Quality Development in Teacher Education and Training

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Marisa Michelini

Groupe international de recherche sur l’enseignement de la Phisyque

Quality Development in Teacher Education and Training

Quality Development in Teacher Education and Training

International Commission on Physics Education of IUPAP (ICPE)

European Physical Society (EPS) Aì Division of Education

Second International GIREP Seminar 2003 Selected Contributions editor Marisa Michelini

European Physics Education Network (EUPEN)

American Association of Physics Teacher (AAPT)

University of Udine Interdepartmental Centre for Research in Education (CIRD)

University of Udine Interdepartmental Centre for Research in Education (CIRD)

Groupe international de recherche sur l’enseignement de la Phisyque

European Physical Society (EPS) Aì Division of Education

International Commission on Physics Education of IUPAP (ICPE)

European Physics Education Network (EUPEN)

American Association of Physics Teacher (AAPT)

Quality Development in Teacher Education and Training Girep book of Selected contributions of the Second International Girep Seminar, 1-6 September 2003, Udine, Italy

Editor Marisa Michelini Editorial Executive Committee Marisa Michelihni Silvia Pugliese Brenda Jemison Editorial board Jure Bajc, University of Lubjana, Slovenia Roy Barton, University of East Anglia, UK Michele D’Anna, Pedagogical Institute for Teacher Education, Locarno, Switzerland Anna De Ambrosis, University of Pavia, Italy Ton Ellermeijer, University of Amsterdam, The Netherlands Bodo Eckert, University of Kaiserslautern, Germany Manfred Euler, GIREP President, IPN, University of Kiel, Germany Lupo Donà dalle Rose, University of Padua, Italy Aart Kleyn, University of Leiden, The Netherlands Paula Heron, University of Washington, USA Brenda Jennison, University of Cambridge, UK Leonard Jossem, Ohio State University, USA Helmut Kühnelt, Vienna, Austria Robert Lambourne, Open University, UK Leopold Mathelitsch, Graz, Austria Lillian C. Mc Dermott, University of Washington, USA Marisa Michelini, University of Udine, Italy Seta Oblak, Lubljana, Slovenia Gorazd Planinsic, University of Lubljana, Slovenia Silvia Pugliese Jona, AIF, Italy Giuseppina Rinaudo, University of Turin, Italy Laurence Rogers, University of Leicester, UK Miki Ronen, Holon Academic Institution of Technology, Israel Elena Sassi, University of Naples, Italy Rosa Maria Sperandeo, University of Palermo, Italy Gunnar Tibell, University of Uppsala, Sweden Giacomo Torzo, University of Padua, Italy Urbaan M Titulaer, Johannes Kepler University, Linz, Austria Christian Ucke, Technical University Munich, Germany Dean Zollman, Kansas State University, USA Editorial Secretariat Claudia Longhetto Daniela Valle

© 2004 Forum, Editrice Universitaria Udinese srl - Via Larga, 40 - 33100 Udine, Italy Printed in Italy - Lithostampa, Pasian di Prato (UD) - September 2004 ISBN: 88-8420-225-6

Quality Development in Teacher Education and Training Second International GIREP Seminar 2003 Selected Contributions editor Marisa Michelini

Second International Girep Seminar, 1-6 September 2003, Udine, Italy International Advisory Board Michele D’Anna, Pedagogical Institut for Teacher Education, Locarno, Switzerland Ton Ellermeijer, University of Amsterdam, The Netherlands Manfred Euler, IPN, University of Kiel, Germany Hendrik Ferdinande, University of Ghenty, Belgium Lupo Donà dalle Rose, University of Padua, Italy Aart Kleyn, University of Leiden, The Netherlands Brenda Jennison, University of Cambridge, UK Leonard Jossem, Ohio State University, USA Robert Lambourne, Open University, UK Giunio Luzzatto, University of Genua, Italy Marisa Michelini, University of Udine, Italy Gorazd Planinsic, University of Ljubljana, Slovenia Elena Sassi, University of Naples, Italy Rosa Maria Sperandeo, University of Palermo, Italy Gunnar Tibell, University of Uppsala, Sweden Matilde Vicentini, University of Rome, Italy Michael Vollmer, University of Appl. Sc. Brandenburg, Germany Urbaan M Titulaer, Johannes Kepler University, Linz, Austria Jacques Treiner, Pierre et Marie Curie University, Paris, France International Organizing Committee Mojca Cepic, Ljubljana, Slovenia Helmut Kühnelt, Vienna, Austria Brenda Jennison, Cambridge, UK Robert Lambourne, Open University, UK Leopold Matelitsch, Graz, Austria Marisa Michelini, Udine, Italy Gorazd Planinsic, Ljubljana, Slovenia Silvia Pugliese Jona, AIF, Italy Local Organizing Committee Furio Honsell, Rector of the University, Udine Carlo Del Papa, Director of the Physics Department, Udine Marisa Michelini, Director of CIRD, Udine Silvia Pugliese Jona, Vicepresident of AIF, Italy Collaborating Scientific Institutions SIF, Italian Physical Society AIF, Association for Physics Teaching SISSA, High School for Advanced Studies Coordinating Commission for Physics in Friuli Venezia Giulia Astronomy Observatory of Trieste CLDF, Centre-Laboratory for Physics Education, University of Udine Supporting Committee M. Sestito, Courses for Translators and Interpreters of Udine University at Gorizia M. Pascolini, R. Kodilja, M. Zanuttig, Courses for Public Relations of Udine University at Gorizia P. Rigo, Faculty of Sciences in Teaching University of Udine F. Frilli, Department of Applied Biology in Plant Protection University of Udine L. Santi, A. Stefanel, M. Cobal, CIRD and Physics Department, University of Udine C. Longhetto, M.Sabbadini, F. Calef, D. Valle, CIRD, University of Udine G. Cabras, D. Cobai, A. Di Marzio, S. Zuccaro, Physics Department, University of Udine F. Caufin, M. De Anna, P. De Zorzi, S. Di Zanutto, S. Fabris, A.Lucatello, A. Missana, D. Sillani, C. Del Monaco, E. Vecchio, Services at University of Udine

Table of contents Introduction . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .

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1. Background Aspects QUALITY DEVELOPMENT: CHALLENGES TO PHYSICS EDUCATION M. Euler, Leibniz Institute for Science Education, University of Kiel, Germany . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .

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PHYSICS EDUCATION RESEARCH: THE KEY TO STUDENT LEARNING AND TEACHER PREPARATION L. C. McDermott, Department of Physics, University of Washington, Seattle, USA . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .

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SPOTLIGHTING A CONTENT FOR TEACHING: WHAT PHYSICS EDUCATION RESEARCH BRINGS TO TEACHER TRAINING L. Viennot, Laboratoire de Didactique des Sciences Physiques, Universitè Denis Diderot Paris 7, France . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .

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THE IMPACT OF EDUCATIONAL RESEARCH ON PHYSICS TEACHER PREPARATION I. Novodvorsky, Department of Physics, University of Arizona, Tucson, USA . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .

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EPISTEMOLOGICAL AND ONTOLOGICAL ASPECTS IN SCIENCE TEACHER EDUCATION R. Gutierrez, Science Education Fundación Castroverde Madrid Spain Grup de Recerca TIRE Science Education Department Universidad Autónoma de Barcelona, Spain. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .

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ACTIVITY BASED PHYSICS INSTITUTES: IN-SERVICE TEACHER PROFESSIONAL DEVELOPMENT WITH COMPUTER SUPPORTED TOOLS AND PEDAGOGY D. Sokoloff, Department of Physics, University of Oregon, Eugene, OR, USA . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .

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SCIENCE AND TECHNOLOGY: WHAT TO TEACH? J. Ogborn, Advancing Physics project, IOP, formerly Professor of Science Education, Institute of Education, University of London, UK . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .

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REVITALIZATION OF THE LABORATORY ACTIVITIES AND INTEGRATION OF THE SUBJECT INTO THE POST-GRADUATE PHYSICS EDUCATION AL PHYSICS PROGRAM G. Planinsic, Physics Department, Faculty for Mathematics and Physics, University of Ljubljana, Slovenia . . . . . . . . . . . . . .

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THE PRE SERVICE PHYSICS TEACHER EDUCATION MODEL IMPLEMENTED BY THE FFC RESEARCH PROJECT INVOLVING & ITALIAN UNIVERSITIES: GUIDELINES AND PRELIMINARY RESULTS R.M. Sperandeo-Mineo, Department of Physics, University of Palermo, Italy. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .

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PHYSICS, TOYS AND ART, C. Ucke, Physics Department, Technical University Munich . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .

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2. Special Aspects 2.1 The role of the institutions in improving the science teaching and the quality in teacher education and training THE IMPROVEMENT OF SCIENCE TEACHING AND THE ROLE OF INSTITUTIONS TO IMPROVE THE QUALITY OF PRE-SERVICE AND IN-SERVICE TEACHER EDUCATION - OUTCOME OF THE ROUND TABLE DISCUSSION A.Kleyn, University of Leyden, The Netherlands E.L. Jossem, The Ohio State University, USA . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 102 SCIENCE TEACHER PREPARATION AND MENTORING IN THE USA E. L. Jossem, The Ohio State University, USA . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 103 CONTRIBUTIONS FROM EDUCATIONAL RESEARCH: SOME COMMENTS E. Sassi, Physic Department, “Federico II”, University of Napoles . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 107 TEACHING AS THEY WERE TAUGHT: THE IMPORTANCE OF REFORMED UNIVERSITY COURSES I. Novodvorsky, University of Arizona, Tucson, USA . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 117 THE IMPROVEMENT OF SCIENCE TEACHING AND THE ROLE OF THE INSTITUTIONS TO IMPROVE THE QUALITY OF PRE-SERVICE AND IN SERVICE TEACHING EDUCATION S.Serio, Italian Astronomical Association, Sait, Italy . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 113

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2.2 The co-operation between schools and universities in order to improve teacher education THE ROLE OF THE CO-OPERATION BETWEEN SCHOOLS AND UNIVERSITIES IN ORDER TO IMPROVE TEACHER EDUCATION - OUTCOME OF THE ROUND TABLE DISCUSSION J. W. Layman, University of Maryland, USA. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 115 UNIVERSITY, SCHOOLS, TEACHERS: COOPERATIVE RELATIONSHIPS J. W.Layman, University of Maryland, USA . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 116 HOW CAN SCHOOLS AND UNIVERSITIES COOPERATE TO IMPROVE PHYSICS TEACHING IN HIGH SCHOOLS? U. M. Titulaer, Institute for Theoretical Physics, Johannes Kepler University, Linz, Austria . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 120 THE ROLE OF THE CO-OPERATION BETWEEN SCHOOLS AND UNIVERSITIES IN ORDER TO IMPROVE TEACHER EDUCATION S. Pugliese Jona, A.I.F., Association for Physics Teaching, Member of the editorial board of L.F.N.S., Italy . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 122 INSTITUTIONAL ACTIONS FOR THE SCHOOL-UNIVERSITY CO-OPERATION F. Honsell, Rector of University of Udine, Italy M. Michelini, Rector’s Delegate for Didactical Innovation at University of Udine, Italy . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 127 LABORATORY EXPERIMENTS OF MODERN PHYSICS IN PERMANENT EDUCATION OF PHYSICS TEACHERS L. Mandic, Department of Physics and Ecology, Technical Faculty, Rijeka, Croatia D. Kotnik-Karuza, M. Sarta-Dekovic, Physics Departemnt, Faculty of Philosophy, Rijeka, Croatia . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 132

2.3 Journals and teacher training JOURNALS AND TEACHER TRAINING - OUTCOME OF THE ROUND TABLE DISCUSSION H. Kuhenelt, University of Vienna, Austria . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 134 JOURNALS AND TEACHER TRAINING Kerry Parker, Editor, Physics Education, UK . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 135 LA FISICA NELLA SCUOLA, A JOURNAL FOR TEACHERS OF PHYSICS S. Pugliese Jona, A.I.F., Member of the editorial board of L.F.N.S., Italy . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 137 A VIRTUAL LEARNING ENVIROMENT LIKE A SOCIAL SPACE ADDRESSED TO IN- SERVICE ITALIAN TEACHER FORMATION G. Biondi, General Director of National Institute of Documentation for Innovation and Educational Research (INDIRE), Italy . . . 139

3. Topical Aspects 3.1 Initial teacher training INITIAL TEACHER TRAINING (ITT) - OUTCOME OF THE WORKSHOP DISCUSSION G. Tibell, University of Uppsala, Sweden B. Jennison, Churchill College, Cambridge, England. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 143 INTERACTIVE SEMINARS FOR INITIAL PHYSICS TEACHER TRAINING L. I. Anita, Faculty of Physics, University ``Al.I. Cuza’’, Iasi 6600, Romania . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 151 SCIENCE TEACHERS TRAINING ACROSS EUROPE: ESTABLISHING A PATHWAY FOR A COMMON SCIENCE TEACHERS TRAINING FRAMEWORK C. Van der Borght, Louvain Catholic University, E.Sassi, University of Naples, Italy R.M.Sperandeo-Mineo, Universty of Palermo, Italy F.Bogner, University of Ludwigsburg, Germany, P.Clement, University of Claude Bernard Lyon 1, France G. Th. Kalkanis, University of Athens, Greece C. Ragiadakos, Pedagogical Institute of the Greek Ministry of Education, Greece A.Kozan, G.Desco, M. Bocos, University of Babes-Bolyai, Romania S.Savvas, S.Sotiriou, E. Apostolakis, A. Tsagogeorga, N. Andrikopoulos, Ellinogermaniki Agogi, Greece . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 153

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USING SCIENCE EDUCATION RESEARCH IN TRAINING PHYSICS TEACHERS U. Besson, L.D.S.P. University of Paris “Denis Diderot” (Paris 7), France . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 157 IS THE “TEACHER-AS-RESEARCHER” MODEL WORTHWHILE FOR PRE-SERVICE TEACHER EDUCATION?, N. Grimellini Tomasini, O. Levrini, Physics Department, University of Bologna, Italy . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 162 THE CONTRIBUTION OF RESEARCH IN THE INITIAL TEACHER FORMATION M. Michelini, G. Rossi, A. Stefanel, CIRD, University of Udine, Italy . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 166 A TRAINING EXPERIENCE CARRIED OUT IN SECONDARY SCHOOLS BY PRE-SERVICE SECONDARY SCHOOL PHYSICS TEACHERS C. Bianchi, D. Lazzaro, F. Minosso, SSIS Veneto – Italy . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 172 TEACHING TO TEACH: HOW TO COMMUNICATE TO THE NEW GENERATIONS (FROM 16 TO 23 YEARS OLD) G.Savarè, High Scool and SISS Lombardia, Italy . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 178 CHANGES IN PHYSICS CURRICULUM FOR PROSPECTIVE PHYSICS TEACHERS AS IMPLIED BY THE CULTURAL CHANGE AND THE CRISIS IN PHYSICS EDUCATION I. Galili, M. Tseitlin, Department of Science Traching, The Hebrew University of Jerusalem, Israel . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 179 THE QUALITY OF A PHYSICS TEACHER IN THE OPINION OF STUDENTS L. Sabaz, Gimnazija-Ginnasio, “Gian Rinaldo Carli”, Koper-Capodistria, Slovenia . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 183 SOME OPEN PROBLEMS IN EDUCATION OF PROSPECTIVE PHYSICS TEACHERS R. Krsnik, M. Planinic, P. Pecina, A. Susac, Physics Department, Faculty of Science, University of Zagreb, Croatia . . . . . . . . . 185

3.2 In-service teacher training IN-SERVICE TEACHER TRAINING - OUTCOME OF THE WORKSHOP DISCUSSION L. Mathelitsch, University of Graz, Austria S. Oblak, Ljubljana, Slovenia . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 190 TUTORS IN SECONDARY SCHOOL: LINKING INNOVATION IN TEACHING, PRE-SERVICE AND IN-SERVICE TEACHER TRAINING IN ITALY M. Bortoluzzi, University of Udine, Italy . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 193 A CO-OPERATION EXPERIENCE TO PROMOTE AND SUPPORT AN EFFECTIVE TEACHING G.Cavaggioni, Science Education Laboratory, CIRD, Trieste University, Italy . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 197 ACTIVITIES OF A CROSS-INSTITUTIONAL GROUP TO PROMOTE PHYSICS “Working Group in Physics”, Servei de Formaciò Permanent, Universitat de Valencia, Spain . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 200 PROJECT 5 P03B 076 20 EPISTEMOLOGICAL OBSTACLES IN THE TEACHING OF PHYSICS STUDENTS AND THEIR TEACHERS DIFFICULTIES IN UNDERSTANDING OF PHYSICS THE ROLE OF TEXTBOOKS Z. Golab-Meyer, Institute of Physics, Jagellonian University, Cracow, Poland D. Szot-Gawlik, Padagogical Academy, Cracow, Poland . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 204 RESEARCH GRANT FOR IN-SERVICE TEACHER EDUCATION: PILOT EXPERIENCE IN UNIVERSITY OF UDINE M.Dutto, Lombardia Regional Direction of the Ministry of Education, Italy M.Michelini, S. Schiavi Fachin, CIRD, University of Udine, Italy . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 205 PROSPECTIVE SCIENCE TEACHERS’ VIEWS ON MODELS IN PHYSICS JN. Smit, Potchefstroomse Universiteit vir CHO, Potchefstroom, South Africa S. M. Islas, Departamento de Formación Docente, Facultad de Ciencias Exactas, Universidad Nacional del Centro de la Provincia de Buenos Aires, Argentina . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 211 DERIVE 6 – A SYSTEM FOR LEARNING MATHEMATICS AND TEACHING STUDENTS B. Kutzler, ACDCA, Austrian Center for Didactics of Computer Algebra, Austria V. Kokol-Voljc, Faculty of Education, University of Maribor, Slovenia . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 217 GUIDING FOR INQUIRY LEARNING:THE FALLING PAPER CONES CASE T. van der Valk, A. Mooldijk, J. Wooning, Utrecht of Universiteit, The Netherlands . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 220

