Promoting Sensemaking in Physics: A Design-Based Research Approach to Assessment Development

Assessment tasks offer students the opportunity to interpret novel contexts through their existing ideas. Consequently, physics education research has extensively developed and analyzed assessments that help students make sense of their environment. Building on this rich tradition, I examine the task features that increase the likelihood of sensemaking in physics. I begin by outlining the key characteristics of the sensemaking process as described in the science education literature. Drawing on theories from cognitive psychology, education, and the philosophy of science, I then explore how these features evoke essential elements of sensemaking. Framed within Conjecture Mapping—a design-based research framework—I demonstrate how the proposed features lead to the desired outcomes. I argue that to foster sensemaking, tasks should prompt students to unravel the underlying mechanisms of novel real-world phenomena by coordinating multiple representations and interpreting mathematical expressions.