The Physics Problem-Solving Taxonomy (PPST): Development and Application for Evaluating Student Learning

Larisa Shakhman; Moshe Barak

doi:10.29333/ejmste/109266

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Larisa Shakhman ¹, Moshe Barak ¹ ^*

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¹ Ben Gurion University of the Negev, Beer Sheva, ISRAEL^* Corresponding Author

Abstract

This study addresses the development and evaluation of the Physics Problem-Solving Taxonomy (PPST), comprising five levels: retrieval, diagnosis, strategy, conceptual, and creative thinking. The taxonomy draws on Bloom’s revised taxonomy in the cognitive domain, the Types of Knowledge Taxonomy, and the Problem-Solving Taxonomy in engineering. The study includes applying PPST to analyze the content of the Israeli national physics exam (the Bagrut), student Bagrut scores (n = 18,000), and student answers to a school-level physics exam (n = 164). The findings indicate that in both the Bagrut and the school exam, the higher an item ranks on PPST, the lower the students’ grades on this item. In addition, the distribution of student scores on the two exams is similar, indicating high reliability and validity of the PPST scale. This tool could help physics teachers to rank difficulty levels of the high school physics exam questions, and create high school physics questions, to foster students’ proficiency in physics problem solving.

Keywords

curriculum
evaluation
physics
problem solving
taxonomy

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This is an open access article distributed under the Creative Commons Attribution License which permits unrestricted use, distribution, and reproduction in any medium, provided the original work is properly cited.

Article Type: Research Article

EURASIA J Math Sci Tech Ed, Volume 15, Issue 11, November 2019, Article No: em1764

https://doi.org/10.29333/ejmste/109266

Publication date: 09 May 2019

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How to cite this article

APA

Shakhman, L., & Barak, M. (2019). The Physics Problem-Solving Taxonomy (PPST): Development and Application for Evaluating Student Learning. Eurasia Journal of Mathematics, Science and Technology Education, 15(11), em1764. https://doi.org/10.29333/ejmste/109266

Vancouver

Shakhman L, Barak M. The Physics Problem-Solving Taxonomy (PPST): Development and Application for Evaluating Student Learning. EURASIA J Math Sci Tech Ed. 2019;15(11):em1764. https://doi.org/10.29333/ejmste/109266

AMA

Shakhman L, Barak M. The Physics Problem-Solving Taxonomy (PPST): Development and Application for Evaluating Student Learning. EURASIA J Math Sci Tech Ed. 2019;15(11), em1764. https://doi.org/10.29333/ejmste/109266

Chicago

Shakhman, Larisa, and Moshe Barak. "The Physics Problem-Solving Taxonomy (PPST): Development and Application for Evaluating Student Learning". Eurasia Journal of Mathematics, Science and Technology Education 2019 15 no. 11 (2019): em1764. https://doi.org/10.29333/ejmste/109266

Harvard

Shakhman, L., and Barak, M. (2019). The Physics Problem-Solving Taxonomy (PPST): Development and Application for Evaluating Student Learning. Eurasia Journal of Mathematics, Science and Technology Education, 15(11), em1764. https://doi.org/10.29333/ejmste/109266

MLA

Shakhman, Larisa et al. "The Physics Problem-Solving Taxonomy (PPST): Development and Application for Evaluating Student Learning". Eurasia Journal of Mathematics, Science and Technology Education, vol. 15, no. 11, 2019, em1764. https://doi.org/10.29333/ejmste/109266