‘Touchy-Feely Vectors’ changes students’ understanding and modes of reasoning

Abstract

Studies have found that student understanding of abstract topics such as vectors, critical to learning physics and its application areas, is limited. Students appear to be relatively fluent with the algebra of vectors, but lack geometric imagination. One possible reason for this could be the paper-based medium currently used to learn and reason about vectors. We use an interactive computational system named TFV (Touchy Feely Vectors), which connects the algebra and the geometric representations involved in vectors, and allows students to learn addition and resolution of vectors in an interactive way. We report results from a short intervention based on a series of tasks designed using TFV, where students explored the conceptual possibilities of the interactive system. We examine in detail two student cases of conceptual change based on the system, illustrating how interaction with such enactive media could restructure complex concepts. These case studies could provide us insights into the mechanisms of learning of abstract concepts afforded by computers and other digital media and provide educational researchers a base to design and develop better curricular and pedagogical interventions.