An explanatory model of physics faculty conceptions about the problem -solving process

One commonly stated instructor goal for an introductory calculus-based physics course is to improve students' problem-solving skills. There is, however, a growing body of research evidence to suggest that this goal is not frequently accomplished in a typical college or university physics course. In response to this evidence, researchers and curriculum developers have developed a wide variety of curricular materials and instructional strategies that have been shown to be more effective in improving student problem solving performance. In spite of the availability of these materials and strategies, relatively few physics instructors have chosen to use them. One likely reason is that these materials and strategies are not consistent with the ways that physics instructors think about the teaching and learning of problem solving. This has led the Physics Education Research Group at the University of Minnesota to undertake a multistage research program to understand physics instructors' conceptions about the teaching and learning of problem solving.;In the first stage, semi-structured interviews with higher education physics instructors in Minnesota were conducted. Based on an in-depth analysis of interview transcripts with six research university physics instructors, an initial explanatory model was developed that described the range and nature of conceptions for these instructors. Part of this initial model identified these instructors' conceptions of the problem-solving process. Around the same time, interviews were also conducted with 24 additional instructors from other types of higher education institutions in Minnesota.;The current study is the second stage of that research program. The goal of this study is to modify and refine the part of the initial explanatory model dealing with instructor conceptions about the problem-solving process using the 24 additional interviews. With the expanded sample, this current study seeks to converge on a more viable explanatory model of physics instructors' conceptions about the problem-solving process. The refined explanatory model developed in this study consisted of two qualitatively different conceptions of the problem-solving process. These two conceptions differed in the underlying nature of what problem solving entails, and also differed in their descriptions of the thinking processes that underlie successful problem solving.