Physics 641: Physics Pedagogy
An On-line Course for Teachers of Physics

Week 14: Developing Student Problem Solving Skills

Developing problem solving skills for students is one of the most important tasks that teachers have, but at the same time, it is one of the most difficult. We are listing some resources below, but as part of your assignment, you will be asked to find further resources and to discuss some of your own successful techniques.

Read and review pages 36-40 of Five Easy Lessons by Knight

Read Chapter 5 on Vectors from Five Easy Lessons by Knight

Read the following article which discusses problem solving and conceptual understanding: http://piggy.rit.edu/franklin/PERC2001/Gerace.pdf

The next two references are specific to universities, but they should also be useful to help any student succeed in physics.
http://www.physics.hmc.edu/howto/problemsolving.html
http://ray.crk.umn.edu/~demuth/pp/problem_solving.html

Assignment