P691G – Graduate Student Professional Development Seminar

Week 3 – Understanding the differences between expert and novice problem solvers and helping students move to more expert like behaviors

Objectives

• List the differences between expert and novice problem solvers.
• Define the difference between a problem and an exercise.
• List a few skills for facilitating students working in groups.

Preparation

• Perusall – Chi, Michelene T. H., Paul J. Feltovich, and Robert Glaser. “Categorization and Representation of Physics Problems by Experts and Novices*.” Cognitive Science 5, no. 2 (April 1, 1981): 121–52. https://doi.org/10.1207/s15516709cog0502_2.
• Understand the solution to a problem that most GTAs will have trouble solving.

Activites

• JITT – Chi et al
• Identify differences between expert and novice problem solvers by exploring the difference between problems and exercises.
  • An exercise – A typical intro physics problem that GTAs will be able to solve without difficulty
  • A problem – An activity with which the GTAs themselves will struggle.
  • Compare their expert-like solutions to the problem to a typical first-year student solving the exercise, which is a problem to them, to identify characteristics of expert problem solvers.
• Role play – Groups of four students solving problems with which the GTAs themselves struggle. Debrief includes what was helpful and what was less effective.
  • Two try to solve the problem.
  • One acts as TA to guide.
  • One observer to notice effective and less helpful interactions.
• Summarizing what was helpful and what was less effective in the class as a whole.