Just Math: A new epistemic frame

TL;DR

This paper introduces the 'Just Math' epistemic frame to better understand how students use mathematics in physics problem-solving, characterized by brief, math-focused interactions, aiding in analyzing their transitions between conceptual and mathematical reasoning.

Contribution

The paper presents a new epistemic frame called 'Just Math' that captures specific student behaviors during math-focused physics problem-solving sessions.

Findings

Identifies 'Just Math' as a distinct e-frame in student interactions.

Characterizes 'Just Math' by brief, low-level math utterances.

Lays groundwork for analyzing transitions into and out of this e-frame.

Abstract

A goal of PER is to understand how students use math in physics contexts. To investigate how students use math, we need to identify transitions between conceptual sense-making about physical systems and using mathematics to describe and to make predictions about those systems. We reviewed video of students solving a variety of physics problems in small groups through the lens of epistemic frames (e-frames). In this paper, we present a new e-frame, which we are calling "Just Math", that is similar to the Worksheet e-frame, but is characterized by brief, low-level, math-focused utterances between students. Future work will focus on analyzing the transitions into and out of this e-frame so that we may develop a more coherent understanding of students' use of math in physics.