Using causal networks to represent the targets of resource coordination

Abstract

The resources framework emphasizes the potential productivity of student intuitions for constructing a canonical understanding of physics. It models learning as the progressive coordination and refinement of these resources. Yet, there is a lack of theoretical clarity about how resources should be coordinated and refined to align with canonical physics. We present causal network diagrams as a tool for representing the targets of research coordination. As an example, we compare student reasoning about projectile motion to the causal network describing that motion. We argue that the causal networks make manifest and explicit two types of resource coordination required to achieve a correct physical understanding: (i) integrating additional causal influences and mediators and (ii) using qualitative logic to draw valid inferences.