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Location:
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KFC Courts |
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Date:
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Tuesday, Aug.02 |
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Time:
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6:00PM - 6:45PM
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Author:
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Bashirah Ibrahim, Kansas State University
(785)3237794, bibrahim@phys.ksu.edu
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Co-Author(s):
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N. Sanjay Rebello
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Abstract:
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The study explores the categories of cognitive structures constructed by engineering students taking a calculus-based physics course at Kansas State University. A sample of 19 students completed 10 non-directed tasks, with different representational format, on the topics of kinematics and work. Individual interviews were conducted immediately following these tasks. The Johnson-Laird (1983) cognitive framework was applied to classify the participants' mental representations. The framework proposes three main types of internal constructs: propositional representations constituting syntactic structures that connect a series of symbols together, mental models that are analogical representations of a real-world situation or objects, and mental images that are internal views of mental models with greater visual spatial features. We will discuss the importance of this framework in the classification of students' mental representations in this study.
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Footnotes:
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Supported in part by NSF grant 0816207.
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