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AN ATTEMPT AT COOPERATION BETWEEN UNIVERSITIES AND HIGH SCHOOLS IN A CLASS WORK TRIAL USING “ADVANCING PHYSICS” T.Murata, K.Taniguchi, Kyoto University of Education, Japan T.Miyanaga, Faculty of Education, Wakayama University, Japan T.Yamazaki, Doshisha High School, Kyoto, Japan J.Ryu, Kyoto Girls High School, Japan. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 225 HOW TO TEACH HEAT IN LOWER SECONDARY SCHOOLS N. Razpet, Faculty of Education, University of Ljubljana, Slovenia . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 228 A UNIVERSITY MASTER FOR IN-SERVICE TEACHER DEVELOPMENT ON DIDACTIC INNOVATION C.Longhetto, M.Michelini, CIRD, Univerity of Udine, Italy . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 233 WAVES AS MEANS OF COMMUNICATION IN THE LIVING WORLD S. Oblak, Ljubljana, Slovenia . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 239 TEACHING OBSERVATIONAL METHODS IN ASTROPHYSICS: REMOTE OBSERVATIONS FROM THE SCHOOL P. Santin, INAF – Astronomical Observatory of Trieste, Italy . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 241

3.3 New Technology in teacher training NEW TECHNOLOGY IN TEACHER TRAINING - OUTCOME OF THE WORKSHOP DISCUSSION M.D’Anna, High Pedagogical School, Locarno, Switzerland R. Barton, School of Education and Professional Development, University of East Anglia, UK . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 245 EXPLORING THE POTENTIAL OF COMPUTER-AIDED PRACTICAL WORK AS AN AGENT FOR INNOVATIVE CHANGE: A PILOT STUDY WITH ABLE Y10 STUDENTS R. Barton, School of Education and Professional Development, University of East Anglia, Norwich, UK. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 247 PRE-SERVICE TEACHER PREPARATION: EXAMPLES OF PEDAGOGIC ACTIVITIES BY USING ICT TOOLS C.Fazio, G. Tarantino, R.M. Sperandeo-Mineo, GRIAF (Research Group on Teaching/Learning Physics), Department of Physical and Astronomical Studies, University of Palermo, Italy . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 251 AN APPROACH TO PHYSICS OF EVERYDAYLIFE EVENTS WITH PORTABLE SENSORS AND A GRAPHIC CALCULATOR IN A LAB COURSE FOR THE FORMATION OF PHYSICS TEACHERS A. Cuppari, Liceo Scientifico Galileo Ferraris, Turin, Italy, T. Marino I.T.I. Edoardo Amaldi, Orbassano, Turin, Italy, G.Rinaudo, G.Rovero, Department of Experimental Physics of the University of Turin, Italy . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 255 MODELS IN PHYSICS: PERCEPTIONS HELD BY PROSPECTIVE PHYSICS TEACHERS R.M.Sperandeo-Mineo, I. Guastella, Physics Department, University of Palermo, Italy C. Cerroni, Mathematics Department, University of Palermo, Italy . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 259 TEACHERS EDUCATION USING A PROJECT APPROACH: MODELLING THE AIRPLANE FLIGHT USING ICT-BASED STRATEGIES G.Tarantino, C.Fazio, R.M.Sperandeo, GRIAF (Research Group on Teaching/Learning Physics), Department of Physical and Astronomical Studies, University of Palermo, Italy. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 263 “PRECAMPUS”: A COLLABORATION BETWEEN SECONDARY SCHOOL AND UNIVERSITY L.Cazzaniga, I.T.C.G. “Primo Levi” Seregno (MI), SILSIS, University of Milan, Italy F.Celentano, University of Insubria of Varese, Italy M.Giliberti, Physics Department, University of Milan, Italy . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 267 EDUCATIONAL PORTAL TELMAE – GATE TO SCIENCE EDUCATION Z.Lustigova, Laboratory of Distance Education, Faculty of Mathematics and Physics, Charles University, Prague Czech Republic . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 272 TEACHING PHYSICS TEACHERS TO USE EDUCATIONAL RESOURCES ON THE INTERNET A. Susac, Department of Physics, Faculty of Science, University of Zagreb, Croatia . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 278

3.4 Research in teacher training

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RESEARCH AS A GUIDE TO TEACHER CORPORATION - OUTCOME OF THE WORKSHOP DISCUSSION L.C. Mc Dermott, Department of Physics, University of Washington, Seattle, USA P. Heron, Department of Physics, University of Washington, Seattle, USA . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 282 PHYSICS TEACHERS’ VIEW ABOUT CONCEPT DEFINITIONS Y.Lehavi, I.Galili, Science Teaching Department, The Hebrew University of Jerusalem, Israel . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 283 QUESTIONS OF THE THEORY OF KNOWLEDGE IN A SCHOOL PHYSICS CURRICULUM J.Mirzoyan, Center for Educational Reforms of the Ministry of Education and Science, Armenia . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 287 GETTING SENSITIVE TO THE WAY OF REASONING OF PUPILS AS WELL AS OF STUDENT TEACHERS T.Van Der Valk, University of Utrecht, The Netherlands . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 291 HOW TO GUIDE STUDENTS TO LEARN FROM THEIR MISTAKES? A COLLABORATIVE STUDY OF TEACHERS AND RESEARCHES E.Yerushalmi, B.S. Eylon, Weizmann Institute for Science, Israel C.Polingher, Hemda – Center for Science Education, Israel . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 295 TOWARDS IMPROVING THE QUALITY OF PHYSICS INSTRUCTION-RESULTS OF A VIDEO STUDY ON KEY PATTERNS OF INSTRUCTION AND THE DEVELOPMENT OF STUDENT ACHIEVEMENT AND INTEREST M.Tesch, M.Euler, R.Nuit, IPN at the University of Kiel, Germany . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 302 HISTORY AND PHILOSOPHY OF PHYSICS AS TOOLS FOR PRESERVICE TEACHER EDUCATION N.Grimellini Tomasini, O.Levrini, Physics Department, University of Bologna, Italy . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 306 PORTFOLIO AS A STRATEGY TO INTERRELATE RESEARCH IN EDUCATION AND PHYSICS TEACHERS PRACTICES M.Oliveira, A.Rodrigues, Centre for Educational Research and Department of Education, School of Science, University of Lisbon, Portugal . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 310 COMPLEX SCIENCE EDUCATION IN GRADUAL TEACHER TRAINING K.Papp, A.Nagy, Department of Experimental Physics, University of Szeged, Hungary . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 314 PHYSICS AND DIDACTICS IN TEACHER TRAINING FOR SECONDARY SCHOOL G. Pospiech, Helmholtz-Gymnasium Heidelberg, Germany M. Welzel, University of Education, Heidelberg, Germany . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 319 PREPARING PRE-SERVICE AND IN-SERVICE TEACHERS TO TEACH PHYSICAL SCIENCE: THE TEACHER PREPARATION PROGRAM AT THE UNIVERSITY OF CYPRUS C.P.Costantinou, Learning in Physics Group, University of Cyprus, Cyprus . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 323

3.5 University teachers and their training UNIVERSITY TEACHERS AND THEIR TRAINING - OUTCOME OF THE WORKSHOP DISCUSSION L. F. Donà dalle Rose, Physics Department “G.Galilei, INFM Padova, University of Padua, Italy C.Ucke, Physics Department, Technical University Munich, Germany . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 331 THE PILOT PROJECT “TUNING EDUCATIONAL STRUCTURES IN EUROPE” and THE SUBJECT-SPECIFIC COMPETENCES FOR UNIVERSITY PHYSICS STUDENTS J. Gonzalez, University of Deusto, Bilbao, Spain R. Wagenaar, University of Groninge, The Netherlands L. Donà dalle Rose, Physics Department “G Galilei”, University of Padua, Italy . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 333 CASE STUDY: A TRIADIC MODEL FOR DEVELOPMENT AND DISSEMINATION OF PEDAGOGIC INNOVATIONS P. Jolly, Department of Physics, Acharya Narendra Dev College, University of Dehli, India . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 343 IN-SITE TRAINING TO TEACH EXPERIMENTAL METHOD AT THE UNIVERSITY LEVEL M. d.l.D. Ayala Velàzquez, Universidad Autònoma Metropolitana, Unidad Iztapalapa, Mèxico . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 347 IMPROVING THE QUALITY OF TEACHING AT UNIVERSITIES C.Ucke, Physics Department, Technical University Munich, Germany . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 351 THE DIFFICULTIES OF THE INITIAL TEACHER TRAINING IN ROMANIA A.Opre, L.Ciascai, D. Opre, I. Ciascai, P. Nagy, Babes Bolyai University and Technical University, Cluj Napoca, Romania . . 352

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INCENTIVES FOR IMPROVING DIDACTIC INNOVATION IN THE UNIVERSITY OF UDINE F. Honsell, D. Livon, M. Michelini, University of Udine, Italy . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 356 ANOTHER WAY TO IMPROVE THE DIDATICS OF TEACHER LABS: PROJECT PRACTICALS AS SCIENTIFIC RESEARCH TASKS O. Calzadilla, A. Perez, T. Molina, A. Fornes, C. Alonso and I. Perez-Quintana, Physics Faculty, University of Havana, San Lazaro y L, Habana, Cuba . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 363 PHYSICS FOR “THE OTHERS” (MOTIVATION) J.Obdrzalek, Faculty of Mathematics and Physics of the Charles University in Prague, Czech Republic . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 367

3.6 Primary school teacher training RESEARCH IN PRIMARY SCHOOL TEACHER TRAINING - OUTCOME OF THE WORKSHOP DISCUSSION G. Rinaudo, Department of Experimental Physics University of Turin, Italy J.Bajc, Faculty of Education, University of Ljubljana, Slovenia . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 371 PHYSICAL PHENOMENA IN PRESCHOOL AND ELEMENTARY EDUCATION - TEACHING LEARNING ACTIVITIES V.Bojovic, Department of Education Development, Ministry of Education, Beograd, Serbia e Montenegro . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 374 THEACHERS’ TRAINING PROGRAM FOR TEACHING PHYSICS WITHIN SCIENCE IN LOWER SECONDARY SCHOOL J.Bajc, M.Cepic, Faculty of Education, University of Ljubljana, Slovenia . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 378 STRATEGIES IN FORMATIVE INTERVENTION MODULES FOR PHYSICS EDUCATION OF PRIMARY SCHOOL TEACHERS: A COORDINATED RESEARCH IN REGGIO EMILIA AND UDINE F.Corni, Physics Department, University of Modena and Reggio Emilia, Italy M.Michelini, A.Stefanel, Physics Department, University of Udine, Italy . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 382 PRESCHOOL PHYSICS G.Nordström, University of Gavle, Sweden . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 387 PHYSICS IN CONTEXT FOR ELEMENTARY TEACHER TRAINING M.Michelini, Faculty of Formation, University of Udine, Italy . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 389 A WEBLOG ON PHYSICS OF EVERYDAY OBJECTS FOR PRIMARY SCHOOL TEACHERS D.Allasia, V.Montel, G.Rinaudo, Department of Experimental Physics of the University of Turin, Italy G.Amisano, USCOT – Faculty of Formation, University of Turin, Italy . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 391 REVELATION OF MISCONCEPTIONS IN HOMEWORK B.Rovšek, Faculty of Mathematics ad Physics and Faculty of Education, University of Ljubljana, Slovenia . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 399 LARGE ENROLLMENT PHYSICS CLASS FOR FUTURE ELEMENTARY SCHOOL TEACHERS D.Zollman, Kansas State University, USA . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 402 CONTRUCTIVISTICS WORKSHOPS FOR CHILDREN IN PHYSICS TEACHER EDUCATION M. Zuvic-Butorac, Department of Physics, Medical Faculty, University of Rijeka, Croatia R.Jurdana Sepic, B.Milotic, Department of Physics, Faculty of Philosophy, University of Rijeka, Croatia . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 410 CHILDREN LEARNING SCIENCE BY DEMONSTRATIONS D. Trowbridge, Consultant in Physical Sciences, Greeley, Colorado, USA . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 413

3.7 New ways of teaching physics concepts and teacher training NEW WAYS OF TEACHING PHYSICS CONCEPTS AND TEACHER TRAINING - OUTCOME OF THE WORKSHOP DISCUSSION D. Zollman, S. Rebello, Kansas State University, USA A. De Ambrosis, Physics Department, University of Pavia, Italy . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 417 FROM UNIVERSITY COURSES TO TEACHING PRACTICE IN SCHOOLS: AN EXAMPLE L.Borghi, A.De Ambrosis, P.Mascheretti, Physics Department “A. Volta”, University of Pavia, Italy . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 420

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TEACHING QUANTUM PHYSICS TO STUDENT TEACHERS OF S.I.L.S.I.S. – MI M.Giliberti, L.Lanz, Physics Department, University of Milan, Italy L.Cazzaniga, I.T.I.C.G. “Primo Levi”, Seregno, Milan, Italy . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 425 IMPLEMENTING A FORMATIVE MODULE ON QUANTUM PHYSICS FOR PRE-SERVICE TEACHER TRAINING M.Michelini, R.Ragazzon, L.Santi, A.Stefanel, Research Unit in Physics Educatio University of Udine, Italy . . . . . . . . . . . . 429 CONTEMPORARY PHYSICS FOR FUTURE TEACHERS WITH LIMITED MATHEMATICS SKILLS N.S.Rebello, D.Zollman, Kansas State University, USA . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 436 TEACHING QUANTUM PHYSICS TO FUTURE SCHOOL TEACHERS C. Tarsitani, Physics Department of the University of Rome, Italy . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 441 TEACHING MODERN PHYSICS AT HIGH SCHOOL: NEW METHODOLOGIES AND TECHNICS TO LOOK AT NATURE WITH QUANTUM EYES S.Oss, A. Giannelli, Laboratory of Comunication on Physical Science, Physics Department, University of Trento, Italy T. Lopez-Arias, Physics Department, University of Trento, Italy . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 445 THE SUPERCOMET PROJECT – DEVELOPING NEW EDUCATIONAL MATERIAL FOR UPPER SECONDARY PHYSICS V.Engstrom, Lars Meisingseth, Simplicatus AS, Norway S.Ciapparelli, G.Colombo, Commercial Technical Institute “Enrico Tosi”, Italy . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 449 “PHYSICS OF FLIGHT” - A SCHOOL PROJECT DEVELOPMENT OF A TEACHING PROPOSAL FOR A “NEARLY FORGOTTEN” BRANCH IN MECHANICS LESSONS IN THE HIGHER GRADE M.Geyer, A.Isola, BHAK Judenburg, Austria . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 453 CULTURAL AND PROFESSIONAL ASPECTS IN TEACHER TRAINING: SOME HYPOTESIS AND EXAMPLES OF ACTIVITIES M.Gagliardi, Physics Department, University of Bologna, Italy E.Giordano, Faculty of Education, University of Milan Bicocca, Italy . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 456 MOTIVATION, MENTORING, MANIPULATIVES: A TWO-WAY FORMATIVE PROCESS IN TEACHER TRAINING TROUGH A KNOWLEDGE EXCHANGE BETWEEN UNIVERSITIES AND SCHOOLS N.Ferralis, R.H.Diehl, Physics Department, Penn State University, University Park, USA D.C.Haworth, Mechanical Engineering Department, Penn State University, University Park, USA . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 461 DAILY LIFE INSTRUMENTS FOR PHYSICAL DEMONSTRATIONS C.Agnes, P.Taverna, Physics Department, Polithecnic of Turin, Italy A.Audrito, T.Marino, SISS Piemonte, Italy . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 463

3.8 Multimedia in teacher training MULTIMEDIA IN TEACHER TRAINING - OUTCOME OF THE WORKSHOP DISCUSSION B. Eckert, Department of Physics, University of Kaiserlautern, Germany M. Ronen, HAIT Academic Institute of Technology, Israel . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 465 MULTIMEDIA IN TEACHER TRAINING B.Eckert, S.Altherr, H.J.Jodl, Department of Physics, University of Kaiserlautern, Germany . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 467 TEACHING AND POPULARISING PHYSICS BY MULTIMEDIA INSTRUMENTS: INFM EXPERIENCES AND ACTIONS M.Bianucci, P.Bussei, S.Merlino, INFM, Research Unit Parma, Italy . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 472 MULTIMEDIA TOOLS IN TEACHING PHYSICS G.Karwasz, Physics Department and INFM, University of Trento, Italy W.Niedzicki, Mechatronics Department, Technical University, Warsaw, Poland A.Okoniewska, M.Jurek, Institute of Physics, Pomeranian, Pedagogical Academy, Slupsk, Poland . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 477 TRAINING TEACHERS AS EVALUATORS AND INFORMED USERS OF SIMULATIONS D.Langley M.Ronen, Holon Academic Institution of Technology, Israel. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 482 THE CONQUEST OF ENERGY – THE PHYSICAL PROPERTIES OF MATERIALS M.Bianucci, P.Bussei, S.Merlino, INFM, Research Unit of Parma, Italy

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R.Fieschi, Physics Department, University of Parma, Italy . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 491

3.9 Distance teacher training DISTANCE TEACHER TRAINING IN PHYSICS - OUTCOME OF THE WORKSHOP DISCUSSION T. Ellermeijer, AMSTEL Institute, University of Amsterdam, The Netherlands R. Lambourne, Department of Physics & Astronomy, The Open University, UK . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 496 CAN DISTANCE TEACHING ENABLE TEAM-TEACHING IN IN-SERVICE TRAINING? V.J. Dorenbos, A.L Ellermeijer, AMSTEL Institute, University of Amsterdam, The Netherlands . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 501 USING DISTANCE EDUCATION TO SUPPORT PHYSICS TEACHING BY NON-PHYSICS SPECIALISTS R.Lambourne, Open University, UK . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 505 A PROGRAM FOR E-LEARNING FACILITATORS C.Holotescu, Lecturer CS, University Timisoara Romania, University of Maryland, USA Director Timosoft Ltd Romania . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 507 ENHANCING THE TEACHING OF CONTEMPORARY PHYSICS THROUGH ONLINE INSTRUCTION FOR TEACHERS N.S.Rebello, D.A.Zollman, K.Hogg, S. F. Itza-Ortiz, Kansas State University, Manketton, USA . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 510 MODELLING INSTRUCTION IN PHYSICS EDUCATION – ONLINE COURSE FOR PHYSICS TEACHERS Z.Lustigova, Faculty of Mathematics and Physics, Charles University, Prague, Czech Republic . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 516 OPEN DISTANCE LEARNING AND THE KNOWLEDGE BUILDING IN COMPUTER CONFERENCE DEBATE P.G. Rossi, E. Toppano, University of Udine, Italy . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 519 DISTANCE LEARNING IN TEACHERS’ TRAINING E.Mechlovà, L. Koniček, Faculty of Science, University of Ostrava, Ostrava, Czech Republic A.Balnar, Gynìmnàzium, Ostrava, Czech Republic . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 523 RELAX-D: A DISTRIBUTED WEB ARCHITECTURE FOR DISTANCE LEARNING BY PHYSICS EXPERIMENTS G.Tamasi, Dipartimento di Scienze Fisiche, Università di Napoli Federico II and Consorzio Interuniversitario Nazionale per l’Informatica, Laboratorio ITEM, Italy C. Luponio, Dipartimento di Scienze Fisiche, Università di Napoli Federico II and Istituto Nazionale di Fisica della Materia – UDR Napol, Italy G.Ventre, Dipartimento di Informatica e Sistemistica,Università di Napoli Federico II and Consorzio Interuniversitario Nazionale per l’Informatica, Laboratorio ITEM, Italy E. Mariconda, Consorzio Interuniversitario Nazionale per l’Informatica, Laboratorio ITEM, Italy . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 526 THE COMPUTER CONFERENCE TO DISCUSS LABORATORY ACTIVITIES IN THE PRE-SERVICE SECONDARY SCHOOL TEACHERS TRAINING M.Michelini, P.G.Rossi, L.Santi, A.Stefanel, Research Unit in Physics Education, University of Udine, Italy . . . . . . . . . . . . . 532 DISTANCE INSTRUCTING OF IN-SERVICE TEACHERS IN COMPUTER-BASED MEASUREMENTS K.Holá, V.Koubek, M.Šedivý, S.Bendíková, V.Cigánik, M. Danišovič, Faculty of Mathematics, Physics and Informatics, Comenius University, Bratislava, Slovakia . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 538

