How one context can be used to aid the activation of cognitive resources in another context

BUTELER, LAURA M.; COLEONI, ENRIQUE ANDRÉS

Bar Harbor, Maine, USA

Conferencia; 2007 Foundations & Frontiers in Physics Education Research Conference; 2007

University of Maine

The work explores the plausibility of a physics teaching strategy to favor a productive use of cognitive resources activated in one context to solve a problem in another one. The study was based on a manifold view of cognition considered as the result of the context-sensitive activation of cognitive resources, as proposed by Redish (2004) and Hammer (2004). Nine university physics students were involved in the study. They were interviewed in groups while solving two problems dealing with geometrical optics. Results show that including a particular problem helps students activate resources that are productive to solve another one in which those resources are not spontaneously activated.