Understanding how students recognize and connect mathematics ideas in physics contexts: A pilot study

A long standing problem within physics education (and education more widely) is the difficulty of promoting transfer of ideas learned in one context into another one. In session at the APS April 2023 meeting, researchers met and discussed needs for further research aimed at understanding and addressing how students connect mathematics and physics ideas when solving problems. To address this at the University of Edinburgh, first and second year mathematics courses are taught to physics majors by physics faculty rather than mathematics faculty (as is typically done). With the goal of evaluating this pedagogical change, we have devised a new instrument using a problem categorization task to evaluate students’ abilities to recognize and connect ideas presented in a purely mathematical context to similar problems presented in a physics context. 12 items relating to vectors were chosen from the Test of Calculus and Vectors in Mathematics and Physics to pilot the viability of this task. Six students were given this task and interviewed after its completion. We will present the findings of this pilot, discuss the viability of this task, and reflect on future research pathways that can meet the aims of understanding how students recognize and connect mathematics and physics knowledge.