3.10 Laboratory and ICT in teacher training LABORATORY AND ICT IN TEACHER TRAINING - OUTCOME OF THE WORKSHOP DISCUSSION G. Torzo, Physics Department, University of Padua, Italy L. Rogers, University of Leicester, England . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 543 DOES ICT IN SCIENCE REALLY WORK IN THE CLASSROOM? L.Rogers, School of Education, University of Leicester, England . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 545 METHODOLOGICAL APPROACH TO MODERN PHYSICS EXPERIMENTS L.Mandič, Department of Physics and Ecology, Technical Faculty, Rijeka, Croatia D.Kotnik-Karuza, M.Sarta-Dekovič, Physics Department, Faculty of Philosophy, Rijeka, Croatia . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 551 LEARNING PHYSICS LABORATORY WITH A VIRTUAL OSCILLOSCOPE

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P.Martinez-Jimenez, G.Pedros, M.Varo, A.Pontes, M.C.García, Department of Applied Physics, University of Cordoba, Spain M.S.Climent, Department of Organic Chemistry, University of Cordoba, Spain . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 555 ENHANCEMENT OF COMPUTERISED EXPERIMENTS BY MEANS OF SPREADSHEET MACROS C.O’Sullivan, A. Landen, J. Bechinor, Department of Physics, National University of Ireland Cork, Ireland S.Kocijančič, Department of Physics and Technology, Faculty of Education, University of Ljubljana, Slovenia . . . . . . . . . . . 560 THE LEARNING ENVIROMENT FOR PHYSICS LABORATORY ACTIVITIES (LEPLA): A WEB TOOL FOR STUDENTS AND TEACHERS B. Zoltowski, Institute of Physics Technical, University of Lodz, Poland B.Pecori, Physics Department, University of Bologna, Italy . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 564 TEACHER TRAINING STRATEGIES ON PHYSICAL OPTICS: EXPERIMENTING THE PROPOSAL ON DIFFRACTION M. Michelini, A. Stefanel, L. Santi, Research Unit in Physics Education, University of Udine, Italy . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 568 COMPUTERISED LABORATORY IN SCIENCE AND TECHNOLOGY TEACHING: TEACHER TRAINING L.Koníček, E.Mechlová, Faculty of Science, University of Ostrava, Czech Republic . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 576 THE WILBERFORCE PENDULUM: A COMPLETE ANALYSIS THROUGH RTL AND MODELLING G.Torzo, Physics Department, University of Padua, Italy M.D’Anna, High Pedagogical School, Locarno, Switzerland . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 579 RTL APPARATUS TO STUDY LIGHT INTENSITY PATTERNS PRODUCED BY SLITS. A DIDACTIC EXPERIMENT DEVELOPED WITHIN IRDIS PROJECT G.Torzo, ICIS-CNR, Physics Department of Padova University, Italy . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 585 A PROBABLE MAPPING BETWEEN FORTIC MODULAR ARCHITECTURE AND A PARTICULAR IMPLEMENTATION OF THE CONSTRUCTIVISTIC EDUCATIONAL PERSPECTIVE: CRITICAL CONSIDERATIONS FOR AN EFFECTIVE APPLICATION E. Zecchi, SSIS, University op Modena – Reggio Emilia, Italy . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 590

4 The Seminar . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . Collaborating structures . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . Scientific programme. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . Opening of the seminar. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . Contents . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . ocial programme . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . List of participants . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .

595 598 602 604 608 610 614

15

Introduction

This book includes a selection of the contributions presented at the Second International Girep Seminar on Quality Development in Teacher Education and Training, held in Udine in September 2003, with the scientific responsibility of the Groupe International de Recherche sur l’Enseignement de la Physique (GIREP), European Physical Society (EPS) – Division of Education, International Commission on Physics Education of IUPAP (ICPE), European Physics Education Network (EUPEN), American Association of Physics Teachers (AAPT), University of Udine, Italy. The Girep Seminars are an initiative proposed by the writer and they have been held twice at the University of Udine. They represent a completely new way of meeting, with the purpose of exchanging researches, experiences and connected activities at an international level. They have been planned in a way to offer the participants an opportunity to discuss in depth the problems they deal with, as can be understood by the description of the Seminar, found in the last chapter of this volume. The works which the participants offer as a contribution are selected in advance and presented on the first day of the Seminar, so that they can be used in the workshops, meant for the discussion of specific aspects and problems connected to the topic of the Seminar. The participants are also selected to form a number which can realize a working condition in which the discussions on the various topics allow a development in the sharing of the problems. Of the 360 contributions offered, 120 have been chosen for the presentation of the Seminar. This volume contains 80 of them, many of which have been completely revised after the discussions and the referees’ report. The selection of the papers published in this volume was carried out by a wide group of referees. Each paper was examined by a member of the Executive Editorial Board (EEB), by a member of the Editorial Board and by one or more referees, chosen by the EEB from the experts on the topics. Chapter 1 includes the works which have given a contribution as an overview on topics related to teacher training, like the general talks of the Seminar. That is, the search for quality, the contributions in this field of research, Information Communication Technology, epistemological and laboratory aspects, ontological problems, peculiarities of the relation between science and technology and the significant experiences of some countries. In this chapter we also included the contribution Physics, Toys and Art, the object of general evening talk. Chapter 2 is a collection of the Special Aspects discussed in the three round tables, the outcomes of which were sent to the general meeting of the European Ministers of Education and University, held in Berlin at the end of September 2003. A summary of the outcomes of the discussion, edited by the scientific chairpersons of the round tables, has been put at the beginning of each paragraph. The first one is dedicated to the role of Institutions in improving science teaching and the quality of teacher education and training, with contributions from a European scientific society (EPS), from an American one (AAPT), from the research communities, from the teachers who must apply the reforms and from the teacher associations (SAIt). The second one is dedicated to the cooperation between schools and universities, with personal thoughts given by European and American representatives (EPS) of the academic world, with emblematic experiences from Italy and Croatia. The third is dedicated to the contribution given by the journals in teacher education: experiences coming from English, Austrian, Italian scientific journals and the telematic experience of Indire, still unique in Europe for its dimensions, add to the general reflections. Chapter 3 is articulated in the following 10 paragraphs, which concern the specific aspects selected for the discussion of the Seminar. In each paragraph, the first article concerns the outcomes of the related workshop discussion. Initial teacher training is the first paragraph and it consists of 11 contributions, focused especially

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Introduction

on secondary school teachers and general aspects. However, there are also contributions concerning the change of curricula and the students’ opinion on the quality of the teachers. In-service teacher training includes two extra contributions and offers an ample spectrum on problems related to inter-institutional cooperation, to the integration of pre-service and in-service training, and to the updating of the curriculum and of the formative models. Innovative experiences are analysed as contributions to a model. The last two contributions concern proposals which are emblematic of content and instruments. Technology in teacher training offers general contributions, such as the one which explores the potential of computer aided practical work as an agent for innovative change, on the role of computer modelling. Most of the contributions, however, concern examples and experiences presented as a good thing to imitate. Research in teacher training has half of the contributions dedicated to cognitive problems, to learning problems, to ways of reasoning and of identifying concepts. One concerns a research based on the video recording of class activities.Another focuses on the contribution given by history and philosophy to the initial formation of secondary school teachers. The others concern experimented strategies of pre-service and in-service teacher training. University teachers and their training is one of the shortest chapters, but this does not make it any less important.The analysis of competences for university physics teachers, the difficulties, the motivations, the training proposals linked to the laboratory, the incentives and the other proposals aimed at improving the quality of university teachers represent an important point of reference for the beginning of a process of training for university teachers which is necessary nowadays. An article also suggests a model for the start of this important task. Primary school teacher training contains three types of contributions: models and good practices for pre-service and in-service training of primary school teachers, researches on specific aspects and strategies, suggestions for activities. New ways of teaching physics concepts and teacher training offers contributions of various kinds: one on the linking between university training and teaching practice; five on proposals for modern physics in secondary school, with particular attention to quantum physics; two on special projects for the innovation of contents; three on cultural and professional aspects, motivation, poor formalisation skills, daily life instruments for demonstrations. Multimedia in teacher training contains six contributions which describe multimedia instruments which are available and have been experimented. Distance teacher training offers three main types of contributions: analysis of architectures and organizational models for e-learning, experiences and proposals for long-distance training, researches on the strengthening which can derive from blended activities on classroom team-teaching, on the discussion of experiments, on computer conference. Laboratory and ITC in teacher training contains, apart from a general reflection and the description of an experiment, contributions aimed at presenting emblematic laboratory activities, and most of the times computer on-line measurements based on sensors are proposed. Charter 4 is a synthesis of the Seminar. The choice of publishing a thematic book has been driven by the need for specialization that emerged in the studies of educational and didactical research and in teacher education. The editorial board and the executive editorial board (EEB) worked in a rigorous way and with dedication to offer a useful tool. I wish to thank all my colleagues who have participated and have helped with their efforts and dedication. A particular thanks goes to Brenda Jennison and Silvia Pugliese Jona. Nonetheless I am thankful to the editorial secretariat, which has assisted me constantly. We apologize for any possible errors that have been made, and we hope that this book can be useful to teachers and colleagues who work in the physics education research and in the field of teacher training. Marisa Michelini

1. Background Aspects

QUALITY DEVELOPMENT: CHALLENGES TO PHYSICS EDUCATION1 Manfred Euler, Leibniz-Institute for Science Education (IPN) at the University of Kiel, Germany 1. The emerging knowledge society: challenges of global change On the verge of the new millennium, science, technology and society are undergoing dramatic changes. The rapid increase of knowledge in a wide range of disciplines is triggering off scientific and technological developments that deeply affect our lives and transform our culture. Innovations in many fields, for instance, in information and communication technology have led to profound changes, and an end of this process is not yet in sight. The post-industrial society is amidst a transition process towards what is called the “knowledge society”. Knowledge is becoming the key resource in our societies and a central factor in political decision making. The change is driven by the development of science in various areas, and its pace is even increasing. If we compare the situation of today with technological transitions of the past, many similarities but also qualitative and quantitative differences become evident. The evolution of knowledge in the past occurred at moderate rates with time scales in the order of one human generation. However, at the cutting edge of today’s technologies, half-life cycles of 5 years and less are quite common. On the one hand, scientific and technological developments offer promising new opportunities to improve the conditions of human life on a global scale. Not only in communication, but also in nutrition and healthcare do we have a realistic chance for significant improvements. We are developing a deeper understanding of the complex dynamics and interdependencies on various spheres and scales of the earth system. We have realistic expectations to create new technologies that contribute to a sustainable development. We are beginning to use tools and to implement processes on the nanometer scale that come close to what the fabric of nature has developed during evolution. We are beginning to understand more comprehensively the secrets of life and the functioning of the human brain. Scientific knowledge is profoundly reshaping our views of the world. On the other hand, the rate of innovation and knowledge explosion poses a great challenge not only to society as a whole but also to each individual, who is forced to question old wisdoms and to adapt to new developments. We are all aware of subtle interplay of global cooperation and competition. Change has become the main invariant, at least in our professional lives. The resulting uncertainty and the requirement to react rapidly can deeply disturb individuals and societies as well. We need knowledge and orientation to prevent such irritations. Successful innovations require the prepared individual and the susceptible society. Ideally, the community of competent and literate citizens decides upon the directions of future developments, but, in reality, the average level of scientific literacy does not keep pace with these rapid developments. In view of these profound processes of change, the quality of science education has become a central issue in many countries. Well-educated students as future citizens are considered to be society’s most important resource for shaping our future. There is a general fear that science education, scientific literacy and the public awareness of science do not comply satisfactorily with this transformation process and the needs of an emerging knowledge society.

1

An enlarged version of this article appears in Proc. Int. School of Physics “Enrico Fermi”, Course CLVI

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Background Aspects

2. Problems of communicating the innovative role of physics Physics as an academic subject has a long and successful record of creating new knowledge that applies to a broad range of scales of human experience and that drives technological development. The program of physics resulted in creating a new world view that challenges naive beliefs as well as long-held philosophical convictions. Physics is at the heart of new information and communication technologies that have deeply changed our lives in recent decades. Physicists work at the leading edge of new technologies that will probably trigger off even more profound changes. The intriguing development of nanotechnology is a key area for promising innovations not only in physics but also in the biosciences. Physically inspired model building has promoted a deeper understanding of complex processes in many fields. Physicists, as typical universalists, are successful in various professional careers ranging from medical and life sciences to engineering and computer science, from the geoand environmental sciences to economy, just to mention a few fields. The professional openness and universal orientation of a training in physics covers a wide spectrum of knowledge and skills, extremely useful not only within science fields closely related to physics but also in a broad range of subject areas, even in fields with a very “unphysical” appeal, like, for instance, the analysis of stock market data or risk assessment in insurance companies [1]. The diversification of jobs for physicists will probably even increase in the future, a development which is in line with other trends of our global, rapidly changing knowledge society, which transforms structures in traditional jobs and requires the readiness for lifelong learning. The spectrum of scientific disciplines and the technological work fields undergoes reorientations: Apart from probing “vertically” in depth in one area, science establishes “horizontal” links, connecting theoretical and experimental approaches and transferring knowledge between different disciplines. Often, hot spots in scientific and technological change connect several domains of knowledge. From a global and historical perspective, physics, as an academic subject is extremely successful in a number of areas, providing, for instance, rather generic methods in analyzing and solving complex problems. Physical models bridge the gap between the macro- and the micro-level. They contribute to a deeper understanding of complex phenomena like emergence and evolution and offer a coherent view of universality in complexity. However, physicists have immense problems in making the meaning and the fascination of their subject tangible to young people. The public image of physics and physicists is not in accord with the above optimistic view of the discipline either. Obviously, the potential of the subject and the new world view that intrigues our own minds as physicists is difficult to convey to the public. In spite of all the success physical methods had in the past and still have, we need to work harder and continuously to make them a vital part of the public understanding of our discipline. With respect to the aforementioned progress in nanotechnology, one might say, that physicists can touch and move even single atoms but they have serious problems in touching the hearts and moving the minds of our students. We all are aware of the negative consequences for the profession since physics no longer attracts the most talented young people. Additionally, we must worry about the status of science literacy and the attitudes of future citizens towards science. 3. Problems of physics education Physics, as a school subject, suffers from a bad reputation. Fewer students choose physics for their career. An explorative survey, carried out recently in Germany, investigated the preference for certain subject areas among high school graduates entering university [2]. The students were asked to name 4 school subjects, two favorite ones and two they disliked most. No subject other than physics had more negative nominations (30%), unbalanced by only 10% positive reactions. Only the negative image of chemistry came close to that. Mathematics, on the other hand, also stimulated a considerable amount of dislike, balanced by at least an equal amount of positive reactions. Biology ranged among the favorite subjects like arts, English and music, only superseded by sports. Latin, which is no longer compulsory, stimulated a similar negative/positive ratio of 3/1. Somehow,

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even in spite of all the good will of many physics educators, physics has become the Latin of modern times. Will the subject suffer the same fate as an extinct language and shrink to a discipline for specialists, not suited for the general audience? The situation comes close to being absurd. New technologies pervade our lives. Young people are attracted by the technologies, but the underlying basic science is widely ignored. 3.1 Between fortress and ivory tower: the image of physics Although the data represent snapshot only from one country, the findings are probably quite generic. In the heads of many students, physics resembles a fortress. It is difficult to conquer, and, what is worse, many students do not even regard this a worthwhile endeavor. Physics is considered abstract, difficult, boring, unattractive, not very meaningful to and detached from everyday life. Only few students will find the key to unlock the fortress. Many students who begin their physics lessons with a certain level of enthusiasm and eagerness soon change their attitude and consider the subject uninteresting and even develop aversions. Something is terribly wrong with the teaching of the subject. Especially girls develop a negative attitude. There are many reasons for this development. Physicists tend to tackle the problem on a rational level but the emotional experience is equally important. The image of people engaging in physics is bad. Another survey carried out among German high school students has focused on how students active and interested in physics are rated by their peers [3]. Students who are good at physics and mathematics are considered more intelligent and work-oriented, but fellow students rate them less attractive, socially competent, socially integrated and creative. The typical physicist comes close to the following stereotype: male, shy, unattractive, lonesome worker, not socially engaged. Such an image does not develop out of the blue and it will turn out to be fatal in the long run if physics only attracts a selection of students that conforms with the image of hard workers but that does not conform with the attributes of creative persons. Moreover, it is more than an image problem, that shows up in these views. In this context one cannot evade a discussion of the “two cultures” phenomenon, a splitting up in a rational-technical and in an aesthetic, literary, humanitarian culture [4]. The gap between these subcultures exists and it develops much earlier and much more pronounced than one might expect. The above study [2] investigates the motives for selecting university subjects from science, engineering and the cultural sciences. It seeks to isolate relevant determinants, e.g. parents and peers, that influence subject preference and the socialization towards science, technology and the humanities. At the end of high-school, a splitting up in two camps is already very clearly pronounced: • The domain of natural sciences and engineering, dominated by male students • The domain of language and cultural sciences, where female students are over represented. Primarily, the subject preference is determined by a person’s interest in the subject areas, by the self-concept and by the experience of the own abilities. These results are in accord with the expectations. However, including further variables in a predictive model of subject preference reveals surprising results. Apart from the individual interest and the experienced strengths and weaknesses, the engagement towards a certain professional orientation is determined by other motives like “engaging in shaping the future of society” or “interacting with other people”. Generally, these motives also have a high predictive power in explaining variance in subject preference. However, in order to explain a preference in science and mathematics, these factors discriminate in the negative sense! Compared to other disciplines, such motives are rare among mathematics and science students. This finding comes as a surprise. It runs contrary to the optimistic view that mathematics and science students are bright, creative and highly active, not only in their specific fields. These motives come close to the stereotype of the ivory-tower scientist, an introverted person, working on his or her own, not interacting much with other people. The wish to actively shape the future is more

