How physics teachers approach innovation: An empirical study for reconstructing the appropriation path in the case of special relativity (original) (raw)
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Journal of Physics: Conference Series, 2019
The objective of this study is to understand how a curriculum of an initial physics teacher education programme introduces elements of research in physics education for future teachers. This study is justified by the need to reduce the gap between what educational research outcomes says and what is practiced in the classroom, taking the initial teacher training as a possible way to bridge this gap. We present analysis of curricular documents of an initial teacher education programme in Brazil, mainly the Pedagogical Project and Teaching Plans of the subjects Methodology and Practice of Physics Teaching, and we based on Discourse Analysis as a theoretical-methodological framework. Analysis of the curricular documents of the programme indicates that there are several topics that are being studied by the researchers in physics education such as alternative conceptions, CTS relations and didactic laboratories, present in the curriculum. However, the various possible interpretations for ...
Different approaches to research and innovation in physics education at college and university
Journal of Physics: Conference Series
In this article we report a Symposium organized by GTG-Physics Education Research at University (PERU) with different proposals that includes innovative educational approaches and research on problems of teaching-learning physics at university. In the second section, two research projects are described on teaching specific curriculum topics that present special difficulties for students. In the next section the third project on a work experience in the laboratory that takes into account the characteristics of scientific work, is presented. Finally, the fourth project presents a way to investigate the types of student reasoning. In the discussion, the importance of research projects that include not only conceptual understanding but also those areas such as laboratory work or “on-line physics courses” that involve practicing skills of scientific work, is highlighted.
2003
This paper discusses some problems in innovating in the context of the school system in Catalonia and Italy. The process leading to reform of secondary education is briefly described. The issue of teachers’ interpretations and reactions to the guidelines of reforms and innovations is focused on. For basic science education, two specific innovative teaching proposals about Energy and Motion/ Force are briefly described, together with a study of teachers’ interpretations of their rationale and guidelines. The main transforming trends of these interpretations are discussed: these indicate that since teachers are major actors in the school innovation process, unless they internalise the proposed approaches, no real, successful implementation in classroom practice will take place. Finally, some guidelines and recommendations are suggested, which will interest education policy makers and teacher education agencies.
This work presents the results of a survey of high-school physics teachers who participated in a curricula Innovation project. Using teaching and learning sequences of modern physics subjects produced by a university team, these teachers adapted and implemented innovative activities in their respective classrooms. Through semi-structured interviews, the study sought to identify the teachers' perception of the innovation processes in which they participated as agents. The results seem to indicate that the project's success was related to risk-management and the degree of teaching autonomy that the teachers developed. The teachers were able to acknowledge their role in transforming the innovation process. Surveys such as this can guide both the development of Didactic Sequences as well as the development of theoretical methods and tools for in-service and pre-service training for other teachers. This may assist them in future innovations. 1
Since 2005, the Italian Universities have promoted initiatives for school-university cooperation in the framework of a national project (PLS) to face the problems of a substantial scientific illiteracy in young people and a worrying decreasing interest in physics emerging from OCSE-PISA data. The project PLS is financed by the Ministry for Education and Universities and coordinates 65 local university projects in mathematics, physics, chemistry and material science. The collaboration of Universities with teachers in the PLS physics section is an important goal realized in different ways. The Italian university Physics Education Research Unit (IPERU), cooperating with national research projects on physics education over the last 15 years, joined in a proposal for PLS consisting of a national pilot II level Master (post Master Degree) on innovations in teaching and learning physics and guidance for in-service teacher development in modern physics and problem solving. The Master (Master IDIFO) is realized through the cooperation of 15 IPERU, led by Udine. The Physics Education Research (PER) is present in the Master IDIFO in various dimensions: the materials used for teacher development are research products, and the activities proposed include research-based school experiments (teaching experiments). The development processes in the context of pedagogical content knowledge (PCK) is monitored to individualise elements for a model of in-service teacher development in modern physics.
