Empirical evidence of the inseparability of mathematics and physics in expert reasoning about novel graphing tasks

Abstract

Pre-college mathematics modeling instruction often frames mathematics as being separated from reasoning about the real world -- and commonly treats reasoning mathematically and reasoning about the real-world context as separate stages of a modeling cycle. In this paper, we present evidence that helps characterize how experts use mathematics in physics contexts while developing graphical models. An important finding is that there was essentially no evidence of experts reasoning in a context-free way with these tasks, but instead they used physical reasoning -- either grounded in the context of the task or from abstract physical models -- to guide their mathematics. The difference in approach of physics instructors and students may lead to a mismatch in expectations, and frustration, for both parties. This work contributes to the body of knowledge about how mathematical reasoning appears in physics, and can help researchers and instructors recognize the connections to the physical world in expert mathematical reasoning. This can help instructors and researchers be better equipped to develop materials and methods that can help students start building those connections as well.