Detection of missing and irrelevant information within paper and pencil physics problems

Secondary 5 students from four schools in Hong Kong were required to classify 18 paper and pencil physics problems in terms of whether the problems contain necessary and sufficient, missing or irrelevant information for their solution. Students' ability to denote missing information correlated rather highly with the solution rates of the problems. In another test, students were asked to classify whether the problems in each of six pairs were similar to or different from each other according to students' self-determined criteria. Students who used a deep structure (i.e. used the underlying physics principles) to classify the problems have significantly higher scores in detecting missing and irrelevant information and in the solution rates than those who used surface structure or features for classification. It is argued that a student who is able to identify what information is sufficient, missing or irrelevant for solving a problem understands the problem structure and so is better able to solve it. Such a student is likely to adopt a deep structure in categorizing physics problems. This latter result corroborates with the findings of the expert-novice research paradigm. Specializations: physics education, alternative conceptions of science, computer-assisted learning, problem solving.