The scientific role of hypotheses and the reasoning of college students in physics problem solving

This paper attempts to explore how freshmen college students in engineering state hypoteses to build their own problem solving structure when dealing with physics problems. From the constructivist perspective of the teaching and learning process hypotheses stating plays a fundamental role to check the coherence of students' ideas against the theoretical framework. The main instruments to accede to students' reasoning were their written solutions to four problematic situations in which they were asked to state hypotheses. The protocols were analysed according to a standard methodology. In this paper two of such problematic situations and the corresponding cathegorization schemes are presented in addition to reseach findings and conclusions.