Screening for understanding: Using Dual-Process theories to guide the design of research tasks

Researchers in Physics Education have recently been applying dual-process theories of reasoning and decision-making (DPToR) as a guide to inform the development of research-based instructional materials. This approach is particularly well-suited for tasks and topics for which a strong incorrect intuitive model interferes with a student's ability to successfully apply their conceptual understanding. In this talk, we will describe a multi-institutional interdiscipinary research project designed to identify topics and questions in the introductory physics and chemistry curricula for which we expect that an intervention approach rooted in DPToR would help students to improve their reasoning. This talk will focus on the selection of tasks and the development and validation of screening questions that can be used to identify which students are able to demonstrate the appropriate conceptual understanding on some questions but may be hindered from success on other questions due to underlying cognitive factors. We will illustrate our approach with results from a task on the ideal gas law.