How Students Represent Physics Knowledge Through Recall

Instructors use multiple representations such as equations, definitions, and graphs to convey the principles of physics to students. Previous studies have assessed how students solve physics problems presented using different representations. These studies have also shown the importance of understanding how students naturally construct and convey their physics knowledge through different representations. Recall activities, where students write down as much information as they remember from a previous lecture or topic, are a straightforward way for students to express what they have learned. Examining how students may use different representations in recall activities and the extent that representation use varies by person or topic has yet to be fully investigated. The goal of this study is to investigate the quantity and types of representations students recall in an introductory undergraduate physics course to better understand how students build their physics knowledge. Students were given five minutes at the beginning of each lecture within one week to write down as much information as they could remember from the previous lecture. We will discuss the results of this study as well as the implications for integrating recall activities into the classroom.