PHYSICS PROBLEM SOLVING

(^) argument co-construction is occurring, it made sense to move ahead to the second
research question and to look for patterns in the argument co-construction within a group.
QUESTION 2. ARE THERE SELF CONSISTENT ARGUMENT CO-CONSTRUCTION
PATTERNS WITHIN A GROUP?
The basis of this question is the finding^ that the students in these groups are co-
constructing an argument. It could also be stated as “Does a group adopt a particular,
persistent manner in which they co-construct their argument?” This suggests looking for
repeating patterns across several of their episodes. To determine a group’s pattern of
argument co-construction, I flowcharted all of a group’s episodes that focused on the
physics description. Then I looked for features common in all their episodes. These
features then became the pattern for that group. As will be seen, there are discernible
patterns. The following discussion will illustrate the flowchart process.
Episodes that dealt primarily with group functioning (“Who wants to be the
recorder?”) or tangential discussions (“Wasn’t that last quiz something else!”) were
omitted from this analysis. In many cases, these kinds of statements are embedded in
episodes that deal with the physics and these episodes were not a priori omitted. In some
sessions, the teaching assistant interrupted the whole class or the group being taped.
These episodes were omitted from the analysis if the intervention or interruption was a
major part of the episode.