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Background Aspects

common among engineering students. This motive appears to be one of the discriminating variables between future scientists and engineers. We have to digest these findings and we have to work on the issue, given the fact that co-operation and engaging in central problems of our society are crucial factors to shape the future. We have to stop complaining and to become active. 3.2 Effectiveness of physics education in view of international comparisons of school systems There is a broad consensus about the diagnosis of the deficits, but what is the best leverage to improve the situation? Are isolated actions within the domain of physics successful or do the mentioned problems refer to more general systemic deficiencies? It is useful to review these questions in the context of international efforts to monitor scientific literacy. The OECD Program for International Student Assessment (PISA) has addressed these problems which are considered vital in view of the rapid global changes [5]: • Are students well prepared to meet the challenges of the future? • Are they able to analyze, reason and communicate their ideas effectively? • Do they have the capacity to continue learning throughout life? The term “literacy” is used in a metaphoric way to describe a broad conception of knowledge and skills for life, which are broken down to various processes in the design of the actual tests, including, among many other aspects, the ability to apply knowledge from science in more or less authentic real world situations. Due to the comprehensive approach of assessing student performance and of collecting ample context information, PISA provides the empirical framework for a better understanding of the causes and possible consequences of observed deficiencies in science literacy. It shows where we can make necessary improvements in schooling and in preparing young people better for the challenges of an adult life in a world of rapid change as well as global interdependence. Among other findings, PISA confirms the results of earlier studies like TIMSS (Third International Mathematics and Science Study [6,7]). With respect to the consequences, I can speak only for my country: The TIMSS results have shattered the long-held beliefs about the high standards of physics education [8,9]. The learning progress in physics (and science lessons in general) is slow. Time is used inefficiently. Science education is more or less efficient only with respect to imparting the knowledge of facts. However, extensive deficits exist on the level of more demanding science processes, e.g. applying knowledge to new situations. Broadly speaking, physics teaching focuses on conveying factual knowledge (“know what”). Approaching the “know how” and the “know why” poses big problems. Physics education falls short of attaining more challenging goals like flexible application of knowledge in new contexts. It fails in promoting conceptual understanding. The PISA-approach adds more background knowledge that helps to interpret these findings by embedding them in a broader systemic context [10]. PISA shows surprisingly close connections between reading literacy, mathematics and science literacy. So the tendency among some countries to support early specialization certainly has a negative effect. Wide systemic differences and considerable variations in levels of performance between students, schools and countries become evident. Most importantly, the PISA-results show enormous differences in the impact of the socioeconomic background of students and schools. Notably, some of the countries which have been most successful in balancing out the effects of social disadvantage are among those with the best levels of students’ performance. This poses a great challenge to other countries (like my own) with a highly selective system which fails in supporting the lower performing students. But the system also has a problem at the upper end: it falls short of creating top performers. The PISA results demonstrate convincingly that the problems of physics education cannot be discussed separately. The performance of the school system as a whole has to be taken into account. The enormous systemic differences indicate that human resources and human capital are activated in highly different ways, even when one compares two countries which are culturally not so very different. Isolated programs to improve physics education have only a limited impact as long as the system does not improve the learning culture in general.

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3.3 Patterns of knowledge: Do systematic and problem-oriented approaches matter? A comparison of TIMSS and PISA results gives some advice on what to teach and how to teach because both tests approach the construct “science literacy” in complementary ways: • The TIMSS-test sought, in the main, to measure students’ understanding of the facts contained in the school curricula. The test has a high curricular validity and is constructed according to the contents and the systematic knowledge of the respective science disciplines. • PISA, on the contrary, seeks to measure more generic process skills, especially the ability to apply knowledge. Science processes are in the foreground, such as communicating ideas, finding relevant information, drawing conclusions, evaluating evidence. All these processes depend on high level skills with a strong (mostly qualitative) problem solving component. A comparison of these two different international surveys convincingly demonstrates that there are specific differences between countries in attaining these more demanding goals. Fig. 1 shows a compilation of the science test scores from countries which took part both in TIMSS and PISA. The scales do not represent raw test scores. The data have been transformed according to item response theory. Both tests are normalized to an average of 500 and a standard deviation of 100; i.e. roughly 2/3 of the distribution score between 400 to 600. The standard error bars are not shown in the figure and range roughly from 2-5. In spite of a five-year-time difference between both tests (1995 and 2000), such a comparison is useful for explorative purposes. Certainly, some efforts have been under way in various countries to improve science education after the publication of the TIMSS-results. In view of the long time constants in the educational systems, these effects should be of minor importance, however. As one would expect, the TIMSS and PISA results are correlated. Roughly 60% of the variation of the PISA achievement can be predicted on the basis of TIMSS performance. The PISA results challenge the teaching tradition of many countries even of those doing well in TIMSS. Two groups of countries can be found above and below the regression line which perform differently on both tests. There is one group of countries below the regression line, which might be called the “PISA losers”. They do worse in the PISA test than one would expect from the TIMSS results. Another group of countries (the “PISA winners”) shows much better achievements that one could expect from their TIMSS results. In trying to understand this specific pattern of achievements one might be tempted to resort to

Fig. 1: A comparison of international comparison studies. The average science scores of countries in the TIMSS and PISA test are compiled. The line shows the linear regression (data from [8,10]).

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Background Aspects

explanations like the statement: “International comparison studies are not culturally fair”. As countries taking a leading role in designing the PISA test (e.g. Australia) are among the “winners”, such an assumption might be justified indeed. However, in my view, this is only a superficial explanation. We have to explain why some countries (e.g. Sweden and the Czech Republic), which showed an excellent performance in the TIMSS test, cannot use their potential to do better in the PISA science test. Obviously, it is not sufficient to learn science in a systematic context. Something essential is lacking. A more plausible assumption is that the gap between the PISA winners and losers might reflect the specific curricular orientation in the different countries and the ways in which physics and the other science subjects are taught. Primarily, the gap appears to stand for two different approaches to physics teaching and learning: • the traditional approach, where the systematic teaching of the subject is in the foreground. • the more “progressive” approach, with problem- and process-orientation as guiding lines. Such a view of a gap between content knowledge and procedural knowledge can be supported by observations from the German PISA results. In addition to the international test a national supplementary test was administered, which was constructed in the curriculum-oriented and systematic TIMSS-tradition. A comparison of both test parts gives rise to a pattern similar to fig. 1, depending on the teaching tradition of the various states [11]. Again, the results show a clear indication of a gap between the kind of science literacy addressed by the PISA-framework and approaches to systematic scientific knowledge which accord with the TIMSS test approach. A good achievement on the systematic side is not sufficient to solve the process-oriented tasks of the PISAtest. The systematic, content-oriented approach falls short of providing adequate contexts for applying knowledge in real world situations. 4. The role of experiments, cognitive activation of students, and authentic learning experiences As teaching and learning are culturally dependent, programs to induce change necessarily have to reflect the specific experience of the respective culture and generic recommendations are difficult. From the perspective of the teaching tradition of the countries that belong to the group of “PISAlosers” in fig. 1 there is the challenge to shift the balance from the more conventional, systematic approaches to physics teaching towards the more progressive, problem- and process-oriented ways. Probably, we all would subscribe to the following vision: “The ultimate aim of our didactics is to find methods of teaching, where the teachers need to teach less, but where the students nevertheless learn more; where there is less noise, frustration and useless effort, and where freedom, pleasure and true progress prevail.” This is a quote from Comenius’ first grand didactical opus, dating back to 1628 [12]. Today’s teaching is still way off this general goal. This can be seen from a number of recent video studies of physics lessons that focus on the quality of physics instruction. 4.1 How matters are: information from video analyses of physics lessons In order to obtain research based evidence on contexts which are relevant to improve the quality of school a research program has been launched in Germany [13]. Several studies within this program focus on physics teaching, trying to identify central factors in teacher expertise and behavior that facilitate students’ learning [14-16]. These studies take into account prior experiences from a transcultural comparison of instruction in mathematics by off-line analysis of videos from lessons in Japan, USA, and Germany [17]. The video-analysis provides strong indications for linking students’ performance in mathematics with teacher expertise and their instructional patterns. Although rather resource consuming, video-analyses represent a useful method to get evidence of what to focus on in quality development. The IPN Physics Video Study investigates early physics instruction in the 8th grade, analyzing lessons from two subject areas, the introduction to mechanics and to electricity. The method is based on combining video-analyses of physics lessons, student questionnaires on how they perceive teaching, and tests on how they actually perform. Additionally, teacher questionnaires and

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interviews provide information on the teachers’ background, their intentions and beliefs. The study tries to identify patterns in elementary physics instruction and their relation to learning outcomes [18]. From this perspective, research questions are generic to the problems of teaching any school subject. Additionally, the research focuses on specific problems of physics instruction which refer to the role of experiments. How do teachers actually use experiments to activate students and to engage them in meaningful physics inquiry processes? Is the specific role that the cycle of experiments and model building plays adequately reflected in the teaching method? Does the nature of physics as an empirical science become evident? The following factors relevant to successful physics instruction have been found: • students’ perception of cognitive engagement • students’ perception of instructional quality • self-determined learning motivation • supportive teaching and learning conditions. The findings indicate that certain patterns of teaching behavior and of organizing classroom activities are already dominant in the early stage of teaching introductory physics lessons that set severe limitations to students’ motivation and their individual learning processes. On a general level, one could state that mostly the teachers are active – but not students. A central problem refers to the teachers’ role. Primarily, teachers see their role in the transmission of knowledge and not in arranging a learning environment that allows for a high level of students’ participation and mental engagement. A certain script or a pattern of instruction prevails which is called, in the German pedagogical tradition, the questioning-developing-style of teaching. It represents a form of teaching which is strongly guided by the teacher, who develops knowledge in small pieces, by asking questions. It is a ping-pong like game of questions and answers. Although it is guided by the teacher, this style of teaching should not be mixed up with instruction. Some students appear to be active, they respond to questions, present ideas etc. But closer inspection shows, that this occurs only at a superficial level. Detailed analyses of response times reveal that the teachers often do not give the students enough time to become immersed in the problems and to reflect more intensively on them. As a result, the students are only superficially engaged. If the teachers allot the students more time to reflect and if they provide the opportunity for longer periods of group work, their instructional quality and the learning support is rated much higher. The quality of instruction as measured by the learning gain is mainly connected with the degree of active involvement of students and the goal-orientation of the teacher [18]. The actual teachers’ scripts also set limitations to an adequate use of experiments. Experiments serve a wide spectrum of functions in physics as well as in physics instruction. Theoretically, teachers assign a crucial role to experiments in the teaching and learning of physics. Teachers’ beliefs mainly reflect the following function of experiments (cf. also. [19]): • The learners should have a practical experience with the phenomenon in question. • Experiments have a high motivational value. • Experiments are important to develop practical skills (observation, thorough working, use of tools and instruments). • Experiments are an important source of knowledge. • Experiments make abstract concepts visible. • Naive beliefs can be challenged by experiments. • Experiments serve a methodological function: the testing of theories and ideas by confronting them with reality. • Experiments promote scientific inquiry methods. Physics teachers use experiments quite often, although the actual use of experiments in the teaching process is not in full accord with the above aims. Most of the teaching is arranged around experiments with various phases of preparing the experiment, of actually carrying it out and of discussing the results and the implications [20]. Two main ways of “orchestrating” experiments have been found:

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Background Aspects

• Embedding demonstration experiments mostly done by the teacher in teacher-centered questioning-developing style. • Carrying out experiments by students working in small groups. The group work is embedded in phases of discussions guided by the teacher. Although learning gains differ significantly between classes, there is no systematic difference between these two learning situations. Other factors appear to be more relevant. In both cases, students have only little opportunity to engage in planning, in formulating hypothesis about possible outcomes and in reflections about the function of the experiment. Even in the case of students doing experiments in groups, there is hardly any opportunity for openness in the activity, of responsibility and commitment transferred to the students. Students follow a fixed program of experimental manipulations and observations set up by the teacher. Narrow guidance provides only little space for students to develop their ideas or to follow their own approaches. It is difficult to draw generalizations from observations within a single learning culture. One has to keep in mind that what is considered good teaching and learning has a strong cultural bias, and the variability in the actual use of different teaching methods is rather limited. Even within these limitations, positive indications on the role of experiments can be found. Classes, where the teacher devotes a high amount of time to preparing, carrying out and discussing the results of experiments have a higher learning gain, indicating that doing experiments in physics has a positive effect on learning [20]. However, not the experiment per se appears as the relevant factor, but appropriate measures on the part of the teacher that facilitate learning. These teacher activities co-vary with other relevant teacher-related factors like the above goal orientation and the degree of student engagement. At present, the available database is not sufficient to allow for multivariate analyses in order to single out the influence of doing experiments. To tackle this problem, an investigation using more classes and comparing two different systems with the same language but with different pedagogical traditions is being carried out (physics lessons in Germany and in German-speaking Swiss schools). Watching the videos often leaves the impression that many opportunities are left out which could enhance meaningful engagement and learning by a proper combination of hands-on and minds-on activities. The general style of teaching prevents exploiting the full potential of experiments in stronger inquiry-oriented learning settings of planning, of doing practical work and of modeling the observations. Often, the experiments are done in a linear and additive fashion, with the systematic structure of the subject area serving as a guiding principle to arrange their sequence in the learning process. There is a general lack of building up adequate mental models and of linking the experiences from different experiments in order to get a coherent view of the subject area. The systematic approach prevails and a problem-oriented way of arranging experiments is rather rare. Also, experiments using everyday material are not very common. Experiments get the flavor of something very artificially set up, which is only done in physics lessons, not very relevant to daily life. Our present findings on the practices of using experiments in actual physics teaching echo the complaints and the diagnosis of deficits that have been around in the didactical literature for decades. Wagenschein commented on the limited success of physics teaching and attributes it to the prevalent way of knowledge presentation [21]. In his view, an exaggerated emphasis is laid in the systematic order, arranging the subject matter in a linear way, starting with the simple and proceeding to the complex. Such a procedure requires learning and piling up unrelated facts before being able to link them in a meaningful way. Especially, teachers from the hard sciences will favor such a way as it appears the natural order and reflects the logical structure of the domain. Although such a systematic way of additive knowledge presentation is in accord with the logical structure of the subject matter, it is by no means psychologically and pedagogically adequate. The view implicit to such a type of teaching is a transmission model of knowledge. Wagenschein’s critique (written in 1963) is still valid today. Physics teachers, as seen in the videos, are often driven by the idea to achieve systematic completeness. Their pedagogy is guided by what

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they consider an appropriately simplified elementary approach, which cuts knowledge into pieces, into small chunks of information that they present. Consequently, problem- and context-based approaches to physics teaching are very rare. Additionally, many teachers are very reluctant in giving those approaches a try; their thinking and their ways of teaching are fixed rather rigidly within the systematic structure of the discipline. However, the logic of the discipline and the logic of pedagogy are different. In order to improve the students’ engagement in knowledge acquisition more diverse approaches are necessary. 4.2 How matters could be: the role of experiments in informal learning environments Teacher behavior hardly reflects pedagogical developments of the last decades, which give the learner an active role in constructing her or his knowledge. From the perspective of situated cognition and moderate constructivism, learning environments should conform to a set of certain criteria to enable meaningful learning processes [22]: • They should be authentic, allowing the learner to deal with problems in realistic and not in artificially arranged situations. • A problem should be presented and analyzed from multiple perspectives, using different approaches and methods of problem-solving. • The experience of a problem in multiple contexts is prerequisite for a flexible use of knowledge that transcends the context of knowledge acquisition and that allows a flexible transfer of knowledge to more distant problems. • Knowledge construction takes place in and is facilitated by an appropriate social context that allows for cooperative and collaborative problem solving. • The learning arrangement should leave sufficient freedom for the development of the students’ own ideas and for following his or her own approaches. To explore one’s own ideas is a prerequisite for successful knowledge construction. While these ideas permeate the formal education system extremely slowly, there is another active new field of development outside the traditional system, which implements many of these approaches. Science labs have been established during the last decade in several countries as a consequence of the crisis of science education and to counteract the imminent lack of qualified workforce in science and technology. Various initiatives from research sites, industry, universities and science-centers offer opportunities for laboratory experience and learning to school-students of different age groups. To put it briefly, these out-of-school learning experiences are called informal learning. Compared to science museums these labs fulfill a somewhat different function. They intend to give insight into „the real thing“ instead of strongly pedagogically reduced versions of school physics. They offer various possibilities of experiencing the working environment of scientists in authentic ways and of getting into personal contact with researchers in science and technology. Carrying out experiments and engaging the students in practical, hands-on activities is considered essential. Primarily, the labs intend to convey the fascination of science and technology by presenting authentic insights into the missions and the Fig. 2: Factors contributing to the success of science labs

