PROCEEDINGS OF THE 23RD ANNUAL CONFERENCE ON RESEARCH IN UNDERGRADUATE MATHEMATICS EDUCATION
2020
Boston, Massachusetts
A framework of covariational reasoning in introductory physics
Page: 1272
Mathematics education researchers have developed frameworks characterizing covariational reasoning. Here we present an early draft of an analogous framework for the covariational reasoning required in introductory-level physics. The framework is based on the premise that a proceptual understanding of physics quantities and their representations is the foundation of productive covariational reasoning in physics; physicists not only “imagine a continuum of input values in the domain of the function producing a continuum of output values,” (Carlson, Oehrtman, & Engelke, 2010) but also conceive and make sense of the inputs and outputs of each function as physical quantities. Our work indicates that physics experts use a number of distinct strategies to reduce cognitive demands so that covariational reasoning and making sense of physical quantities can be performed simultaneously. These strategies form the connection between sensemaking about quantity and successful covariational reasoning in physics contexts at the introductory level and beyond.