About the framework
Many students can follow a carefully organized solution in lecture, yet revert to formula matching and numerical substitution when they work on their own. The six-step framework is designed to make the reasoning process more deliberate: understand the physical situation, choose principles and equations for a reason, work symbolically, and evaluate the result.
This page collects practical materials for instructors and students, together with the research paper describing the framework and its classroom implementation.
Instructor video
A practical introduction to the framework, evidence, grading, and classroom implementation.
The six steps
Understand through physics
Reconstruct the physical situation, sketch it, identify the relevant principles, and separate a multi-stage problem into phases when needed.
Identify equations
Choose equations because they represent the physical principles involved, and be able to explain why they apply.
Adapt to context
Assign symbols, connect knowns to unknowns, apply the specific conditions of the problem, and make sign and coordinate choices explicit.
Solve symbolically
Keep variables visible, carry out the mathematical solution, and check dimensions before substituting numerical values.
Compute the answer
Substitute numerical values and check units, sign or direction, and order of magnitude.
Evaluate and reflect
Ask whether the result makes physical sense, test what happens when a variable becomes very large, very small, or zero, and look for another way to check the result.
Materials
For Students
Student handout
A one-page reference with the six steps and the questions students should ask while solving.
Open PDF →For Instructors
Instructor guide
A one-page guide to assignment structure, grading, feedback, workload, and a practical starting point.
Open PDF →Research
Published paper
Problem Solving in Physics Classes: Navigating Fast and Slow Thinking, American Journal of Physics 94, 607–613 (2026).
Open DOI →Evidence from the classroom study
In a calculus-based introductory physics course, 63 students were randomly assigned to two groups. Both groups received the same short introduction to the six-step framework. The key experimental difference was repeated written use during homework.
Cohen's d ≈ 0.65; p < 0.05. The study involved one cohort at one institution. The intervention combined structured written practice, reflection, and grading/accountability, so the study does not isolate which component produced the observed difference.
Getting Started
The study used four selected, conceptually demanding problems per homework set. An instructor who wants to try the approach can begin more modestly with one or two structured problems per week, while keeping the existing online homework system for numerical answers. Students can write the selected solutions by hand in their own notebooks, and the work can be collected periodically in person or as scanned PDFs.
The goal is not more written work. It is repeated practice in deliberate reasoning.
Reference
A. Godunov, “Problem Solving in Physics Classes: Navigating Fast and Slow Thinking,” American Journal of Physics 94, 607–613 (2026). DOI: 10.1119/5.0269803