Investigating Pre-Service Physics Teachers’ Understanding of Functions, Formulae and Equations in the Laboratory: A Pilot Study

Abstract The paper reports results from a study designed to identify pre-service physics teachers’ (PSTs) understanding of mathematical expressions in the undergraduate physics laboratory. One physics experimental practice is the analysis and explanation of experimental evidence whereby, PSTs calculate slopes for line graphs and rates of change along curved graphs and interpret them. Sixteen PSTs participated. Data sources included the lab reports PSTs submitted after each experiment, mid-term and final exam papers and follow-up interviews (based on lab reports). In addition, for the research purposes of the study, the PSTs designed and performed the insulation experiment, an experiment they had not performed before and for which they did not know any results a priori. We found that PSTs made sense of physics equations as “formulae”; that is for calculations only. They could not attribute a physical meaning to the concept of slope of line graphs. They had also difficulties in linking instantaneous rates of change with the derivative of a function in order to calculate instantaneous rates along a curved graph. Implications for instructional practice and further research are discussed.