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workings of institutions that play an important role in shaping our future. Stated more generally, these labs implement approaches of cognitive apprenticeship by working in highly authentic situations. Although the individual origins and purposes of the science labs differ, most informal learning labs agree upon the following general goals: • Getting school students an authentic feeling for the scientific endeavor • Getting in touch with science and technology in the work place • Get in personal contact with students and scientists • Creating opportunities and stimulating environments to interact with authentic problems from science and technology that pose a certain degree of challenge • Working on problems that show cooperative and collaborative aspects of projects in science and technology • Providing an adequate framework to get first hand experience of the role of science and technology in our society. In terms of the number of participating classes, most of these science labs work extremely successfully. In Germany, for instance, about 50 science labs have been created in the recent years, and more initiatives are planned. The existing labs are booked for many months and the increasing demands have created waiting lists. Thus from the perspective of demand, these labs can be considered a great success. However, a thorough theoretical basis of learning in labs is still lacking. Many labs have been established in the naïve belief that carrying out experiments guarantees an increased level of motivation and better understanding. As several meta-analyses on the role of lab work in schools have shown, successful learning in labs is not an automatism. Creating stimulating learning environments, that adapt to the various interests and cognitive abilities of students is far from trivial [24,23]. Additionally, the strong claims of cognitive apprenticeship and the situated cognition approach have been questioned [25]. Do the labs work in the expected way? Is it possible to create interest by confronting school students with authentic problems from research? What design factors are relevant? Do school students appreciate the labs and do visits to science-labs change the image of science in the long run? An evaluation study carried out with five science labs in Germany with a focus on physics sought to isolate factors in the design of labs that are relevant for cognitive activation of students and for creating situational interest [26]. 15 different school classes (3 per lab, 9th and 10th grade) visiting the labs once (~3h lab session) were investigated. Information was collected using two questionnaires, one at the end of the lab and the second one 3 months later in the regular physics class. Creating situational interest was considered the relevant success criterion of visit to the lab. Situational interest was broken down into three subcategories, emotional interest, value orientation and epistemic interest. This in accord to the person-object theory of interest, defining interest as a special relation of a person to an object characterised by positive feeling, personal significance and the desire to know more [27]. On a descriptive level, the lab visits are rated very positively by the visiting students. Roughly 75% rate the labs as interesting or very interesting. They would come back for another visit. Especially, the contact with “real” scientists and the insight in their research institution is highly appreciated by the visiting school students. No gender differences are detectable with respect to the three aspects of situational interest. In sharp contrast to most science classes in school, both the boys and the girls rate the labs equally positive. The possibility of conducting experiments and the learning environment of the science labs addresses both genders in a positive way. In this respect, labs do something that regular classes do not achieve. Obviously, the authentic and problem-oriented approaches meet the girls’ interest much better than the systematic approaches of school physics. This interpretation of the positive result is in line with findings from research on students’ interests [28,29]. A closer analysis has to take into account how the labs work for different groups of students depending on their dispositional interests and on their self-concept with respect to physics. The

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study investigated the interactions among student-related variables and lab-related variables (fig. 2). In the analysis, creating situational interest was considered the dependent variable with the student-related variables as control variables and lab-related variables as independent variables. Out of the collected lab variables the following factors account for variation of the situational interest of the students: • competence / quality of instruction • cognitive challenge • authenticity. There are noticeable differences between the three components of interest discussed above (positive feeling, personal significance, desire to know more). The five investigated school labs fulfill their intended role in creating interest in modern science and technology, although the labs do this in very different ways. Accordingly, their ratings differ with respect to the three dimensions of situational interest. Some labs show remarkable differences concerning the personal significance of the visit as well as the desire to know more. There are differential effects depending on the dispositional interest of the students. There is no significant difference between the lab ratings of students with a high interest, but the ratings of students with low initial interest in science differ significantly. Some labs address this group of students better. A very interesting long-term effect shows up and with a surprisingly strong effectsize. Fig. 3 shows how the labs are rated with respect to the value-oriented dimension of interest for the two measurements. There is a considerable improvement in the ratings after 10-12 weeks time have elapsed. The long term improvement tends to be even stronger for the students from the low interest group. Obviously, the labs are effective – they have changed something in the heads of the students, and the change requires time. However, even more can be done. The results show that a visit to a lab is in many cases not well-prepared. In view of research on the effectiveness of science museums and interactive science centres [30], this is clearly an indicator that the present practice of the relatively new established science labs could be improved. Many labs offer only a single visit to a class. Only in very few cases special schemes are established in order to prepare the visit and to maintain interest and activities after the visit, for instance by offering additional learning opportunities. Such measures could prove essential in enhancing the positive long term effect that shows up even after a single visit. Due to their novelty, the function of the labs in the conventional formal educational framework is not yet settled. These labs could provide an additional pillar to the education system because they

Fig. 3: Students’ ratings of the personal significance of the visit to the science lab, measured immediately after the visit (I) and 12 weeks later (II). Both the low and the high interest group show a significant improvement.

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show the real work place and authentic science and technology instead of a didactical transformation. The informal learning activities can feed back on the formal education system in a beneficial way by providing more authentic and attractive ways of engaging students in learning and in doing authentic up-to-date science. Moreover, the labs could contribute to strengthening cooperative and collaborative project work, which is important in the workplace, but which plays only a marginal role in schools. However, the function of informal learning has to be clarified and made explicit. Is it complementary or supplementary to learning in the formal education system. The question how teachers can be involved needs to be addressed. The science labs could play a more prominent role in the professional development of teachers by engaging them in different phases of their professional career. In summing up the results from the empirically oriented view of this chapter, experiments and practical activities can play an essential role in learning physics, although in practice there are deficits. There is no automatism for experiments to stimulate interest and to enhance learning. Evidence from regular lessons and from informal learning environments points out that the proper arrangement of the learning environment is essential. A balancing of the sometimes conflicting views of systematic and problem-oriented approaches is necessary. In regular classes, too little effort is put in creating learning environment that activates the learners and allows for opportunities to raise meaningful questions and to provide an adequate level of challenge for students of diverse abilities. 5. Physics in context: Linking meaningful physics and meaningful learning processes Physics education is challenged to prepare our students to cope with a world of increasing complexity. In overcoming the problems of teaching and learning physics we have to address both the rational and the emotional channel. We have to find more appropriate ways to make physics meaningful to the learners. This includes embedding the approach of physics more broadly in diverse contexts and to anchor it in our culture. Depending on the target group, meaningful contexts range from a better understanding of the natural and technical world to metacognitive and epistemic considerations that reflect upon our status in the universe and address the role of our own mental activities in building models of the world. In communicating physics we have to respond to the challenges of the future like understanding and managing complex systems ranging from nanoscale science to the subtle global interdependencies in the earth system. We are challenged to create sustainable technologies that do less harm to the environment. In teaching physics, this requires shifting the focus and also contributing to the progress in other fields like, for instance, understanding life processes and brain function. Physics education has good chances of doing this. However, we have to become active and promote a future-oriented view. Various programs throughout the world have been created that react to the more recent problems of teaching and learning physics and address the quality of physics education. For my outlook, I shall focus on a physics program in Germany, that is funded by the national ministry of science and education (BMBF). It is called “piko-Physik im Kontext” (physics in context). “piko” is a program to improve science literacy by improving the quality of physics teaching and learning. On a general level, it aims at raising the students’ interest in physics and foster their open-mindedness and receptiveness towards science and technology, in order to be able to address problems of the natural and the technical world by the rational methods of science and to keep pace with the developments described in the introductory sections [31]. The program starts in October 2003. Part of the project philosophy is based on positive experience from an earlier program on school quality development. A nation-wide model project funded by the German Board of Education (“BLK-Modellversuch”) aims at improving the quality of teaching and learning in science and mathematics [32]. The characteristics of this program is a bottom-up approach. Basically, networks of schools define their own goals. Each school set within the network consists of six schools. It

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selects focus areas according to the particular needs from a list of modules, which had been identified before by a group of experts. The program is considered a success by the participating schools and by school administration [33]. At present, the program is continued in a dissemination stage. One of the main success-factors relies on the networking-idea. As a result of that program, networks of teachers have been created and are still active that cooperate in promoting teaching and learning. “piko” also relies upon school networks and the cooperation of teachers, but, furthermore, it combines bottom-up and top-down strategies. Further thematic and methodological input (i.e. subject specific training and coaching) is provided by external experts, who accompany and evaluate the process. Additionally, a summative evaluation of the project is planned. “piko” addresses three different conceptions of “context” that will be developed systematically: • thematic contexts (everyday science, physics in the context of technology and society, inter- and trans-disciplinary contexts) • learning environment as context (to overcome the shortcomings of conventional teaching described in section 4) • out of school learning contexts (including authentic experiences and projects from the workplace, research institutes etc.). Apart from raising the average level of science literacy, “piko” aims at the professional development of teachers in order to enable teachers to take a different role and foster active learning and inquiry processes. As physics teachers tend to be strongly subject-oriented, the project philosophy counts on getting the teachers involved by their interests in new physics subjects, and to commit teachers to implement these subjects by creating learning environments that do better in activating and stimulating students’ learning processes. Thus, “piko” seeks to combine innovative physics with innovative pedagogy. For more details about the piko-program, its approach, its philosophy and the networking strategy see www.physik-im-kontext.de. In the near future, we hope to present first results on the approach.

References [1] [2] [3] [4] [5] [6] [7] [8] [9] [10] [11] [12] [13] [14] [15] [16] [17] [18] [19] [20]

Euler M., In: R. Pinto, S. Surrinach (Eds.), Physics Teacher Education Beyond 2000, Proc. Int. GIREP Conference Barcelona (2000), Paris (2001) Zwick M. and Renn O., Die Attraktivität von technischen und ingenieurwissenschaftlichen Fächern bei der Studien- und Berufswahl junger Frauen und Männer, Akademie für Technikfolgenabschätzung, Stuttgart, 2000 Kessel U. et al., Physik Journal 1(11) (2002) 65-68 Snow C.P., The two Cultures and a Second Look, Cambridge (1959) Knowledge and Skills for Life. First Results from the OECD Programme for International Student Assessment (Pisa) 2000, Ed.: OECD, Paris (2001) Beaton A.E. et al., Mathematic Achievement in the Middle School Years: IEA’s Third Int. Mathematics and Science Study (TIMSS), Chestnut Hill (1996) Beaton A.E. et al., Science Achievement in the Middle School Years: IEA’s Third Int. Mathematics and Science Study (TIMSS), Chestnut Hill (1996) Baumert J. et al., TIMSS – Mathematisch – naturwissenschaftlicher Unterricht im internationalen Vergleich. Deskriptive Befunde, Opladen (1997) Baumert J. et al., TIMSS/III – Schülerleistungen in Mathematik und den Naturwissenschaften am Ende der Sekundarstufe II im internationalen Vergleich, Berlin (1998) Deutsches PISA-Konsortium (Eds.), PISA (2000) Baumert J. et al. (Eds.), PISA 2000 - die Länder der Bundesrepublik Deutschland im Vergleich, Opladen (2002) Translated from the German edition: Comenius, J., Große Didaktik, Stuttgart (1992) Prenzel M. and Renkl A., Unterrichtswissenschaft, 30/1 (2002) 2-6 Fischer H.E. et al., Zeitschrift für Pädagogik, 45. Beiheft (2002), p. 124-138 Prenzel M. et al., Zeitschrift für Pädagogik, 45. Beiheft (2002), p. 139-156 Fischer H.et al., Zeitschrift für Pädagogik, 45. Beiheft (2002), p. 157-172 Stigler J. et al., The TIMSS Videotape Classroom Study, U.S. Department of Education, Washington, D.C. (1999) Seidel T. et al, Unterrichtswissenschaft, 30/1 (2002) 52-77 Harlen W., Effective Teaching of Science: A Review of Research, SCRE, Glasgow (1999) Tesch M., Dissertation, IPN, Kiel, to appear (2004)

30 [21] [22] [23] [24] [25] [26] [27] [28] [29] [30] [31]

[32] [33]

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Wagenschein M., Naturphänomene sehen und verstehen, Stuttgart (1995) Gerstenmeier J. and Mandl H., Zeitschrift für Pädagogik, 41 (1995) 876-888 Hofstein A. and Lunetta V., Review of Educational Research, 52 (1982) 201-217 Lunetta V., In: Fraser B. and Tobin K. (Eds.), International Handbook on Science Education, Dordrecht, Kluwer (1998), 249-262 Klauer K.J., Zeitschrift für Pädagogische Psychologie/German Journal of Educational Psychology 13 (3) (1999) 117-121 Engeln K., Dissertation, IPN Kiel, to appear (2004 ) Krapp A., European Journal of Psychology of Education, 14 (1) (1999) 23-40 Hofmann L., Häussler P. and Lehrke M., Die IPN-Interessenstudie, Kiel, IPN (1998) Hofmann L., Learning and Instruction 12 (2002) 447-456 Griffin, J., International Journal of Science Education, 20(6) (1998) 655-663. Duit R., Euler M., Friege G., Komorek M., Mikelskis-Seifert S., Physik im Kontext: Ein Programm zur Verbesserung der naturwissenschaftlichen Grundbildung durch Physikunterricht, Project Proposal, Kiel, IPN (2003) Prenzel M., Das BLK-Modellprogramm “Steigerung der Effizienz des mathematisch-naturwissenschaftlichen Unterrichts”, in: BMBF(Ed.), TIMSS-Impulse für Schule und Unterricht, Bonn (2001) 59-65 Prenzel M. et al., Proceedings of the 3rd Int. Conf. on Science Education Research in the Knowledge Based Society, Univ. of Thessaloniki, Vol. 1(2001) 201

PHYSICS EDUCATION RESEARCH: THE KEY TO STUDENT LEARNING AND TEACHER PREPARATION Lillian C. McDermott, Department of Physics, University of Washington, Seattle, USA Introduction The perspective that teaching is a science (as well as an art) suggests that discipline-based education research can be the key for achieving cumulative improvement in the effectiveness of instruction. Research has identified many serious conceptual and reasoning difficulties that are common among students majoring in physics and other sciences, prospective and practicing teachers, and physics graduate students. We have used an iterative process of research, curriculum development, and instruction to help all of these populations deepen their understanding of physics. Assessment (before, during, and after instruction) is an integral part of the cycle. This experience has led to some generalizations about learning and teaching that guide our development of instructional materials. Discipline-based education research differs from traditional education research in that the emphasis is on student understanding of science content. Such research requires an in-depth knowledge of the subject as well as access to students, which means that it can usually only be conducted by science faculty.When teaching is viewed as a science, as well as an art, it is an appropriate field for scholarly inquiry by scientists. This perspective motivates the work of the Physics Education Group in the Department of Physics at the University of Washington. For more than 30 years, we have been engaged in a coordinated program of research, curriculum development, and instruction to improve student learning in physics at all levels. The graduate students in our group earn the Ph.D. degree in physics for research in physics education. Most of our investigations involve undergraduates enrolled in introductory courses. A second group consists of prospective and practicing teachers who are taking special courses designed to prepare them to teach physics and physical science by inquiry. Our studies also include students in engineering and in advanced undergraduate physics courses. Our two major curriculum projects are Physics by Inquiry and Tutorials in Introductory Physics. [1, 2] The first, which is self-contained and laboratory-based, is designed for use with teachers but is also suitable for other students. The second is a supplementary curriculum that can be used with any standard introductory text. Key to the development of both sets of instructional materials is research that focuses on the learning and teaching of physics [3].

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Ongoing need for research Our group has systematically examined student understanding before, during, and after university study in physics. Our main criterion for the effectiveness of instruction has been the assessment of student learning by specified intellectual outcomes. We have found that, on certain types of questions, students perform as poorly after a traditional physics course as before. The level of mathematical sophistication of the students (and sometimes the course) does not make a significant difference in performance on these questions, nor does use of lecture demonstrations and laboratory experiments in the customary way. The outcome is essentially the same, regardless of the size of the class or the popularity of the instructor. Results from research indicate that most people encounter similar difficulties with the same material. These can be identified, analyzed, and effectively addressed through an iterative process of research, curriculum development, and instruction. Both the learning difficulties and effective means for addressing them are often generalizable beyond a particular course, instructor, or institution. If the criteria for student learning are clearly stated and the results are reproducible, cumulative improvement in the effectiveness of instruction becomes possible. When documented and reported at professional meetings and in publications, findings from research can be a rich resource for physics instructors and curriculum developers [4]. Research procedures Our research procedures reflect our empirical approach. During individual demonstration interviews that are based on simple equipment (real or visualized), we ask students to respond to a series of conceptual questions and to explain their reasoning in detail. We administer similar questions in written form to large numbers of students. Pretests and post-tests help us ascertain the prevalence of specific difficulties and assess the effectiveness of the instructional strategies that we design. Observations of students during instruction provide additional insights. The example below illustrates the type of qualitative questions that we use to probe student thinking. On written examinations, more than 1000 students in introductory physics were shown diagrams of three simple circuits, in which an ideal battery is connected to combinations of identical bulbs: a single bulb, two bulbs in series, and two bulbs in parallel [5]. (See Fig. 1.) No calculations are necessary to determine that the single bulb and two bulbs in parallel are all equally bright and brighter than the two in series, which are in turn as bright as each other. However, only about 15% of the students responded correctly. Of particular concern was the fact that this low success rate was the same before and after they had attended lectures, done homework, and performed laboratory experiments. Similar results were obtained from high school physics teachers and from university faculty in other sciences and mathematics. About 70% of more than 100 graduate teaching assistants in physics gave the proper ranking. These highly reproducible results helped us identify some common difficulties with electric circuits. We have used the results from similar qualitative

B A

D

E

C

Fig. 1. Students were shown the three circuits above and told to assume that the bulbs are identical and the batteries are ideal. They were asked to rank the bulbs by brightness and to explain their reasoning. The correct response is A = D = E > B = C.

