Making sense of Physics in the first year of study

Abstract

We address the question "How do students make sense of Physics from the point of view of constituting physics knowledge?". A phenomenographic study is described as a result of which we present six qualitatively different ways in which students experience the first year of Physics. The variation is analysed in terms of the structure of experience, the nature of knowlege and an ethical aspect related to the identification of authority. Three of these ways of experiencing the first year are considered to be unproductive in terms of making sense of physics, while the other three support, to an increasing degree, the formation of a well-grounded physics knowledge object. Implications for practice are considered.