PATHWAYS OF STUDENTS’ CONCEPTUALISATION DURING A PROBLEM SOLVING TASK: LESSONS FOR TEACHING PHYSICS

This study aims to characterise the pathways of students' conceptualisation during a problem solving task in order to understand the role of conceptualisation in conceptual learning and to identify salient points for the practice of teaching physics. The study took place in a Portuguese classroom with 15 physics students, all aged 17. The “global conceptualisation” emerged from this research as an important construct to explain how students mobilise their conceptual knowledge during a problem solving task Six other salient characteristics of the pathways of students' conceptualisation were also identified. In addition, some conditions related to teaching which could help to improve students' conceptualisation and conceptual learning were also uncovered. These results are discussed and are presented alongside conclusions about the focus and direction of teacher intervention.