physics problem solving

The purpose of this study was to test the multivariable model of physics problem solving in skilled and novice students physics. this study in terms of purpose is descriptive, in nature, is the fundamental study and in terms of method is the correlation research. 360 students of Urmia university department of physics were selected by Purposefully sampling method, so that the senior students were considered as skilled and freshmen students were considered as a novice group. Research questionnaires consisted of Motivation Inventory Questionnaire, metaevaluation questions, five physics problems designed to assess using unstructured diagrams strategies, Social Support Questionnaire, and eight problem to assess conceptual knowledge. The results showed that social support, motivation, metacognition, strategy, free-body diagrams and classification issues in terms of a causal model able to predict students' problem solving and explains about 26% changes of students' problem-solving. Goodness of fit indices showed that the tested model has a adequately fit with the collected data. Also fitting indicators suggest that the model is generally fitted in the elite group is superior to the novice group. The results also showed that the Fitness indices of model in skilled group were beter than novice group.