International Journal of Academic Research, 2013
In this study, the viewpoints of physics teacher candidates at undergraduate level towards the concepts in special theory of relativity and the interpretations they made about these concepts were investigated. The viewpoints of the teacher candidates towards the concepts in the subject of special theory of relativity were revealed with six open ended questions prepared by the writers who are physics teachers as well. The research is a qualitative study and the study was conducted with eighteen teacher candidates. In this study, case study, one of the methods of qualitative research, was used. The study group of the research was chosen by convenience sampling. The data collected via open ended questions was analysed by descriptive analysis method. According to the results of the study, it was revealed that most of the students have not been introduced to the special theory of relativity and the concepts related to them. It could be stated that the candidates had difficulty with the relativity of time and its reference frame. Most of the teacher candidates could not make the interpretation that the speed of light was the limit speed and no other object could reach that speed.
The distinction between key ideas in teaching a high school science and key ideas in the corresponding discipline of science has been largely ignored in scholarly discourse about what science teachers should teach and about what they should know. This article clarifies this distinction through exploring how and why key ideas in teaching high school physics differ from key ideas in the discipline of physics. Its theoretical underpinnings include Dewey’s (1902/1990) distinction between the psychological and the logical and Harre´’s (1986) epistemology of science. It analyzes how and why the key ideas in teaching color, the speed of light, and light interference at the high school level differ from the key ideas at the disciplinary level. The thesis is that key ideas in teaching high school physics can differ from key ideas in the discipline in some significant ways, and that the differences manifest Dewey’s distinction. As a result, the article challenges the assumption of equating key ideas in teaching a high school science with key ideas in the corresponding discipline of science, and the assumption that having a college degree in science is sufficient to teach high school science. Furthermore, the article expands the concept of pedagogical content knowledge by arguing that key ideas in teaching high school physics constitute an essential component.
We report here part of a research project developed by the Science Education Research Group, titled: "Teachers' Pedagogical Practices and formative processes in Science and Mathematics Education" which main goal is the development of coordinated research that can generate a set of subsidies for a reflection on the processes of teacher training in Sciences and Mathematics Education. One of the objectives was to develop continuing education activities with Physics teachers, using the History and Philosophy of Science as conductors of the discussions and focus of teaching experiences carried out by them in the classroom. From data collected through a survey among local Science, Physics, Chemistry, Biology and Mathematics teachers in Bauru, a São Paulo State city, we developed a continuing education proposal titled "The History and Philosophy of Science in the Physics teachers' pedagogical practice", lasting 40 hours of lessons. We followed the performance of five teachers who participated in activities during the 2008 first semester and were teaching Physics at High School level. They designed proposals for short courses, taking into consideration aspects of History and Philosophy of Science and students' alternative conceptions. Short courses were applied in real classrooms situations and accompanied by reflection meetings. This is a qualitative research, and treatment of data collected was based on content analysis, according to Bardin [1].
Physics Teaching in the Search for Its Self
Science & Education, 2005
The crisis in physics education necessitates searching for new relevant meanings of physics knowledge. This paper advocates regarding physics as the dialogue among disciplinecultures, rather than as a cluster of disciplines to be an appropriate subject of science education. In a discipline-culture one can distinguish elements of knowledge as belonging to either (1) central principles and paradigms -nucleus, (2) normal disciplinary area -body of knowledge or (3) rival knowledge of the subject -periphery. It appears that Physics cannot be represented as a simple dynamic wholeness, that is, cannot be arranged in a single tripartite (triadic) structure (this result presents a deconstruction), but incorporates several discipline-cultures. Bound together by family similarity, they maintain a conceptual discourse. Teaching physics as a culture is performed in polyphonic space of different worldviews; in other words, it is performed in a Kontrapunkt. Implications of the tripartite code are suggested with regard to representation of scientific revolutions, individual conceptual change, physics curricula and the typology of students learning science.
Science & Education, 2010
This paper discusses some topics that stem from recent contributions made by the History, the Philosophy, and the Didactics of Science. We consider these topics relevant to the introduction of the Special Relativity Theory (SRT) in high school within a contextualized approach. We offer an outline of a teaching-learning sequence dealing with the SRT within this frame of reference. Such a sequence was tried out on a group of high school students in Argentina. The results obtained seem to indicate that the proposal has been effective as regards the motivational aspects and the understanding students gained of some of its concepts.