Exploring pedagogical content knowledge of physics teaching assistants using the Energy and Momentum Conceptual Survey
Abstract
This study examines the extent to which physics graduate teaching assistants (TAs) are aware of introductory physics student thinking and the types of challenges introductory students commonly have with energy and momentum concepts, which is important for implementing active learning methodologies and supporting diverse learners in physics courses. We present findings from a TA professional development course and discuss an approach to investigate TAs' pedagogical content knowledge, specifically their ability to recognize introductory student conceptual difficulties. We investigated 70 first-year graduate TAs' ability to identify common introductory physics student difficulties on the Energy and Momentum Conceptual Survey (EMCS). The TAs participated in a professional development course that emphasized reflection on introductory student thinking patterns to promote evidence-based pedagogical practices. TAs predicted the most common incorrect answers introductory students would select after lecture-based instruction, then compared their predictions with actual data from introductory students followed by a class discussion. Results reveal gaps between TAs' perceptions and introductory student thinking, with TAs performing poorly on many of the analyzed questions. For example, TAs consistently overestimated that introductory physics students would use novice-like thinking in many situations posed in EMCS problems, i.e., they expected introductory physics students to make more novice-like errors than they did. These findings have important implications for effective instructional design, e.g., physics TAs who misunderstand introductory physics student capabilities may inadvertently create barriers to learning by spending valuable class time on either over-scaffolding or under-challenging introductory physics learners and not spending time on pedagogical issues that are important to address.
Related
- Grades, equity and graduation rates: a quantitative analysis of the association of learning assistants with improved student outcomes
- From hyperplanes to hyperellipsoids: a pedagogical bridge from linear classifiers to single-qubit mixed-state classifiers
- BRST quantization for the restoration of broken symmetries: a pedagogical example
- Gravity, Entropy, and the Second Law: A Pedagogical Perspective
- A Pedagogical Introduction to Anomalies in Quantum Field Theory
BibTeX
@misc{doyle2026exploring,
title = {{Exploring pedagogical content knowledge of physics teaching assistants using the Energy and Momentum Conceptual Survey}},
author = {Liam Doyle and Alexandru Maries and Chandralekha Singh},
howpublished = {arXiv},
year = {2026},
month = sep,
doi = {10.48550/arxiv.2609.28423},
eprint = {2609.28423},
archivePrefix = {arXiv},
url = {https://arxiv.org/abs/2609.28423},
}
RIS
TY - UNPB
TI - Exploring pedagogical content knowledge of physics teaching assistants using the Energy and Momentum Conceptual Survey
AU - Liam Doyle
AU - Alexandru Maries
AU - Chandralekha Singh
PY - 2026
DA - 2026/09/23
PB - arXiv
DO - 10.48550/arxiv.2609.28423
UR - https://arxiv.org/abs/2609.28423
AB - This study examines the extent to which physics graduate teaching assistants (TAs) are aware of introductory physics student thinking and the types of challenges introductory students commonly have with energy and momentum concepts, which is important for implementing active learning methodologies and supporting diverse learners in physics courses. We present findings from a TA professional development course and discuss an approach to investigate TAs' pedagogical content knowledge, specifically their ability to recognize introductory student conceptual difficulties. We investigated 70 first-year graduate TAs' ability to identify common introductory physics student difficulties on the Energy and Momentum Conceptual Survey (EMCS). The TAs participated in a professional development course that emphasized reflection on introductory student thinking patterns to promote evidence-based pedagogical practices. TAs predicted the most common incorrect answers introductory students would select after lecture-based instruction, then compared their predictions with actual data from introductory students followed by a class discussion. Results reveal gaps between TAs' perceptions and introductory student thinking, with TAs performing poorly on many of the analyzed questions. For example, TAs consistently overestimated that introductory physics students would use novice-like thinking in many situations posed in EMCS problems, i.e., they expected introductory physics students to make more novice-like errors than they did. These findings have important implications for effective instructional design, e.g., physics TAs who misunderstand introductory physics student capabilities may inadvertently create barriers to learning by spending valuable class time on either over-scaffolding or under-challenging introductory physics learners and not spending time on pedagogical issues that are important to address.
ER -