. Los procesos del pensamiento crítico de estudiantes eran investigados basandose en su respuesta a dos problemas mal definidos abiertos. Tambien era investigada la habilidad de profesores de prever el enfoque estudiantil típico. Para esta ocasion 48 profesores respondieron a una encuesta de tipo cerrado compuesta de respuestas verdaderas de los estudiantes a dos problemas mal definidos. Los resultados muestran que los problemas mal definidos pretenden estimular a los estudiantes a expresar una gama amplia de sus ideas muy arraigadas sobre la significatividad del planteamiento y la solucion del problema. Los resultados indican tambien el nivel bajo del pensamiento crítico estudiantil, independientemente del nivel de educacion y del currículo. La enseríanza tradicional obviamente no desarrolla suficientemente el pensamiento crítico. Los profesores estiman correctamente la habilidad estudiantil de revisar la realidad del resultado, pero por otra parte, sobrestiman considerablemente su criticismo a la hora de definir el problema. Creemos que este tipo de problemas podrían facilitar el esfuerzo de profesores dirigido hacia el desarrollo sistemático de los procesos del pensamiento crítico estudiantil. Por consiguiente, el afrontamiento de estudiantes a los problemas mal definidos podría ayudarles en mejorar sus competencias en la vida real, tanto como desarrollar la costumbre de tomar una postura crítica hacia la definicion y la solucion de problemas físicos.

Descriptores: Pensamiento; problema físico mal definido; definicion del problema; solucionamiento estudiantil del problema.

PACS: 01.40.Fk; 01.40.gb; 01.55.+b

 

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Note

i. For comparison, the corresponding traditional problems would read: 1. Wanting to measure its mass, the girl is standing on the scale that shows the value of 30 kg. What value the scale will show, if the girl takes kids' helium-filled balloon whith the volume of 3 dm³? 2. Tennis ball hits the net with the speed of 36 m/s. What is the stopping acceleration of the ball, if the stopping distance is 3 dm?