Student Learning and Limiting Case Analysis

Limiting case analysis (LCA) is a common practice among physicists, and might be defined as examining whether a purported mathematical expression in an appropriate limit comports with (or provides!) physical intuition or other knowledge. In this talk, we will first provide some examples of well-known physicists leveraging LCA in their science writing. Next, we argue that LCA, especially its non-algorithmic and game-like aspects, can be interpreted meaningfully within the theoretical framework of “adaptive expertise” and that it has more promise for developing problem-solving expertise than other forms of “answer-checking” such as unit analysis. Finally, we report further details on a four-year study of students in a junior-level college electrodynamics course (10.1103/PhysRevPhysEducRes.19.010125), providing what we see as examples of student learning from their performance of LCA.