Ibrahim Halloun

The initial knowledge state of college physics students

An instrument to assess the basic knowledge state of students taking a first course in physics has been designed and validated. Measurements with the instrument show that the student’s initial qualitative, common sense beliefs about motion and causes has a large effect on performance in physics, but conventional instruction induces only a small change in those beliefs.

Common sense concepts about motion

Common sense beliefs of college students about motion and its causes are surveyed and analyzed. A taxonomy of common sense concepts which conflict with Newtonian theory is developed as a guide to instruction.

Modeling instruction in mechanics

Modeling theory was used in the design of a method to teach problem solving in introductory mechanics. A pedagogical experiment to evaluate the effectiveness of the method found positive results.

Schematic modeling for meaningful learning of physics

Schematic modeling is presented as an epistemologic framework for physics instruction. According to schematic modeling, models comprise the content core of scientific knowledge, and modeling is a major process for constructing and employing this knowledge. A model is defined by its composition and structure and is situated in a theory by its domain and organization. Modeling involves model selection, construction, validation, analysis, and deployment. Two groups of Lebanese high school and college students participated in problem-solving tutorials that followed a schematic modeling approach. Both groups improved significantly in problem-solving performance, and course achievement of students in the college group was significantly better than that of their control peers.

Views About Science and physics achievement: The VASS story

The Views About Sciences Survey (VASS) is a paper-and-pencil instrument to characterize student views about knowing and learning science and assess the relation of these views to achievement in science courses. VASS shows that: (a) high school and college students have views about physics that often diverge from physicists’ views, (b) student views can be grouped into four distinct profiles: expert, high transitional, low transitional, and folk, (c) profile distributions are similar in college and high school, and (d) student profiles correlate significantly with physics achievement.