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questions to design instructional strategies that have proved effective in undergraduate instruction and in teacher professional development. Undergraduate instruction Tutorials in Introductory Physics is designed to strengthen (not replace) traditional university instruction. Most of the tutorials are intended for use at the introductory level but some are on more advanced material. The worksheets that form their core consist of carefully structured questions. These guide students as they work in small groups through the reasoning that is needed to develop and apply important concepts and principles. Below are several generalizations about learning and teaching, inferred and validated through our research, that have guided the development of the tutorials and that summarize our instructional approach. The ability of students to solve standard quantitative problems is not an adequate criterion for functional understanding. Such problems are typically used to measure mastery of physics. As course grades attest, many students who complete a typical introductory course can solve such problems satisfactorily through the use of formulas. However, they often lack the functional understanding necessary to apply concepts learned in one context to another. Questions that require qualitative reasoning and verbal explanations are better indicators of understanding. For example, students who have studied electric circuits (as usually presented in lectures, textbooks, and laboratory) can state that current is conserved. Many can successfully apply Kirchhoff’s rules to complicated circuits. Yet they respond to questions, such as the one above, as if they believe that current is “used up” and/or the battery is a constant current source. A second generalization illustrated by the example is that certain serious conceptual difficulties are not overcome by traditional instruction and may even persist through advanced study. Although problem-solving performance may be satisfactory, some difficulties preclude development of a functional understanding. They must be explicitly addressed. Assertions and explanations by an instructor are not effective. The students themselves must go through the reasoning. We have found that a useful instructional strategy for obtaining the necessary intellectual commitment from students is to generate a conceptual conflict and to require them to resolve it. The first step is to elicit a suspected difficulty by contriving a situation in which they are likely to make a particular error. Once the difficulty has been exposed, the instructor must insist that students confront and resolve the issue. Since a single encounter is rarely sufficient to overcome a serious difficulty, students need time to apply the same concepts and reasoning in different contexts, to reflect upon these experiences and to generalize from them. Connections among concepts, formal representations and the real world are often lacking after traditional instruction. Students find it hard to relate equations and other scientific representations to one another and to actual objects and events. For example, students are often unable to apply the concepts of current and potential difference to circuit diagrams. Trying to address such difficulties with a few lecture demonstrations or laboratory experiments is often inadequate. Students need repeated practice in interpreting physics formalism. There is well-documented evidence that students often do not develop a coherent conceptual framework from traditional instruction. For example, many of the errors made by students in the above example arose because they did not have a conceptual model for an electric circuit. In this case and others, the failure to integrate related concepts may pass undetected since mathematical manipulation alone is often enough to solve standard problems. If they are to apply a concept in a variety of contexts, students must be able to define the concept, distinguish it from other concepts, and recognize its relevance to a physical situation. Unless they have gone through the steps needed to construct the concept, they are unlikely to develop this skill. Perhaps the most important generalization that has emerged from our work is that traditional instruction does not usually improve the reasoning ability of students. Most traditional courses tend to reinforce a perception of physics as a collection of facts and formulas. As a result, students often cannot apply concepts to situations not expressly memorized. They do not recognize the critical role of reasoning in physics nor understand what is meant by a

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physical explanation. Our experience indicates that requiring students to give explanations strengthens their reasoning skills and helps them become better able to retain what they have learned. We have found (as have others) that developing a sound qualitative understanding does not decrease (and may improve) performance on quantitative problems, even if there is less time for practice. Results from research support the generalization that teaching by telling is not effective. There is an apparent mismatch between how physics is usually taught and how most students learn. The traditional approach is often based on the instructor’s present understanding of the subject, not on an informed judgment about what students are intellectually prepared to learn. Many instructors tend to think of students as younger versions of themselves. Typically (at least in the U.S.), most students in an introductory university course do not intend to be physicists. They lack the motivation to struggle with material that appears difficult. Even those students who want to learn may not know how. Under these conditions, it is not surprising that the assumption of many instructors that they can transmit “knowledge” to students through inspiring lectures and lucid explanations is not supported by evidence. The challenge is to engage students at a sufficiently deep intellectual level for meaningful learning to occur. Professional development of teachers To improve the teaching of science to young students, we must ask what we want them to know and be able to do and then prepare teachers accordingly. Our research and experience in working with teachers have led to some additional generalizations. Most important is the need for in-depth knowledge of the science that they will be teaching. At the elementary level, teachers should have a strong command of some fundamental concepts. A deep understanding of basic physics is more critical for secondary school teachers than is knowledge of advanced topics. Teachers at all levels should be aware of the difficulties that their students are likely to have and be able to draw upon effective instructional strategies to help them learn. A sound knowledge of physics is not an objective of pedagogical methods courses, nor is it necessarily acquired through experience in teaching. However, neither do traditional physics courses help teachers develop the level of competence they need to teach science as inquiry. These courses pay too little attention to the development of concepts and scientific reasoning skills, provide too little experience with phenomena, and place too much emphasis on mathematical formalism. As a result, high school teachers tend to emphasize the memorization of facts and formulas. The usual preparation of elementary school teachers is even less satisfactory. Often they take courses that are almost entirely descriptive or that consist of unrelated “hands-on” activities. Such instruction is not adequate preparation for teachers. Most physics and physical science courses are lecture-based. With or without a laboratory component, they are poor models for teaching. Teachers need to learn (or relearn) the material that they are expected to teach in a way that is consistent with how they should teach. It is impractical to try to provide this opportunity through modification of typical university courses. There is a need, therefore, for special physics courses for prospective and practicing teachers [6]. The response of the Physics Education Group has been the development of Physics by Inquiry. Conclusion Although many experienced instructors have tried to address the issues that have been raised, their instructional strategies (both successful and unsuccessful) have usually not been documented and thus have not been readily accessible to others. By relying primarily on their own intuition about teaching, instructors continue to make mistakes that have been made before. Innovators seldom provide enough detail for replication in other environments. Assessment has tended to be anecdotal. Too often the quality of physics instruction is judged on the basis of the enthusiasm of students and the subjective judgment of teachers. These are not valid indicators. We need instead to examine critically what students have actually learned. Research in physics education can provide a guide for making this judgment and for setting higher — yet realistic — standards for student learning.

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Acknowledgments The work described is the result of the combined efforts of my faculty colleagues (Paula R.L. Heron and Peter S. Shaffer) and other members (past and present) of the Physics Education Group. Support by the National Science Foundation is gratefully acknowledged.

References [1] L.C. McDermott and the Physics Education Group at the University of Washington, Physics by Inquiry (John Wiley & Sons, Inc.), New York, 1996). About 12,000 copies have been distributed in the U.S. Physics by Inquiry is also available in Polish and Greek translations. W Poszukiwaniu Praw Fizyki, translated by: Krzysztof Bialkowski (John Wiley & Sons, Warszawa, 2000). ΦΥΣΙΚΗ ΜΕ ∆ΙΕΡΩΤΗΣΗ transated by: Costas P. Constantinou (John Wiley & Sons, Inc., Αευκωσια 2005) [2] L.C. McDermott, P.S. Shaffer, and the Physics Education Group at the University of Washington, Tutorials in Introductory Physics, (Prentice Hall, Upper Saddle River, NJ, 2002). About 80,000 copies have been distributed in the U.S. The tutorials are also available in Spanish and Greek translations. Tutoriales para Fisica Introductoria, traduccion de: Roberto Mercader (Buenos Aires: Pearson Education, 2001). Μαθηµατα Εισαγωγικηυ, Μεταφραση: Ηαυλο Μιχας (Prentice-Hall, Athens, 1998). [3] For an overview of the role of research in the development of curriculum by the Physics Education Group, see L.C. McDermott, Response for the 2001 Oersted Medal, “Physics Education Research: The key to student learning,” Am. J. Phys. 69 (11) 1127 (2001); L.C. McDermott, Guest Comment: “How we teach and how students learn—A mismatch?” Am. J. Phys. 61 (4) 295 (1993); L.C. McDermott, Millikan Award 1990, “What we teach and what is learned: Closing the gap,” Am. J. Phys. 59 (4) 301 (1991). [4] L.C. McDermott and E.F. Redish, “Resource Letter: PER-1: Physics Education Research,” Am. J. Phys. 67 (9) 755 (1999). [5] For a discussion of the research from which this example has been taken, see Part I in L.C. McDermott and P.S. Shaffer, “Research as a guide for curriculum development: An example from introductory electricity, Part I: Investigation of student understanding,” Am. J. Phys. 60 (11) 994; Printer’s erratum to Part I, ibid. 61, 81 (1993); Part II: Design of instructional strategies,” ibid. 60 (11), 1003 (1992). For a discussion of the development of curriculum based on the research, see Part II. [6] See L.C. McDermott, “A perspective on teacher preparation in physics and other sciences: The need for special courses for teachers,” Am. J. Phys. 58 (8) 734 (1990).

SPOTLIGHTING A CONTENT FOR TEACHING: WHAT PHYSICS EDUCATION RESEARCH BRINGS TO TEACHER TRAINING1 Laurance Viennot, Laboratoire de Didactique des Sciences Physiques, Universitè Denis Diderot Paris 7, France 1. Introduction Can research inform practice? A recent comment by Millar et al. [1] – “Why is the impact of research on practice apparently so light?” – leaves little room for simply proposing “pedagogical outcomes” at the end of a research paper. This address comes in support of the idea that “the devil is in the details”, i.e., in more academic terms, that the links between research and practice should be envisaged at the micro-level. Optimizing the research/practice interface is a matter for finegrained analysis, be it when designing and revising a research-based teaching sequence or when interacting with teachers, for example in training sessions. I would like to stress the crucial interest of considering small aspects of practice [2-5], this in relation with general principles, as well as with the content and the corresponding common approaches of learners. As far as “general principles” are concerned, I will focus here on the question of conceptual linkage, one of the angles of analysis that can be profitably adopted when determining critical aspects of practice. There is, indeed, a common trend towards fragmentation, when teaching physics. In fact, fragmenting the content of physics is an obvious need. The constraints of designing a syllabus, of writing a textbook, of teaching something in the allotted time make fragmentation 1

Large parts of this address concern examples that have been already presented during a course given at the Enrico Fermi International Summer School (2003).

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inevitable. The whole question is to what extent an integrated view of physics will be sacrified in this process. My concern here is to see if something can be proposed, and accepted, in order to foster in our students a view of physics as a marvellously unifying description of one part of what happens in our world – the “material world”, to put it succinctly. Two examples will illustrate various aspects of this question, as well as the reactions of teachers who were presented with the corresponding suggestions. This aspect – i.e., teacher’s reactions – is indeed determining, and it is useful to consider it if filling the gap between research and pratice is seriously aimed at. It may be that fragmentation is one of the most resistant trends among teachers because it is compatible with an easy management of work in the classroom, with deep-rooted habits, and other possible factors at the conceptual level. I will propose two examples in order to raise various aspects of this question. One is about light and vision in lower secondary school. It will illustrate what might be called a critical detail of pratice on the basis of conceptual linkage, as well as the ineffectiveness of one type of suggestion in terms of teacher acceptance. The other example concerns a sequence about Doppler effect which has been implemented in degree courses and in teacher training sessions. I will discuss the research-based principles that have shaped the design of this sequence, and led us to establish a link between the Doppler effect (1842) and Römer’s discovery (1676). Finally, the implications of this choice as well as the generally positive reactions of the consulted teachers will be discussed in relation to the preceding example. 2. Linking light and vision Several studies have shown that what makes it possible to see objects it by no means self-evident [6,7,8]. For example, the device shown in figure 1 was used by Kaminski [9] in an investigation of how adult students and teachers understood the elementary aspects of light and vision, especially the necessary condition for vision: some light emitted by the object enters the observer’s eye. About 50% of the diverse samples, including in-service trainee teachers, answered as if light was visible from the side, and said that a hole from which the observer received no light would be seen as bright.

n°1 n° 2 Fig. 1: A device used to analyse common ideas concerning light and vision [9].

n°3

This inspired a suggestion [10-12] and the subsequent reworking of the national syllabus in France at grade 8: to “spotlight” the content of elementary optics as illustrated in figure 2. The main idea adopted as a target and as a means is that there is a chain of successive transformations of light from the source to the observer’s visual system, and that vision, colour included, is a response to received light. source emission of light

object transformation of light light

eye and visual system light

Fig. 2: The chain from the source to the observer’s visual system: how the information carried by light is transformed [11].

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Background Aspects

Firmly deciding on a specific form of “spotlighting” is also a way to emphasise what unifies the description of the physical phenomena which are taught. The syllabus designers suggest against starting with the “materialised ray”; they recommend using impacts of light on diffusing screens – a phenomenon that is easy to interpret [12] and is not misleading – then working on vision, i.e. on the idea that light has to reach the eye for vision to occur. In this context, the devices presented in figure 1 and figure 3 can be used to analyse the limits of the differently illuminated zones on the last screen; then, when this screen is perforated, students can be asked to predict what will be visible from behind each hole.

Fig. 3. An experimental set-up for the questions: what is the lighting of the different areas of the screen (before the holes are punched)? what will you see through each hole? how are these phenomena related ? [13,14,15].

Then it is possible, and common, to stop here. But, from the viewpoint of linkage and conceptual coherence, it is more fruitful to discuss the relationship between the two kinds of phenomena: the lighting of different areas and what the observer sees. The more light received from the source, the greater the part of the source that is visible (if the source is of uniform brightness). This approach was recommended in the official texts published to inform teachers of detailed strategies that might help convey the essential message of the sequence, i.e., briefly put, the chain represented in figure 2. In an investigation among teachers implementing this sequence ([13,14,15], N=35), this last step was never observed, either as something the teachers interviewed planned to do, as a strategy reported in a logbook, as a topic on an assessment sheet, or directly, in an observed classroom session. This fact shows that conceptual linkage was not their foremost concern, to say the least, despite official encouragement. A preliminary conclusion might be that teachers are not a priori interested in highlighting links between concepts, and that it would be a difficult, if not hopeless, enterprise to try to develop this aspect in training. The following example affords a more positive view on this point. 3. The Doppler effect: main ideas The Doppler effect applies to many devices or living beings – when measuring the velocity of cars, for instance, of blood in vessels, of obstacles for bats, etc. It is what accounts for the “red-shift” of the light received from external galaxies, which bears witness to the expansion of the universe. Musicians with sensitive ears detected it on hearing a band play in an open railway carriage (1842). Surprisingly enough, this phenomenon is not held in high favour in higher education in France, except in medical studies or in courses on relativity. It may be that the Doppler effect in its simplest, classical form is considered as trivial. Let us keep to the most elementary analysis of the Doppler effect. This phenomenon concerns periodic signals, emitted by a source with period TS and received by a receiver at period TR. The latter period differs from TS if there is a non-zero relative velocity of the source and/or the receiver with respect to the medium (in case there is one), and, in empty space, if there is a relative velocity of source with respect to the receiver. It is a matter of periods – or equivalently frequencies – and velocities.

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Let us take the case of a one-dimensional problem, with a medium of propagation. We can imagine simply a series of pulses, or “peaks”, travelling on a conveyor belt moving at velocity c with respect to the medium . The source is delivering the “peaks” at regular intervals on the belt, near one end, and the receiver is at the other end. It can be easily imagined that if the source is moving, say away from the receiver, this receiver will receive the signal with a period TR that is different from the period of emission TS . It is no less simple to calculate the duration of travel for two successive “peaks”, and to deduce the time interval between two successive arrival times. Figure 4 provides a brief account of this type of calculation. The result is that the relative difference of the periods is equal to a ratio of velocities, for instance, if the receiver is moving with respect to the medium: TR - TS / TR = VR/c , where c is the velocity of the propagation of the signal (“phase velocity”). Such is the algebraic relationship underpinning the statement enunciated above: the Doppler effect is a matter of periods – or equivalently frequencies – and velocities.

Fig. 4: A mapping of a classical calculation about Doppler effect: the travel times for two successive “peaks” are calculated, in relation to the distances travelled from source to receiver by each “peak”. The difference between the distances travelled is simply expressed via the velocity of the receiver between two reception times,so the result is easily obtained.

4. Common ideas of students and their possible sources Are there particular difficulties in this respect, due to, and/or revealed by ideas common among students? A study by Leroy-Bury among third-year university students [16: a reference used throughout the rest of this paper] shows that, after teaching, about three quarters of the sample (N= 75, non-specialists in Physics) were able to predict correctly the existence of a difference between the periods of signals received from two equidistant sources emitting the same periodic signals, one of them (only) being in motion with respect to the receiver, itself motionless with respect to the medium. This result might suggest that there is no real difficulty here. Another result shows that this is not the case. Two sources emitting the same periodic signals from different distances, but having the same velocity with respect to the receiver, are said to produce the same received signal by only half of the students – as if the distance between source and receiver was a relevant factor. This quantitative result is confirmed by interviews conducted in the same sample, and also in a more specialised population, again in the third year at university. Some aspects of the students’ previous experience may partly explain the difficulty observed. Let us start with the common experience of the firemen’s siren, or of a racing car, which produces a modulated sound at the receiver’s position. In fact, this phenomenon is misleading. Figure 2 outlines the type of coupling that occurs then between distance and radial velocity, which is the relevant component of velocity. The received sound is changed with distance only because the radial velocity is itself changed with distance, for a given magnitude of speed. This is an example of a non-trivial link between everyday life and physics: in this case, it is not enough to hear to understand, far from it.

38

Background Aspects

Let us now consider an image borrowed from one textbook [17, 18], and found in many other books. Such an image emphasizes the role of radial velocity, but fails to situate correctly the frames of reference as well as the different times involved: given the direction of the source’s motion, it is impossible to observe simultaneously the two wave pulses represented. Moreover, the seemingly transformed wave pulse arriving to the receiver raises the question of what “happened” to this wave to make it “aware” of what it will meet later on, i.e. the receiver. But what first impressed the students asked about this image was that distance is a salient feature in this document, although it is in fact not directly relevant. A possible interpretation of this image will be found in cosmology. At the cosmologic scale, one can see the expansion of universe as also affecting wavelength. The cosmologic structure links distance and the relative velocity of the observed galaxies, and this is another case of coupling between a relevant factor for the Doppler effect – velocity – and one that is not directly relevant – distance. As a final remark, we can reconsider the easy calculation proposed in figure 4. Imagine that all the symbols corresponding to length, lines or letters, were coloured in, say, red. There would be quite a lot of red on the page, even if in the end, no distance appeared in the result. The “colour” of this calculation is very geometric, so to speak. In view of this, the students’ reaction concerning the role of distance in the Doppler effect hardly seems surprising. Consequently, one may decide to emphasise in teaching: -the space-time structure involved in the Doppler effect, -the role of velocity and the non (direct) relevance of distance.

Fig. 5. A common experience in which the radial velocity of a source (a car) and the distance between the source and the receiver are coupled [16].

Fig. 6: An image about Doppler effect [17, see also 18]

5. The Doppler effect in graphs Consider a one-dimensional situation, with a source motionless with respect to the medium, emitting “peaks” at regular time intervals TS. Each of these travels at phase velocity c in this frame of reference. On an x/t graph (Fig. 7), the corresponding lines are parallel, with a slope c, whereas

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Quality Development in Teacher Education and Training

x

RÉCEPTEUR

SI GN AL

TR

SOURCE

TS t

Fig.7: A graph to represent a onedimensional situation of propagation for a periodic signal, source and receiver being motionless with respect to the medium of propagation [16]: distance between source and receiver is irrelevant.

the position of the source in time is represented by a horizontal line. The case is the same for a receiver also motionless with respect to the medium, but situated elsewhere. The inclined lines then cross the horizontal line associated with the receiver’s position at time intervals TR that are all equal to TS. Whatever the position of the receiver, i.e. the distance from the source, this unaffected period remains the same: distance is irrelevant. Figure 8 represents one of the cases where the source and/or the receiver is moving relative to the medium. The non-zero slope of the line associated with the receiver’s motion results in a period of reception visibly different from the period of emission. An extremely simple calculation of the change in the period makes use of two expressions of the distance travelled by the receiver between two reception times: ∆xR = c (TR – TS) = VR TR The striking fact is not only the great simplicity of this alternative calculation, but also its “colour”, to take up the informal expression introduced above. Distance only intervenes via a change of value, and for the rest, only time intervals and velocities are involved.

