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Drawing appropriate diagrams is a useful problem solving heuristic that cantransform a problem into a representation that is easier to exploit for solvingit. One major focus while helping introductory physics students learn effectiveproblem solving is to help them understand that drawing diagrams can facilitateproblem solution. We conducted an investigation in which two differentinterventions were implemented during recitation quizzes in a large enrollmentalgebra-based introductory physics course. Students were either (i) asked tosolve problems in which the diagrams were drawn for them or (ii) explicitlytold to draw a diagram. A comparison group was not given any instructionregarding diagrams. We developed rubrics to score the problem solvingperformance of students in different intervention groups and investigated tenproblems. We found that students who were provided diagrams never performedbetter and actually performed worse than the other students on three problems,one involving standing sound waves in a tube (discussed elsewhere) and twoproblems in electricity which we focus on here. These two problems were theonly problems in electricity that involved considerations of initial and finalconditions, which may partly account for why students provided with diagramsperformed significantly worse than students who were not provided withdiagrams. In order to explore potential reasons for this finding, we conductedinterviews with students and found that some students provided with diagramsmay have spent less time on the conceptual analysis and planning stage of theproblem solving process. In particular, those provided with the diagram weremore likely to jump into the implementation stage of problem solving earlywithout fully analyzing and understanding the problem, which can increase thelikelihood of mistakes in solutions.

Case of two electrostatics problems: Can providing a diagram adversely impact introductory physics students' problem solving performance?