Successful transfer of algebraic skills from mathematics into physics in senior pre-university education

Science teachers have the experience that students in secondary and higher education face difficulties with applying mathematics into science class, leaving less time for their core business of teaching science. This may be frustrating and time-consuming, overshadowing the science content that needs to be taught. In addition, in a large number of countries, science curricula are overloaded, compelling science teachers to fit their program into a seriously reduced instruction time, making inefficient transfer of mathematics in science even more harmful. In this study, we examined students’ transfer of algebraic skills from mathematics into physics in senior pre-university education. We aimed at improving this transfer to solve algebraic physics problems.