Many may think that it is a joke when one says that the most substantive problem about which students
frequently complain is that they fail to understand physics. Indeed they do because it does not make sense to them at
all. A physicist, Redish (2005) states that they (the instructors) are often surprised by how their students seem to
know so little mathematics despite successful performance in mathematics classes. The reason is that the symbols
used in physics, unlike mathematics, are not arbitrarily chosen and thereby represent certain physical quantities and
are loaded by certain physical meanings. It follows that physics students fail to attach the physical meanings to the
symbols of equations and formulae. In other words, the problems of physics are not like those of mathematics and
one cannot solve a physics problem like solving a purely mathematical one. Thus, a difficulty met in physics
education is that the students are not capable of interpreting the symbols occurred in equations.
In another paper, Smigiel & Sonntag (2013) states similar problems in physics education in France. According to
them, a majority of teachers just concentrates on mathematical calculations rather than on actual scientific concepts
and hence students cannot comprehend the meaning behind the formulae.
In the aforementioned paper Redish (2005) describes a model for the use of mathematics in sciences: First of all a
scientist discerns a physical system to be described. And then the first step comes, i.e. he maps the physical structure
into a mathematical model. Secondly, in the process step, to transform the initial description he is involved in some
mathematical manipulations. In the third, he interprets his results in terms of physical terms again and finally
evaluates whether the results fit to the physical system chosen at the beginning.
Although Redish takes this description to be a description of the use of mathematics in science, it can be seen as a
description of the methodology of science. Each of these steps is controversial and still being discussed in the
philosophy of science today. For the present purpose, however, I leave the question whether this description
represents science at all. At least it is sufficient to state that similar descriptions can be found in many text-books.
Redish (2005) then goes on to admit that the traditional instruction of mathematics in physics does not help
students focus on these important steps except the process step:
“We tend to provide our students with the model readymade, and we may be exasperated – or even
irritated – if they focus on details that we know to be irrelevant. We tend to let them do the
mathematical manipulations in the process step, and we rarely ask them to interpret their results and
even less often ask them to evaluate whether the initial model is adequate” (p.7).
Consequently, one of the main problems in physics education can be stated as follows:
The students are not provided with the steps of the scientific activity . This, one can conclude, is the very reason
of why students are not able to interpret the symbols in the equations.
Another problem is about students’ pre-scientific epistemological beliefs and as far as I am concerned this issue is
discussed in detail by educational scientists. And this, I can say, is as fundamental as the previous one. Let us pass
on to this.
Many of the physicists and the philosophers of science say that quantum mechanics is counter-intuitive and has
deeply changed our understanding of the world. Very few, like Mittelstaedt (2005) claim that quantum mechanics is
more intuitive than classical mechanics. And some like Wolpert (1992) maintains that science is by nature counterintuitive.
Similarly Lappi (2013) gives some detail of how pre-scientific (or common-sense) beliefs cause students to
misinterpret scientific content. And again, in a study which defends the use of history of science in science teaching,
Leone (2014) shows that some conceptual difficulties faced by students are similar to the very difficulties faced by
Onur Kabil / Procedia - Social and Behavioral Sciences 197 ( 2015 ) 675 – 679 677
scientists of the nineteenth century. If it is really so, then the inclusion of history of science in science education
becomes a compulsory part of this education. Similarly, in an article concerning the students’ understanding the
concept of spin Ozcan (2013) states that:
“Difficulties usually emerge from the problem of mental representations constructed by students in
their interactions with the world (Gentner, 1983; Greca & Moreira, 2000; Johnson-Laird, 1983). This
previous knowledge and these ideas are in contradiction with scientific facts, and are known as
misconceptions or alternative ideas” (p.22).
As one can see, as if science (here physics) has an idiosyncratic language in that one should, before taking
physics courses, be informed of this distinctive characteristic of it. In opposition to scholars who put emphasi