Fig.8: A graph to represent a one-dimensional situation of propagation for a periodic signal, the source being motionless with respect to the medium of propagation, which is not the case of the receiver [16].

40

Background Aspects

It also leads us to an uncommon linkage, i.e. between the Doppler effect (1842) and Römer’s discovery (1676). 6. Linking the Doppler effect and Römer’s discovery As said above, choosing a specific form of “spotlighting” is also a way of emphasising what unifies the description of physical phenomena which are taught separately, most of the time. Römer’s discovery is based on the fact that Jupiter’s satellites were not seen as having the same period depending on the position of the Earth on its orbit. It concerns a periodic phenomenon linked to the revolution of each satellite around Jupiter, each emergence resulting in a “peak” sent towards the Earth, via the Sun’s light reflected on this satellite, say IO (Ts=42,5h). An observer on the Earth is moving relative to the frame of reference of Jupiter. This is a typical situation for a Doppler effect, the radial component of velocity being the relevant quantity. This radial velocity VR oscillates between a zero value at the extrema of distance, and two extreme opposite values for the positions of the Earth that are equidistant from Jupiter, which constitutes a kind of “anti-coupling” between distance and velocity, this time (Fig. 9a) . The preceding analysis can be used as follows (Fig. 9b). At each extremum of distance, there is no Doppler effect. By contrast, the equidistant positions correspond to the largest differences between the period of reception and the period of emission. It is now time to stress a factor that is important in the case of Römer’s discovery but almost totally hidden in the Doppler effect, i.e. the finite value of the phase velocity. What Römer found is that the velocity of light is finite. For a Doppler effect to occur, this is a necessary condition: just look at what would happen in figures 9a and 9b if the lines representing the propagation of the “peaks” were vertical; then, obviously, the period of reception would be the same as that of emission. Thus, a linkage between the Doppler effect and Römer’s discovery provides a very good reason to emphasise a point that is often neglected: for a Doppler effect to occur, the velocity of the propagation of the signal (phase velocity) must be finite. Such is the complement we add to our specification of the “spotlighting” chosen for the Doppler effect. To recapitulate, we think it appropriate to emphasise in teaching: - the space-time structure involved in the Doppler effect;

The Sun

light

J

Io

a) The Earth

The Earth The

b)

Fig. 9: Jupiter’s satellite Io and terrestrial observations of Io’s emergence; b: positions of Jupiter and The Earth in the frame of reference of Jupiter in time. Equal distances r(t) between the Earth and Jupiter correspond to different values of relative radial velocities. The extrema of this distance correspond to zero relative radial velocity [16].

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Quality Development in Teacher Education and Training

- the role of velocity and the non-relevance of distance; - the fact that a Doppler effect would not occur if the velocity of propagation of the signal (phase velocity) were infinite. Some elements of strategy that seem especially appropriate to this end are, as argued above, the types of graphs and the linkage with Römer’s discovery described above, all this being accompanied by an argumentation analogous to that used here. 7. Some elements of evaluation Several groups have been involved in such an experiment (for more details see [16]): students in third year at university (N1=10, N2=5, N3=8), trainee secondary school teachers in their first teaching year (N1=23, N2=15, N3= 23), trainee university teachers in their first or second teaching year (N1=10). All were first placed in a learning situation, and several were asked to give an appreciation of the value of various aspects of the sequence, for themselves or for younger students In several of the groups, audio tape records of collective discussions were collected. These collective debates show both the students’ initial difficulties and their newly acquired ability to reason in a very efficient manner on the Doppler effect, on the basis of the space-time graphs. Some comments bear witness to clear conceptual progress concerning: -distance as an irrelevant factor (for a given velocity of the receiver in the frame of reference of the source), although the difficulty of understanding the graphs is sometimes mentioned; -the fact that the velocity of the signal has to be finite for a Doppler effect to occur; -the interpretation of Romer’s discovery in terms of the Doppler effect (point c). The data concerning the value that teachers ascribe to different elements of the proposed teaching strategy is outlined in Table I. Attendees gave their appreciation of the following points: 1-Using graphs to show that it is relative velocity that matters; 2-Using graphs to introduce the calculation of the shift in the received period; 3-Establishing a linkage between the two phenomena – “Doppler” and “Römer”. Table I - Evaluation of the “Doppler and Römer” proposal by three groups of future teachers Item rated by



from 1 to 4 according to how well it aids understanding (4= a lot, 1 = not very much) for … a) themselves b) students in last year in secondary school (grade 12)

Degree Students

Secondary school trainee teachers*

University trainee teachers

N=8

N=38

N=10

a

b

a

b

a

b

1- Using graphs to show that it is relative velocity that matters, not distance. 1 or 2 3 or 4

3 5

1 7

12 26

20 17

5 5

3 7

2- Using graphs to introduce the calculation of the shift in received period 1 or 2 3 or 4

2 6

2 6

10 27

16 20

5 5

3 6

3- Deal with Römer’s discovery as a consequence of Doppler effect 1 or 2 3 or 4

0 8

0 8

12 26

29 8

2 8

2 8

* a composite sample for two groups of same category

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Table I recapitulates several groups’ opinions. An positive impression emerges from a global view of these results, items rated 3 or 4 (the other possible rates being 1 or 2) constituting by far the most frequent cases. But is worth noting that there are variations with respect to this global result, depending on the item and the sample. The first striking difference is between the secondary school teachers and the others, as far as students in secondary schools are concerned. To put it briefly, the secondary school teachers seem more pessimistic than students in the third year at university or teachers at university concerning the ability of students at the end of secondary school to benefit from what is proposed in this sequence. The lowest score concerns the linkage of the two phenomena, “Doppler and Römer”, intended for the end of secondary school (these teachers do not know this teaching level better than the others do, because they are in their first year of teaching, and so they are not yet given such classes to teach). In contrast, the students in the third year at university were quite positive about the three items, and in particular they unanimously appreciated linking the two phenomena, for themselves as well as for secondary school pupils. The young university teachers were in between these two positions – they were less positive concerning the first two items, but there was strong support for the proposed linkage of “Doppler” and “Römer”. The very different appreciation given by the secondary school teachers depending on whether the learners envisaged were themselves or young students has been observed elsewhere [15], which suggests that some teachers, at least among those beginning their career, do not believe in younger students’ ability to appreciate an in-depth, unifying interpretation of physical phenomena, whereas they were very happy to benefit from such a proposal themselves. 8. Concluding remarks The question posed in this presentation is that of the possibilities at our disposal to encourage conceptual linkage in the teaching of physics. Two examples were proposed to show how the specific spotlighting of a given content can be justified by content analysis and a consideration of students’ ideas; it can then determine a possible linkage between some concepts (light and vision) or phenomena (the Doppler effect and the lack of regularity in the emergence of Jupiter’s satellites). The detailed strategies suggested to serve these purposes were implemented with suitable samples, respectively at early secondary school and at university or in teacher training sessions. Two kinds of comparisons can be made. First, the elements of evaluation concerning the two examples presented above suggest that the second – on the Doppler effect – is more suitable to illustrate the benefits of conceptual linkage than the first, on light and vision. As one teacher says, “it’s brilliant!”. One favourable factor is probably that the proposed linkage is – so to speak – “active”. This means that, beginning with the Doppler effect, another effect is related to the first, and, in turn, sheds some light on the starting point. Such feedback is less obvious in the first case. In the example about light and vision, the linkage intervenes afterwards, between two aspects that have already been analysed. Moreover, in the case of Doppler and Römer, there is an effect of surprise, as they may be completed by an exciting glimpse into the field of astronomy. This said, in the search for favourable factors, any claim should rest on more numerous examples, preferably all from the same academic level. A second remark can be made, about the importance of the second example as rated by the consulted teachers-to-be or the young teachers in training sessions. Some of them rated this value very differently depending on the envisaged target: themselves, or students at the end of higher secondary school. They were very happy as far as they themselves were concerned, but sometimes appeared doubtful concerning the benefits that a (hypothetical) student would draw from the same proposal, although such pessimism was not founded on personal experience because these young teachers had not yet taught at this level. Clearly, greater knowledge on how to encourage conceptual linkage in teaching practice would be useful. More systematic research should provide elements of evaluation on diverse research-based

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teaching sequences aiming at conceptual integration. We also need to know, in as many cases as possible, teachers’ reactions in this respect. Indeed, acceptability is one of the key factor in this debate, even in the voluntaristic perspective of teacher training. References [1] Millar, R., Leach, J. & Osborne, J. (Eds), 2000. Improving Science Education. Open University Press, Buckingham. See Introduction by the Editors. [2] Lijnse, P.,L. 1994. La recherche-développement: une voie vers une “structure didactique” de la physique empiriquement fondée, Didaskalia, 3, 93-108. [3] Millar, R., 1989. Constructive criticisms, International Journal of Science Education, Special issue, 11, 587-596. [4] Viennot, L. 2003. Relating research in didactics and actual teaching practice: impact and virtues of critical details. In Psillos et al. (Eds): Science Education Research in the Knowledge Based Society, (ESERA meeting 2001 in Thessaloniki), Dordrecht: Kluwer Academic Publishers, pp. 383-393. [5] Viennot,, L. 2001. Physics Education Research: Inseparable Contents and Methods- The part played by Critical Details. In M. Athee, O. Björkqvist, E. Pehkonen & V. Vatanen (Eds): Research on Mathematics and Science Education, Institute for Educational Research, University of Jyväskylä, 89-100 [6] Andersson, B. & Kärrqvist, C. 1983. How Swedish pupils, aged 12-15 years, understand light and its properties. European Journal of Science Education 5 (4),. 387-402. [7] Guesne, E. 1984. Children’s ideas about light / les conceptions des enfants sur la lumière, New Trends in Physics Teaching, Vol IV UNESCO, Paris, 179-192. [8] Bouwens, R.E.A. 1987. Misconceptions among pupils regarding geometrical optics. In Proceedings of the third Seminar on Misconceptions and Educational Strategies In mathematics and science, Cornell University, Vol III, 23-38. [9] Kaminski, W. 1989. Conceptions des enfants et des autres sur la lumière. Bulletin de l’Union des Physiciens, 716, 973-991. [10] Kaminski, W. 1991. Optique élémentaire en classe de quatrième: raisons et impact sur les maîtres d’une maquette d’enseignement, Thesis (L.D.P.E.S.), University of Paris 7 “Denis Diderot”. [11] Chauvet, F. 1996. Teaching colour: designing and evaluation of a sequence, European Journal of Teacher Education, 19(2), 119-134. [12] Viennot, L. & Chauvet, F. 1997. Two dimensions to characterise research-based teaching strategies, International Journal of Science Education, 19, 10, 1159-1168. [13] Hirn, C. 1998. Transformations d’intentions didactiques par les enseignants: le cas de l’optique élémentaire en classe de quatrième, Unpublished thesis, LDPES, University Paris 7. [14] Hirn, C. & Viennot, L. 2000. Transformation of Didactic Intentions by Teachers: The Case of Geometrical Optics in Grade 8 in France. International Journal of Science Education, 22, 4, 357-384 [15] Viennot, L. 2002. Enseigner la Physique. Bruxelles: De Boeck (or 2003: Teaching Physics, Dordrecht: Kluwer) [16] Leroy-Bury, J.L. & Viennot, L. 2003. Doppler & Römer : Physique et Mathematique à l’œuvre. Bulletin de l’Union des Physiciens. To be published. [17] Bottinelli, L., Brahic, A Gouguenheim, L., Ripert, J. & SERT, J. 1993. La Terre et l’Univers – Coll. Synapses, Paris : Hachette Éducation – encadré p.137 “ l’effet Doppler – Fizeau ”. [18] Gouguenheim, L. 1997. Méthodes de l’astrophysique –Liaisons scientifiques – Paris : Hachette CNRS, 5ème édition – p.88.

THE IMPACT OF EDUCATIONAL RESEARCH ON PHYSICS TEACHER PREPARATION Ingrid Novodvorsky, Department of Physics, University of Arizona, Tucson, USA The Problem Within the next decade, an estimated 240,000 middle and high school mathematics and science teachers will be needed in the USA to fill teaching spots left vacant by retirement or teachers leaving the profession [1]. This impending teacher shortage is compounded by the reports of several US commissions, which have been highly critical of current teacher preparation programs [1, 2]. These reports have urged institutions to transform existing teacher preparation programs or develop new programs to address the following deficiencies: • Inadequate subject matter preparation

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Background Aspects

• Lack of congruence between what is advocated, teaching for understanding, and what is modeled in both the subject matter and pedagogy courses and field experiences in the secondary school classrooms • Lack of coherence within the teacher preparation programs, fostered by the lack of communication among subject-matter faculty, education faculty, and experienced secondary school teachers • Inadequate and unsupervised school-based experiences for the preservice teachers The physics-related professional societies in the US have also taken a stand on the preparation of teachers. In 1999, the American Physical Society, the American Association of Physics Teachers, and the American Institute of Physics approved a joint statement regarding the preparation of K-12 teachers [3]. That statement read, in part: APS, AAPT and AIP urge the physics community, specifically physical science and engineering departments and their faculty members, to take an active role in improving the pre-service training of K-12 physics/science teachers…. Strengthening the science education of future teachers addresses the pressing national need for improving K-12 physics education and recognizes that these teachers play a critical education role as the first and often-times last physics teacher for most students. In 2001, the US Congress passed the No Child Left Behind Act, which provides a “framework on how to improve the performance of America’s elementary and secondary schools while at the same time ensuring that no child is trapped in a failing school” [4]. In addition to mandating annual testing of students in grades 3-8, state reporting of student progress, and corrective actions for under-performing schools, the act also addresses teacher preparation. Local education agencies are required to demonstrate annual progress in ensuring that all teachers teaching in core academic subjects are highly qualified. The definition of “highly qualified” is being left up to each state education department, and this is currently an issue of intense debate. Overview of Teacher Preparation in the USA Teacher preparation programs that are university based are currently the most common and can take one of many forms. In many states, preservice teachers pursue an undergraduate degree that combines study in the subject(s) they plan to teach, along with courses in pedagogy. These pedagogy courses include general topics such as child development, classroom management, and curriculum development, as well as subject-specific teaching methods. These programs include field experiences in primary or secondary classrooms and typically culminate in an extended period of student teaching. In other states, students who want to become teachers must first complete an undergraduate degree, and then enroll in a fifth-year program that focuses exclusively on pedagogy courses and field experiences. Often this fifth year provides the beginning of a Master’s degree program for the preservice teachers, which they complete during their first few years of teaching. In response to the growing demand for teachers in the US, many universities have also developed so-called “fast-track” programs. These programs are specifically designed for students who have completed their undergraduate degrees, have worked in their field for some time, and want to pursue a second career in teaching. Like the fifth-year programs described above, these programs typically involve a year (two semesters and summer school) of pedagogy courses and field experiences, leading to eligibility for teacher certification. In addition, many states in the US are “de-regulating” teacher preparation, which has opened the door to certification paths other than the traditional university-based preparation program. In a typical alternative certification program, prospective teachers who have an undergraduate degree are hired by school districts and take pedagogy courses at the same time they are teaching. These courses are provided, in many cases, by the school districts or two-year colleges. Another national program, Teach for America, has as its goal the short-term placement of recent college graduates in rural and urban classrooms [5]. In this program, college graduates participate in a five-week summer training program, and are then placed in schools for a minimum two-year commitment. Educational Research Results What can educational research tell us about effective teacher preparation? Unfortunately, the short

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answer is, not much. The Education Commission of the States has just released a report titled, Eight Questions on Teacher Preparation: What Does the Research Say? [6]. This report is based on an analysis of 92 research studies that were used to answer eight questions related to teacher preparation. The research studies chosen for the report, which were selected from a pool of over 500, were published in peer-reviewed journals or in similarly high quality formats in the last two decades. All of the studies selected were of teacher preparation in the US, and were empirical, offering quantitative or qualitative evidence to support their conclusions. Thus, this report can be considered a snapshot of what is currently known about effective teacher preparation. The first question in the report dealt with the subject matter background of teachers, specifically, the extent to which knowledge of the subject matter contributes to teacher effectiveness. While there is general agreement that teachers need adequate knowledge of their subject matter in order to be effective, little is known about what constitutes “adequate knowledge.” The Commission found only moderate support for the importance of subject-matter knowledge in the research examined. This research was primarily focused on mathematics teaching and was not fine-grained enough to suggest exactly how much subject-matter knowledge was critical for teaching specific courses and grade levels. The research was also inconclusive as to whether teachers needed a major in the subjects they teach, or whether a graduate degree in the subject is an advantage. Interestingly, some of the research in mathematics teaching suggested that there might be a point after which additional subject courses are of minimal value in teacher effectiveness. The report’s second question dealt with the value of pedagogical coursework in relation to teacher effectiveness. The research analyzed provided only limited support for the link between pedagogical preparation and teacher effectiveness. The types of courses examined included general pedagogy courses focused on classroom management, student assessment, and curriculum development, as well as subject-specific teaching methods classes. In addition, what was less clear from the research was how this pedagogical knowledge is best attained, whether through university courses, field experiences, or on the job. The next question was about the effectiveness of field experiences prior to certification. Unfortunately, while the Commission found a number of studies that addressed field experiences, nearly all were descriptive studies that did not provide solid evidence of the effectiveness of various types of field experiences. The studies did suggest that field experiences could change the beliefs and attitudes of prospective teachers, but there was little correlation with teaching effectiveness. The first three questions in the report addressed what are typically considered the most important aspects of teacher preparation, subject matter and pedagogical preparation, along with field experiences. Unfortunately, the research did not provide conclusive support of the value of any of these aspects of teacher preparation. The fourth question dealt with alternative certification programs, which are becoming increasingly common in the USA. The research examined for the Commission’s report provided limited support for the assertion that alternative programs produce teachers that are as effective as those prepared in more traditional programs. In addition, short-term retention rates for alternatively prepared teachers seem to be comparable to those for traditionally prepared teachers. However, there is as yet inadequate data on long-term retention rates in alternative programs, so little is known about the long-term benefits. The next question focused specifically on hard-to-staff and low-performing schools, which are schools specifically targeted by many portions of the No Child Left Behind Act. In spite of the need for effective teachers in these schools, the report cites only limited support for the conclusion that deliberate preparation of teachers for these types of settings is beneficial. None of the studies considered for the report dealt with teachers from the Teach for America program described above. As noted earlier, the No Child Left Behind Act calls for “highly qualified” teachers in the core subjects. One response to this call may be to increase admission requirements in teacher preparation programs; the topic addressed in the sixth question. Only three studies addressed this issue, and so the question remains essentially unanswered. Another reaction to the call for highly qualified teachers may be to

