Abstract

The purpose of this research is to understand why sometimes a student can solve a problem correctly and cannot solve another problem when both of them are apparently similar, in terms that those problems assess the same concepts and mathematical skills. We have used resource graphs [1] to analyze the solutions presented by physics students in a course of Mathematical Methods in problems that involve the application of the expansion of functions in power series. The different solutions of students were translated in diagrams, which have clarified the differences between problems that are apparently similar. Footnotes: [1] M. C. Wittmann, Phys. Rev. ST Phys. Educ. Res. 2, 020105 (2006).