Embodied forms of representation like gesture have been shown to play an important role in how learners conceptualize phenomena in physics; however, we know little about how students use gesture to capture the idea of "instantaneity." Drawing on multimodal microanalysis of interaction, we examine how undergraduate physics students use…

In this study, a conceptual framework of measurement uncertainty was developed and used to guide the development of a multiple-choice concept test for the assessment of students' knowledge integration in learning measurement uncertainty. Based on assessment data and interview results, students were identified into three levels of knowledge…

Physics experts and students commonly use a variety of representations when working with partial derivatives, including symbols, graphs, and words. One especially powerful representation is the contour graph. In open-ended problem-solving interviews with nine upper-division physics students, we asked students to determine derivatives from contour…

Over the course of the introductory calculus-based physics course, students are often expected to build conceptual understanding and develop and refine skills in problem solving and qualitative inferential reasoning. Many of the research-based materials developed over the past 30 years by the physics education research community use sequences of…

Despite continued efforts to address this issue, many students still exhibit misunderstandings regarding Newton's laws. These misconceptions include beliefs, such as every movement requires a force, that force is directly proportional to velocity, and that action-reaction forces can differ in magnitude. To mitigate these misunderstandings,…

We discuss an investigation of student sensemaking and reasoning in the context of degenerate perturbation theory (DPT) in quantum mechanics. We find that advanced undergraduate and graduate students in quantum physics courses often struggled with expertlike sensemaking and reasoning to solve DPT problems. The sensemaking and reasoning were…

Electricity and magnetism are fundamental areas of physics and are integral to science curricula at various educational levels. However, this area has been reported to contain several concepts that students find challenging, leading to perspectives that diverge from scientifically accepted views. This study examines the errors made by physics…

Several studies compared three different types of questions (conceptual, algorithmic, and graphical) across various topics, however, few focused specifically on gifted students. This study addressed this gap. The aim of the study, hence, was to determine whether there were notable differences in gifted students' performance in the three types of…

Research on students' thinking about the particulate nature of matter has shown that students find it difficult to connect the macroscopic with the sub microscopic world. Although they have heard about atoms, students stay within a continuous model of matter or attribute macroscopic properties to particles. The research presented focuses on the…

While formative assessment is a widely valued instructional approach to support meaningful learning, putting it into classroom practice remains a challenge, also because the time resources required may conflict with other goals. In a cluster-randomized controlled intervention study with 29 teachers and 604 students (mean age 15.6 years) at…

A common task when problem solving in quantum mechanics, including in a spins-first curriculum, involves changing the basis of a given state. Our research in undergraduate quantum mechanics courses at three institutions explores student thinking about basis, basis expansion coefficients, and change of basis in the context of spin-½ systems. Our…

Multiple representations are widely recognized for their significant role in concept learning. This study aimed to investigate the multiple representation translation skills of high school students at different grade levels about the concept of one-dimensional motion. 239 9th, 10th, and 11th-grade students participated in the study using a…

Students' problem-solving ability depends on their understanding of related scientific concepts. Therefore, the modeling and assessment of students' understanding of specific scientific concepts is important to promote students' problem-solving ability, as it can find students' understanding difficulties and explore breakthrough strategies…

Puzzles involving infinite networks of resistors are an engaging way for students to explore the idea of infinity and self-similarity in physics. Recently K Atkin has described one such puzzle, alongside a solution based on an equivalent finite network (2022 "Phys. Educ." 57 025015). Here we present a generalisation of this problem which…

Identifying students' difficulties in understanding Gauss's and Ampere's laws is important for developing educational strategies that promote an expertlike understanding of the field concept and Maxwell's equations of electromagnetic phenomena. This study aims to analyze and compare students' understanding of symmetry when applying Gauss's and…