PHYSICS PROBLEM SOLVING

(^) making 33% of the statements in a group of three, or 25% of the statements in a group of
four. This is seldom the case. A qualitative analysis of the groups can explain the
departures from this norm.
Although in Group 5C, member MP makes only 49% of the overall statements,
she makes 77% of the Claims. This is because MP, a dominant member of the group,
makes a lot of Claims, but she does not support them with other statements. Group 4A
member DC was a very quiet student who rarely contributed Claims. He and member
MK made statements supporting MP’s Claims. Likewise, in Group 4D, student CB
makes no claims. He missed class the day before this problem session and was poorly
prepared. In Group 2D, member SU made 21% of the overall statements, but made no
claims. Group 2D member SU is an Asian student, and there may be a cultural-based
“deferring” to the other two non-Asian students. There was only one person (out of the
45 members, 40 unique individuals) in one group (out of the 14 groups) where a student,
AW in Group 5A, made only Modified Claims or Alternate Claims, and no original
Claims.
Six of the students appear in two different taping sessions, one from the first
quarter (Physics 1041) and one from the second quarter (Physics 1042). Are students
consistent in their group participation or do they agree to a group dynamic? As seen in
Table 3-24 (page 126), these six students appear to have a fairly consistent degree of
participation in terms of the percentage of total claims compared to total statements.
Student KF in particular is very consistent by making no claims in either session. (The
table is sorted by Member and then by the session and quarter in which they were taped.)