Search results for "PHYSICS EDUCATION"
showing 10 items of 101 documents
Particle Physics in High School: A Diagnose Study
2016
Abstract The science learning process improves when the contents are connected to students' lives. Particle physics has had a great impact in our society in the last years and has changed the theoretical picture about matter fundamental dynamics. Thus, we think that academic contents about matter components and interactions should be updated. With this study we aim to characterize the level of knowledge of high school students about this topic. We built a test with questions about classical atomic models, particle physics, recent discoveries, social implications and students opinions about it. Contrary to our first suspicion, students' answers show a high variability. They have new physics …
Meeting the Discipline-Culture Framework of Physics Knowledge: A Teaching Experience in Italian Secondary School
2014
The paper deals with physics teaching/learning in high school. An investigation in three upper secondary school classes in Italy explored the reactions of students to a structuring lecture on optics within the discipline-culture (DC) framework that organises physics knowledge around four interrelated fundamental theories of light. The lecture presented optics as an unfolding conceptual discourse of physicists regarding the nature of light. Along with the knowledge constructed in a school course of a scientific lyceum, the students provided epistemological comments, displaying their perception of physics knowledge presented in the classroom. Students’ views and knowledge were investigated by…
A framework for designing experimental tasks in contemporary physics lab courses
2023
While lab courses are an integral part of studying physics aiming at a huge variety of learning objectives, research has shown that typical lab courses do not reach all the desired goals. While diverse approaches by lab instructors and researchers try to increase the effectiveness of lab courses, experimental tasks remain the core of any lab course. To keep an overview of these developments and to give instructors (and researchers) a guideline for their own professional efforts at hand, we introduce a research-informed framework for designing experimental tasks in contemporary physics lab courses. In addition, we demonstrate within the scope of the EU-co-funded DigiPhysLab-project how the f…
Pedagogical approaches to surface phenomena in liquids: Investigation-based laboratory and modelling activities to improve students’ learning
2023
Paperclips can float on water, mercury drops do not spread on solid surfaces, and fluids can flow against gravity in capillary tubes. Surface tension can be used to explain these phenomena that are macroscopic manifestations of microscopic molecular interactions. At both school and university levels, surface phenomena are introduced through traditional macroscopic or microscopic approaches. However, since explanations based on microscopic models are often in conflict with common macroscopic interpretations, the traditional teaching of the basic concepts related to surface phenomena can be unclear and can prevent students from an effective understanding of the topic. However, since surface p…
An inquiry based approach to physics teacher Education: the case of found properties
2010
In this paper we describe some results of an approach to Pre-Service Physics Teacher Education whose general aim is to analyze how Problem-Based activities in pre-service teacher education courses can support the understanding of content, the development of inquiry skills and of pedagogical competences, as well as the merging of these in a form of knowledge appropriate for teaching. The experimentation has been performed with a group of non-Italian Trainee Teachers engaged in one-month mobility activities at University of Palermo, in the framework of the EU Project “Move’in Science”, focused in Physics and/or Mathematics Pre-Service Teacher Education. We briefly discuss a Teaching/Learning …
Fluids in Equilibrium and Hydrodynamics
2023
Teaching fluid mechanics applied to undergraduate and graduate students of STEM disciplines has traditionally been a difficult task for the teacher. It connects to the use of more or less complex mathematics, computer science, and numerical methods. In this chapter, after a brief discussion about the development of pedagogical approaches to introduce students to fluid mechanics from 1950 to today, we discuss some relevant examples of Physics Education Research (PER) literature pieces related to teaching and learning specific aspects of fluid mechanics. The aim is to understand how PER has contributed to our current knowledge in that field, how it has evolved in terms of methodologies used, …
Informal physics teaching for a better society: a mooc-based and context-driven experience on learning radioactivity
2020
Abstract The general objective of teaching physics is to provide the learners with useful knowledge, in terms of both interdisciplinary scientific concepts and practical problem-solving skills. In this work, we report the experimental evidence, collected during a first year physics class in an upper secondary technical school, for the urgent necessity to adopt an informal and inquiry-based strategy to teach physics effectively, in particular to all those students living in degraded socio-economic environments. Within the pedagogical framework of “Learning by Doing” and the paradigm “Learning by Teaching”, we have explored the benefits of the students’ participation to an informal ICT-based …
MASTER IDIFO (INNOVAZIONE DIDATTICA IN FISICA E ORIENTAMENTO): A COMMUNITY OF ITALIAN PHYSICS EDUCATION RESEARCHERS AND TEACHERS AS A MODEL FOR A RES…
2011
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 scienti c illiteracy in young people and a worrying decreasing interest in physics emerging from OCSE-PISA data. The project PLS is nanced 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…
Learner-generated drawings in physics education
2013
Different kinds of visual representations, such as graphs and drawings are important in education but especially in science education. Little attention is paid especially to drawings. Students are required to examine drawings and assimilate the information conveyed by them but not much attention is paid to the students’ own drawings. Arguments can be made for the importance of learner-generated drawings in science education. The subject of this thesis is the use of learner-generated drawings in physics education. A study was conducted to study the use of learner-generated drawings as a tool for meaning-making. The study involved 36 upper secondary school students who were given a drawing as…
Developing Epistemologically Empowered Teachers: An Approach to Preservice Physics Teacher Education Focusing on History and Philosophy of Science
2009
It has been extensively acknowledged by educational researchers and teacher educators that the main goal of science education is to make student aware that science is an important component of our cultural heritage, with the final purpose of forming the citizen. In order to realize this goal, school science teachers need to possess a basic knowledge of History and Philosophy of Science (HPS) that gives an overall perception of the subject taught in its relationships with other fields and everyday life. In the present chapter, attention is given to the problem of HPS in physics teachers education, by designing a model of intervention aimed at deepening and widening the teachers’ disciplinary…