Papers by Michael Wittmann
We report on the development of students' ideas of probability and probability density in a Unive... more We report on the development of students' ideas of probability and probability density in a University of Maine laboratory-based general education physics course called Intuitive Quantum Physics. Students in the course are generally math phobic with unfavorable expectations about the nature of physics and their ability to do it. We describe a set of activities used to teach concepts of probability and probability density. Rudimentary knowledge of mechanics is needed for one activity, but otherwise the material requires no additional preparation. Extensions of the activities include relating probability density to potential energy graphs for certain "touchstone" examples. Students have difficulties learning the target concepts, such as comparing the ratio of time in a region to total time in all regions. Instead, they often focus on edge effects, pattern match to previously studied situations, reason about necessary but incomplete macroscopic elements of the system, use the gambler's fallacy, and use expectations about ensemble results rather than expectation values to predict future events. We map the development of their thinking to provide examples of problems rather than evidence of a curriculum's success.
Students in interviews on a wave physics topic give answers through embodied actions which connec... more Students in interviews on a wave physics topic give answers through embodied actions which connect their understanding of the physics to other common experiences. When answering a question about wavepulses propagating along a long taut spring, students' gestures help them recruit information about balls thrown the air. I analyze gestural, perceptual, and verbal information gathered using videotaped interviews and classroom interactions. I use conceptual blending to describe how different elements combine to create new, emergent meaning for the students and compare this to a knowledge-in-pieces approach.
We suggest one redefinition of common clusters of questions used to analyze student responses on ... more We suggest one redefinition of common clusters of questions used to analyze student responses on the Force and Motion Conceptual Evaluation (FMCE). Our goal is to move beyond the expert/novice analysis of student learning based on pre-/post-testing and the correctness of responses (either on the overall test or on clusters of questions defined solely by content). We use a resources framework, taking special note of the contextual and representational dependence of questions with seemingly similar physics content. We analyze clusters in ways that allow the most common incorrect answers to give as much, or more, information as the correctness of responses in that cluster. Furthermore, we show that false positives can be found, especially on questions dealing with Newton's Third Law.
2017 Physics Education Research Conference Proceedings, 2018
AIP Conference Proceedings, 2005
2002 Physics Education Research Conference Proceedings, 2002
A student's guiding epistemological mode (be it knowledge as memorized information, knowledge fro... more A student's guiding epistemological mode (be it knowledge as memorized information, knowledge from authority, or knowledge as fabricated stuff) may constrain that student from reasoning in productive ways while also shaping the inferences a researcher can make about how that student reasons about a particular phenomenon. We discuss both cases in the context of an individual student interview on charge flow in wires. In the first part of the interview, her focus on memorized knowledge prevents the researcher from learning about her detailed reasoning about current. In the second part of the interview, her focus on constructed knowledge provides the researcher with a picture of her reasoning about the physical mechanisms of charge flow.
AIP Conference Proceedings, 2007
Physical Review Special Topics - Physics Education Research, 2008
AIP Conference Proceedings, 2013
We examine the types of emergent language eighth grade students in rural Maine middle schools use... more We examine the types of emergent language eighth grade students in rural Maine middle schools use when they discuss energy in their first experiences with Project-Based Inquiry Science: Energy, a research-based curriculum that uses a specific language for talking about energy. By comparative analysis of the language used by the curriculum materials to students' language, we find that students' talk is at times more aligned with a Stores and Transfer model of energy than the Forms model supported by the curriculum.
International Journal of Science Education, 2003
American Journal of Physics, 2008
We examine the types of emergent language 8th grade students in rural Maine middle schools use wh... more We examine the types of emergent language 8th grade students in rural Maine middle schools use when they discuss energy in their first experiences with Project-Based Inquiry Science: Energy, 1 a research-based2 curriculum that models a specific language for talking about energy. By comparative analysis of the curriculum materials to students' language, we find that students' talk is more aligned with a Stores and Transfer model of energy than the Forms model supported by the curriculum.
talk presented at the University of Oregon, Oct 23, 1999
Physics Education Research Group University of Maryland (NSF Grant DUE-9455561) www, physics. umd. edu/rgroups/ripe/perg, 2002
A taut string is attached to a distant wall. A demonstrator moves her hand to create a pulse trav... more A taut string is attached to a distant wall. A demonstrator moves her hand to create a pulse traveling toward the wall (see diagram). The demonstrator wants to produce a pulse that takes a longer time to reach the wall. Which of the actions a− k taken by itself will produce this result? More than one answer may be correct. If so, give them all. Explain your reasoning. a. Move her hand more quickly (but still only up and down once by the same amount). b. Move her hand more slowly (but still only up and down once by the same ...
AAPT Summer Meeting, Talk CF14, Summer, 2000
While physics education research (PER) has traditionally focused on introductory physics, little ... more While physics education research (PER) has traditionally focused on introductory physics, little work has been done to organize and develop a model of how student come to make sense of the material they learn. By understanding how students build their knowledge of a specific topic, we can develop effective instructional materials. In this dissertation, I describe an investigation of student understanding of mechanical and sound waves, how we organize our findings, and how our results lead to the development of ...
Physical Review Special Topics - Physics Education Research, 2013
In studying student reasoning about quantum physics in the context of tunneling through a barrier... more In studying student reasoning about quantum physics in the context of tunneling through a barrier, we observe that students commonly use several reasoning resources in conjunction with one another. Our data is gathered in individual student interviews, ungraded quizzes, diagnostic surveys, and examination questions. We believe that solely a microscopic perspective on the individually used reasoning resources is too narrow to help us understand student reasoning. We also believe that students do not have a coherent, robust (macroscopic) concept of tunneling that can be described as a coordination class. To account for our data, we introduce a mesoscopic description of a coordinated set of resources. We describe a possible coordinated set in quantum tunneling, complete with a readout strategy and net of associated resources and mathematical forms, that a student uses in favor of another possible coordinated set, the resources and forms of which he has available but which he seems not ...
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Papers by Michael Wittmann