Learning acceleration in class: understanding the effort it entails

NICOLAS BAUDINO QUIROGA; ENRIQUE A. COLEONI

Bar Harbor, Maine

Congreso; 2013 Foundations and Frontiers of Physics Education Research Conference; 2013

The present study was carried out on the basis of audio-visual registries of in-class activity during an introductory physics course dealing with topics of kinematics and mechanics. Group activities were recorded and an analysis was carried out to pinpoint the effort involved in students? understanding of different concepts. In this study, the concept focused is that of acceleration. Coordination Class Theory (developed by diSessa and Wagner) was used to describe the many activities that students undertake to make projections of the concept in different contexts and to articulate the results of those projections. Results allow to have a clearer understanding of the effort that it takes students to understand the same concept in new situations and to view all their understandings as ?the same thing?.