In this paper, we describe the development and preliminary assessment of ACORN Physics Tutorials, which are designed to elicit and build on common conceptual resources for understanding physics. We articulate our design principles and instructional commitments and how these bear out in the specifics of one ACORN Physics Tutorial about electric…

This study analyzes the types of peer discussion that occur during lecture-based tutorial sessions. It focuses in particular on whether discussions of this kind have certain characteristics that might indicate success in the post-testing phase. The data were collected during an introductory physics course. The main data set was gathered with the…