探究學生對物理公式之理解：以大學理工背景學生為例

Abstract

本研究計畫主張，深入探討學生對物理公式的詮釋與理解，乃是協助其成功轉換物 理概念與數學結構、進行有意義之物理公式學習的先決條件。基於此理念，本研究旨 在探討學生對物理公式的理解情形，並且，為擴展本研究發現的推論與應用層面，本 研究預計分兩年進行。本計畫第一年的研究，將以半結構晤談的方式來探測30 位大學 理工科學生對物理公式的理解，且資料收集與分析的重點，將著重在學生對相關物理 公式進行自發性詮釋的內容與模式，以及其在回答後續的晤談問題時，對物理公式所 蘊含的數學結構、所涉及的物理概念和理論架構、及所關連的自然現象和日常生活知 識的理解。而第二年的研究重點，在於根據第一年的研究成果，發展一套評測學生對 物理公式之理解情形的評量工具，並針對200 位以上的大學理工科學生進行施測；隨 後，根據施測的結果，本研究將深入分析學生理解物理公式的模式，並進一步探討造 成這些不同理解模式的可能成因。從實務層面來看，本研究之成果可協助物理教師與 研究者進一步瞭解學生對物理公式的理解情形、並提供教學設計的建議；而在理論層 面，本研究亦可針對學生理解物理公式的模式和成因，對相關理論的發展挹注新的資 訊。

Knowing how students interpret and understand physics formulae is the very first to help them conduct meaningful learning for successfully translating between physics concepts and mathematics equations. Accordingly, this two-year research project aims to investigate students’ interpretation and understanding of physics formulae. This major goal of the first year’s project is to conduct semi-structured interviews with 30 science or engineering majors to explore how they interpret given physics formulae. In addition, a set of follow-up interview questions will be used to probe the participants’ understanding of the mathematics structure, the related physics concepts and theoretical framework, and the related physics phenomena and everyday experiences involved in the physics formulae. Coding schemes and rubrics will first be developed to guide the coding process, and then the constant comparison method will be used for further data analysis. Based on the findings of the first year’s study, the goal of the second year’s project is to develop a test to diagnose students’ understanding of related physics formulae. We plane to administrate this test to at least 200 science or engineering majors, and then to comprehensively analyze their responses by searching for patterns of their understanding and for mechanisms underlying their reasoning. Optimistically, the findings of this project will enhance physics teachers and researchers’ understanding about how students interpret and understand physics formulae, and provide valuable suggestions for instructional designs of formula-based physics. Moreover, the patterns and mechanisms found in this project can help to formulate the theories of students’ learning in physics formulae.