| Title: | Issues in Addressing and Representing Hybrid Mental Models* |
| Meeting: | 129th AAPT National Meeting: Sacramento, CA |
| Location: | Amador 153 |
| Date: | Monday, Aug. 2 |
| Time: | 8:15 a.m. |
| Author: |
Zdeslav Hrepic, Kansas State
Univ. 785-532-7167, zhrepic@phys.ksu.edu |
| Co-Author(s): | Dean A. Zollman, N. Sanjay Rebello |
| Abstract: | While constructing their understanding in various domains of physics, students go through transitional phases that may involve richly developed and consistently used mental models. These transitional models are unique cognitive structures composed of elements of both scientifically accepted and the most commonly used initial alternative models and have been previously referred to as hybrid models.1 The nature of hybrid models complicates the process of determining students' mental models through multiple-choice inventories. They may necessitate multiple questions to determine a student's model in a single context. In the case of sound propagation, three to four different questions (depending on the context) are needed for this purpose. In addition, representing students' usage of a hybrid model requires a separate dimension associated with that particular hybrid model. We will show our solution to the problems of addressing and representing hybrid models of sound propagation using a classroom response system in real time. |
| Footnotes: | *Supported in part by NSF grant # REC-0087788. 1. Hrepic, Z., Zollman, D. & Rebello, S. (2002). "Identifying students' models of sound propagation." Paper presented at the 2002 Physics Education Research Conference, Boise, ID. |