Self-Diagnosis, Scaffolding and Transfer in a More Conventional Introductory Physics Problem

TL;DR

This study investigates how scaffolding influences students' ability to self-diagnose and transfer skills in a typical introductory physics problem, comparing near and far transfer scenarios.

Contribution

It extends prior research by examining the effects of problem difficulty and transfer type on self-diagnosis and transfer in physics education.

Findings

Scaffolding improved self-diagnosis accuracy.

Near transfer was more successful than far transfer.

Problem typicality affected students' transfer performance.

Abstract

Previously we discussed how well students in an introductory physics course diagnosed their mistakes on a quiz problem with different levels of scaffolding support. In that case, the problem they self-diagnosed was unusually difficult. We also discussed issues related to transfer, particularly the fact that the transfer problem in the midterm that corresponded to the self-diagnosed problem was a far transfer problem. Here, we discuss a related intervention in which we repeated the study methodology with the same students in the same intervention groups, using a new quiz problem which was more typical for these students and a near transfer problem. We discuss how these changes affected students' ability to self-diagnose and transfer from the self-diagnosed quiz problem to a transfer problem on the midterm exam.