Self-Diagnosis, Scaffolding and Transfer: A Tale of Two Problems

Helping students learn from their own mistakes can help them develop habits of mind while learning physics content. Based upon cognitive apprenticeship model, we asked students to self-diagnose their mistakes and learn from reflecting on their problem solution. Varying levels of scaffolding support were provided to students in different groups to diagnose their errors on two context-rich problems that students originally solved in recitation quizzes. Here, we discuss students' cognitive engagement in the two self-diagnosis activities and transfer tasks with different scaffolds.