Expert covariational reasoning resources in physics graphing tasks

TL;DR

This paper explores how physics experts use covariational reasoning in graphing tasks, extending mathematical frameworks to better understand their reasoning processes in physics modeling.

Contribution

It introduces new reasoning patterns observed in physics experts that complement existing mathematics-based covariational reasoning frameworks.

Findings

Mathematics covariational reasoning frameworks are useful but incomplete for physics experts.

Physics experts exhibit unique reasoning patterns not captured by existing frameworks.

The study provides insights into physics-specific covariational reasoning processes.

Abstract

Developing and making sense of quantitative models is a core practice of physics. Covariational reasoning -- considering how the changes in one quantity affect changes in another, related quantity -- is an essential part of modeling quantitatively. Covariational reasoning has been studied widely in mathematics education research, but has only begun to be used in physics education research. We present evidence from three studies of 25 individual interviews with physics experts, in which the experts were asked to reason out loud while generating graphical models. We analyze the studies through the lens of covariational reasoning frameworks from mathematics education research, and determine that the frameworks are useful but do not completely describe the covariational reasoning of the physics experts we interviewed. From our data, we identified reasoning patterns that are not described in the mathematics education research that, together with the mathematics covariational reasoning frameworks, begin to characterize physics covariational reasoning.