Yang, Jie2019-12-112019-12-112019-08https://hdl.handle.net/11299/209028University of Minnesota Ph.D. dissertation. August 2019. Major: Physics. Advisors: Kenneth Heller, Yuichi Yuichi. 1 computer file (PDF); xii, 112 pages.Problem solving is both a primary goal and a standard teaching technique in introductory physics classes at the university level. To assess the utility of various pedagogical materials and techniques, it is necessary to determine student problem solving performance in the authentic situation of the course. However, this performance depends on both the student’s problem-solving skill and the problem difficulty. This dissertation proposes a technique for measuring the relative difficulty of the type of physics problems typically used in introductory physics courses for physical science and engineering students. Four categories, the problem context, the physics principles, the mathematical complexity, and the number of words in the problem, were constructed based on current cognitive theories. To test the validity of this measure, 3552 student grades on 20 final examination problems, spanning the full range of topics in a one-year introductory physics course, were compared to each problem difficulty rating. Only two categories, physics principles and mathematical complexity, were needed to account for most of the student problem solving variance. Using the average of those two categories, there was an 88% Pearson correlation between the difficulty score and the students’ problem solving grade with a P value < 0.001, with null hypothesis is the correlation coefficient between difficulty score and the students’ problem solving grade is not significantly different from zero. Three experts used the difficulty measure to test its reliability and had a pairwise Spearman correlation between their difficulty ratings of greater than 94%.enThesis or Dissertation