Ferm Speirs Stetzer Lindsey on using reasoning chains

William N. Ferm Jr., J. Caleb Speirs, MacKenzie R. Stetzer, and Beth A. Lindsey

Investigating student ability to follow and interact with reasoning chains

The effectiveness of scaffolded, research-based instruction in physics has been extensively documented in the literature. However, much less is known about the development of students' reasoning skills in these research-based instructional environments. As part of a larger collaborative project, we have been designing and implementing tasks to assess the extent to which introductory physics students are able to logically follow and interact with hypothetical student reasoning chains in a variety of physics contexts. In this paper, we report preliminary results from a "Follow Reasoning" task in which students are asked to infer the conclusions that would be drawn from different lines of reasoning articulated by hypothetical students and provide justification for that inference.

W. N. F. Jr., J. C. Speirs, M. R. Stetzer, and B. A. Lindsey, Investigating student ability to follow and interact with reasoning chains, 2016 PERC Proceedings [Sacramento, CA, July 20-21, 2016], edited by D. L. Jones, L. Ding, and A. Traxler, doi:10.1119/perc.2016.pr.025.