Abstract:

The present study investigated and compared students´ strategies during solving physics tasks. The physics tasks were prepared as part of the project “NATURE”. To understand how students think during writing tests were used Eye-trackers and pen-tablets. Teachers can analyze outputs and they think about students´ strategies.

Although there are many quantitative studies about solving physics tasks, little research has focused on students´ strategies “step by step”. The present study wants to answer typical teachers´ questions: What students do during 45 minutes? How do they skip tasks? How long do they solve the part of the test? Why do they solve only a few tasks although they are working the whole 45 minutes?

Exploration was conducted in a public secondary school in Nový Jičín, the Czech Republic (Gymnasium, Nový Jičín). Three ninth-grade students participated in the activities. Video recordings of the activities and the students´ strategies were analyzed. Gymnasium cooperated with CVVPT Ostrava.

The results showed how students worked during tests, what they did every second of solving physics tasks.

School teachers could use an Eye-tracker and a pen-tablet during tests to understand how students think and solve problems. Teachers can find many answers and they could discover students´ strategies.

Activities similar to those reported here should be conducted using more participants. In addition, it is important to understand how students with different levels of physics achievement solve tasks.

Keywords:

Eye-tracker, pen-tablet, students´ strategies, physics tasks solving, human-technology interaction.