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require that teachers graduate from accredited preparation programs.The most common accreditation in the US is by the National Council for the Accreditation of Teacher Education [7]. Again, only three research studies addressed this issue, and so the research is inconclusive on this question. Another way to address teacher quality is for institutions to provide warranties of their program graduates; this was the topic addressed in the final question. Currently teacher education graduates in Georgia and Kentucky, as well as at individual institutions in 20 other states, are given institutional warranties that guarantee their effectiveness in the classroom, No research has yet been conducted on these institutional warranties, and so very little is known about their contribution to teacher effectiveness. The results of the Commissions’ analysis suggest that, while ideas abound on what constitutes effective teacher preparation, very little systematic research has been done to confirm the effectiveness of the various aspects of that preparation. These results call out for empirical research on the various aspects of teacher preparation and the link to teacher effectiveness. Granted, this is not simple research to conduct, given all the confounding variables and the long time frames involved. However, it is clearly time to move past “what feels right” in designing teacher preparation programs. Careful and long-term research on teacher preparation is critically needed to answer all of the questions posed by the Commission. The Work of PhysTEC Institutions In response to the call for physics departments in the US to become more involved in teacher preparation, the societies that issued that call have joined together to form the Physics Teacher Education Coalition (PhysTEC) [8]. With funding from the National Science Foundation, US Department of Education, and private corporations, the societies are supporting work at seven institutions to improve the preparation of teachers, and have invited collaboration with three other institutions. The institutions that receive PhysTEC funds have all agreed to the following set of changes, which address the concerns about teacher preparation noted earlier: • Reform of physics courses, using results of Physics Education Research • Reform of pedagogy courses, to model the kind of teaching expected of future teachers • Involvement of a Physics Teacher-in-Residence, to provide a “reality check” in university programs • Collaboration between departments of physics and education • Involvement of physics faculty members in field experiences for preservice physics teachers • Development of mentoring programs for beginning physics teachers The seven project universities are Ball State University (Indiana), California Polytechnic University (San Luis Obispo, CA), Oregon State University, University of Arkansas, University of Arizona, Western Michigan University, and Xavier University (Louisiana). These Primary Program Institutions (PPIs) range from large research-focused institutions to smaller institutions that prepare large numbers of teachers, and all serve a wide variety of student populations. The PhysTEC project is just beginning its third year, and so little data is available on new teachers who completed their preparation at one of the PPIs. However, preliminary data suggests that the reforms being implemented are having an impact on student understanding and improving collaborations among faculty members regarding teacher preparation. All of the PPIs are revising their introductory physics courses to reflect interactive engagement and a student-centered approach to learning science. Some PPIs have focused on the calculus-based, introductory physics course and others on the algebra-based course. Others began the project with a complete re-design of their laboratories. Some are revising both the laboratory and the lecture components simultaneously. Half of the PPIs have revised, or are creating, laboratory-based, integrated physical science courses for elementary school teachers. Many of the PPIs are collecting data on student conceptual understanding as measured by the Force Concept Inventory (FCI) [9] and the Conceptual Survey of Electricity and Magnetism (CSEM) [10]. The following table indicates results from the 2002-03 academic year; the normalized gain scores shown are averages over the revised courses. It is important to note that this data was collected for the purposes of program evaluation, and not necessarily using a research protocol. In addition, this data represents the first full year of

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course revisions at the PPIs. Although it should be interpreted as very preliminary data, it does suggest that the course revisions are having an impact on student understanding. Institution

FCI Normalized Gain

CSEM Normalized Gain

PPI #1 PPI #2 PPI #3 PPI #4*

0.36 0.39 0.34 0.18

0.30 0.31 0.27 0.10

*Note that this PPI had only made revisions in the laboratory portion of their courses when this data was collected.

In addition to evaluating students’ conceptual understanding, data collected at some of the PPIs indicates that students in the revised courses are also out-performing students in non-revised courses on solving standard physics problems. Further, student evaluations of the revised courses and their instructors are high. The involvement of a Physics Teacher in Residence (TIR) is a cornerstone of the PhysTEC project. This is an experienced secondary physics teacher who spends a year working on the PPI campus, helping to reform and teach courses, supervising field experiences, and providing a “reality check.” After their year on campus, the TIRs return to their classrooms and mentor beginning physics teachers. All of the PPIs hired TIRs who brought with them an average of 25 years of teaching experience. The TIRs’ work included re-writing laboratories, helping physics professors make their lectures more interactive, team-teaching educational methods courses with education faculty, and providing practical advice to preservice teachers. Another key aspect of the project is a focus on increasing collaboration between physics faculty and education faculty, two groups that historically have had little to do with one another. Four of the PPIs had an active collaboration, with two institutions having science educators in the same building as physics faculty. At one PPI, physics faculty members taught the elementary methods course for preservice elementary school teachers. Another PPI, which had very little contact with education faculty prior to PhysTEC, established solid links with a secondary science education faculty member, who will be part of the PhysTEC-supported staff for Year Three. At most of the PPIs, no teachers have completed the teacher preparation program and entered into the mentoring portion. At one site, however, two new physics teachers completed the program in 2002. One of those teachers is working out of state, and the other one will be participating in a beginning-teacher mentoring program. The goal of this program is to help this new teacher be successful in his first years of teaching and increase the likelihood that he will remain in the teaching profession. Conclusion According to the just released report, Status of the American Public School Teacher, 2000-2001 [11], 43% of the USA’s 2.9 million teachers have 20 or more years of teaching experience. Thus, many of these teachers will be retiring over the next five to ten years. In addition, 50% of new science teachers leave the teaching profession within the first five years of teaching, due to reasons related to lack of professional support more often than low salaries [12]. Thus, we are faced with several challenges preparing highly qualified teachers to replace those who are retiring as well as those who are leaving the profession, reforming teacher preparation programs to address the concerns cited earlier, and gathering empirical evidence on what constitutes effective teacher preparation in order to further improve teacher preparation.While educational research currently provides little guidance to teacher educators, PhysTEC and similar projects are poised to contribute to the research base, by systematically collecting data on the effectiveness and retention of the teachers they prepare. So what does this mean for the participants in this GIREP Seminar? One of the outcomes of this seminar should be the formation of collaborations between institutions to pursue systematic research in physics teacher preparation over extended periods of time. It is not sufficient to simply

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make changes in physics teacher preparation; it is time to conduct the research that will inform us about the effectiveness of those changes. References [1] National Commission on Mathematics and Science Teaching for the 21st Century, 2000. Before It’s Too Late; U.S Department of Education: Washington, DC. [2] National Commission on Teaching and America’s Future, 1996. What matters most: teaching for America’s future; Author: New York. [3] American Institute of Physics, 1999. Retrieved August 2003 from http://www.aip.org/education/futeach.htm. [4] No Child Left Behind Act, 2001. Executive Summary, Retrieved August 2003 from http://www.ed.gov/offices/ OESE/esea/exec-summ.html. [5] Teach for America. Retrieved August 2003 from http://www.teachforamerica.org/index.html. [6] Allen, M.B., 2003. Eight Questions on Teacher Preparation: What Does the Research Say? Education Commission of the States: Denver, CO. [7] National Council for the Accreditation of Teacher Education. Retrieved August 2003 from http://www.ncate.org/. [8] Physics Teacher Education Coalition. Retrieved August 2003 from http://phystec.org/. [9] Hestenes, D., Wells, M. and Swackhamer, G., 1992. Force concept inventory. The Physics Teacher, 30, 141-158. [10] Maloney, D.P., O’Kuma, T.L., Hieggelke, C.J., & Van Heuvelen, A., 2001. Surveying students’ conceptual knowledge of electricity and magnetism, American Journal of Physics, 69, S12-S23. [11] National Education Association, 2003. Status of the American Public School Teacher, 2000-2001; Author: Washington, DC. Report retrieved August 2003 from http://www.nea.org/index.html. [12] Ingersoll, R.M., 2001. Teacher turnover and teacher shortages: An organizational analysis, American Educational Research Journal, 38, p. 499-534.

EPISTEMOLOGICAL AND ONTOLOGICAL ASPECTS IN SCIENCE TEACHER EDUCATION Rufina Gutierrez, Science Education. Fundación Castroverde. Madrid. Spain. Grup de Recerca TIRE. Science Education Dept. Universidad Autónoma de Barcelona. Spain. Introduction The aim of this paper is to present a state of the art about the presence of epistemology and ontology in science teacher education. So, the work will have the nature of a review of the main literature related to the theme. We will show that in relation to epistemology a general consensus exists about the necessity of this subject being present as an important component of any proposal for science teacher education. In relation to ontology, there are not many references which address the topic explicitly; but in our opinion, there evidence enough to make us think of the necessity also of including this topic as one essential part of science teacher education programs. We will try to justify our point of view, in the hope of opening the theme for discussion, and for future research. 1. From where and why of epistemology? 1.1. Epistemology and Science Education For more than 40 years there have been demands for the introduction of the philosophy and the history of sciences into the school curriculum, connecting these themes with the curriculum content and with the way of teaching/learning the different subject matter. We can find the first context where this issue emerged in the “Curriculum Reform Movement” (Bruner 1960). In the sixties the “Curriculum Reform Movement” expanded, and it was characterized by a special emphasis on including the history of science and the “scientific method” in the curricula developed according to the new ways of understanding the teaching and learning of science, imposed by this movement. For instance, we can remember here the so-called “alphabet curricula” (PSSC- Physical Science Study Committee, CBA – Chemical Bond Approach Project, CHEM- Chemical Education Material Study, BSCS- Biological Sciences Curriculum Study, SCIS- Science Curriculum

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Improvement Study) etc, all of them published in the USA in the early sixties, and specially to this respect The Project Physics Course - or HPP for Harvard Physic Project -; and also, the different Nuffield Projects, published in the UK from the mid sixties. The “alphabet curricula” produced in the USA were evaluated in the mid seventies, in several research projects sponsored by the National Science Foundation). No one of these researches paid specific attention to the impact of including the history of science, and the “scientific method” in the new curricula; and neither to the nature of science reflected on the scientific contents and methods to acquire knowledge exposed in the new materials1 In their seminal paper Epistemology and Science Education, Cawthron and Rowell (1978) analysed these aspects of school science, arriving at this conclusion: “In more specific epistemological terms, school science generally projects an image of science which can be called empiricist-inductivist. Although existing in many variants it is basically founded on a conception of scientific method as described by Bacon: a well-defined, quasi-mechanical process consisting of a number of characteristic stages” (p 33). As a consequence, they propose new perspectives to introduce modern epistemologies into Science Education, namely, Popperian and Kuhnian approaches, and claim that “teacher training institutions need to look more closely at these matter and to employ professional staff well versed in both methodology and philosophy of science” (p 51). We can say that this paper was the starting point for many authors thinking and writing about these subjects, from those of “the first wave” represented by Rogers (1982), Summer (1982), etc, until more recent authors, such as Hodson 1993, Duschl and Hamilton 1994, Matthews 1998a, etc. So, this is not a new topic. And today it is a very active field of research, as can be observed in the numbers and quality of papers published, i.e. in the specialized research journal Science&Education, since 1992, and the different national and international groups and institutions working on this area2. 1.2. Epistemology and Learning Here we have to switch our mind to another subject: that of spontaneous thinking, or pupils’ alternatives ideas in sciences. This is a second step to enter into the context of our theme. As it has been said elsewhere (Gutierrez and Pinto 2001), apart from the merit of describing students’ spontaneous thinking, which is a value in itself, researchers have reached the conviction that this field of research can offer nothing new, at least they may explain its origins or what is underneath it. These feelings have given way to different lines of exploration, such as that of relating students’ spontaneous conceptions with the epistemological view of science that students hold. The idea is that an inadequate epistemological belief could possibly act as a constraint to the learning of the right scientific concepts (Hammer 1994, Roth and Roychoudhury 1994). The research in this field has shown that most students hold a positivist-empiricist view of the nature of science, based on “facts” and “objective observations” (Désautel and Larochelle 1998b, Tsai 1999, Wiser and Amin 2001), and that this view conditions the quality of their knowledge and understanding of scientific concepts, models and theories. 1.3. Epistemology and Teaching How do the students construct their epistemological beliefs? It is quite obvious that they could come from different sources. But there are many researchers convinced that the most decisive one is the influence of teachers’ beliefs about the nature of science and the way science is taught. So researchers started testing this hypothesis, studying the epistemological view of teachers and their students, and found that a close relationship exists between the two. See, for instance, the studies of Lederman 1992, Moje 1995, Hashweh 1996. In all these papers most teachers are described as holding an epistemological view of science that is positivist-empiricist or empirical-realist, not very different from that of their students. Data from other researches have supported the anterior findings about teachers’ epistemological 1 2

A summary of these evaluations ca be found in Gutierrez 1987. An excellent review of this theme ca be found in Matthews 1998b.

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view, i.e., Gil and Pessoa (1998), Porlan (2002), Pro (2003). Nevertheless, some studies have shown that teachers do not hold an epistemological position necessarily coherent with a unique epistemological tradition (Koulaidis and Ogborn 1989, Lakin and Wellington 1994). The relationship between teachers’ and students’ epistemology is widely accepted. In current studies, authors warn about the epistemological view of teachers and their influence in teaching. Thus, Mueller and Wavering (1999): “The view of teacher toward the nature of science is a major factor in determining the way that teachers present the material to students” (p 1148); Séré et al 1998: “Any approach to teaching and learning Science is influenced by epistemological considerations concerning the structure and the object of the scientific knowledge to be taught” (Chapter 5, section 5.3); Gil and Pessoa 1998: “Teachers’ spontaneous epistemology constitutes a serious obstacle to the renewal of science teaching in as much as it is accepted uncritically as ‘common-sense evidence’. ” (p 9); Craven and Penick (2001): “teachers’ views of the world... have direct impact on the way they teach” (p 3); Désautels and Larochelle (1998a): “Willingly or unwillingly, consciously or unconsciously, all science teaching practices embody an epistemological posture, among other things” (p1). These authors alert of the “the perverse effects of an epistemological posture in teaching” (p 2) when that means to teach the scientific content as “knowledge that exists by virtue of itself, that has emerged from nowhere, so to speak”, presenting a “thingifying vision of science” (p 2). It is necessary to have in mind that there is not always coherency between what teachers say about their beliefs and their behaviour in classrooms. Some evidence from literature support this point (Mellado 1998, Liu et al 1998). In the STTIS Project (1997-2001) we found teachers behaviour in classroom very different from their explicit intentions stated in interviews before teaching. In my opinion, what teachers really do believe is what influences their actions in classrooms, not what they say about their beliefs. As expressed by Waggett (2001): “Stated beliefs do not necessarily manifest into desired practice. The field of education is replete with jargon which is not difficult for students to parrot to professors (Brockmeyer, 1998). Instructors responsible for the education of future teachers [and teachers themselves, it could be added] must not assume that if students are able to use words such as “inquiry” and “constructivism”, that students fully understand how these translate into effective science instruction” (p 47)”. The relationship between teachers’ epistemological assumptions and teaching, answers the “why” of the interest in the study of this subject in the field of the didactic of science. 2. Epistemology and teacher education As we noticed before, Cawthron and Rowell (1978) asked in their paper for “professional staff well versed in both methodology and philosophy of science” to be present in teacher education institutions. Knowing the context in which the paper was written, it is not forcing the thinking of the authors to say that what they really mean with the presence of this professionals was that in the institutions where the curricula were designed and developed, somebody could examine and thus prevent these curricula from transmitting an inadequate image of science and of the scientific methodologies. After 35 years it is clear that today we should ask for more than that, particularly in relation to science teacher education, as we will see in the following sections. 2.1. Pre-service and In-service Teacher Education The evidence coming from research about the image of science and scientific knowledge held by many teachers have surprised and worried the professionals in the didactic field. As a consequence, many researchers have insisted on the necessity of explicitly introducing the epistemology of science in both pre-service and in-service teacher education courses. For instance, Lakin and Wellington 1994, Désautels and Larochelle 1998b, Gil and Pessoa 1998, Séré et al 1998, Waggett 2001, Porlan 2002. It is interesting to quote from some of them: “Previous reports have pointed out the pressing need for INSET in relation to the introduction of the nature of science into science curricula […] to give teachers the opportunities and guidance in

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exploring their own views on the nature of science. For many teachers their participation in this study marked the first recognition that they have a “philosophy of science”. The word “philosophy” has for many teachers become a threat rather than something they have that needs drawing out” (Lakin and Wellington 1994 p 187-188). [our remarks] “From this perspective, a key issue in the education of science teachers involves creating the requisite conditions by which teachers can: 1) critically and reflexively problematize their own epistemological posture; 2) consider other potentialities; and whenever possible, 3) break the vicious circle permitting reproduction of traditional school epistemology concerning science” (Désautels and Larochelle 1998b p1). “Implications are numerous for teachers’ training where the didactical activity should be framed in an epistemological context strongly related with the disciplinary and historical aspects” (Séré et al 1998, Main Research Results and Conclusions, Section 1.2.2). In fact, many institutions have adopted scientific epistemology in their proposals for science teacher education. Research in the field has shown that when the epistemological beliefs of teachers are properly elicited and challenged (mainly through reflection and discussion adequately designed and put into practice in training courses), they easily acquire a critical view about epistemology and about their own epistemology (Désautels and Larochelle 1998b, Gil and Pessoa 1998, Porlan 2002). 3. From epistemology to ontology 3.1. Students’ spontaneous conceptions and ontology Research has shown severe difficulties in overcoming students’ spontaneous conceptions. The most widely used strategy designed in classrooms to address this problem has been the “conceptual change approach”. Recent reviews of this issue can be found, for example, in some monograph, such as Learning and Instruction (1994) 22 (1); (2001) 11 (4-5), Enseñanza de las Ciencias (1999) 17 (1); in the book New Perspectives on Conceptual Change, edited by Schnotz et al (1999); and the two papers by Duschl and Hamilton (1998), and Hewson et al (1998) appeared in the last International Handbook of Science Education (Fraser and Tobin 1998). The main conclusions of these researches are that we still lack of a description of the mechanisms underlying conceptual change processes (Gutierrez 2001). Or, as stated by Mason, the editor of the monograph Learning and Instruction (2001): “The findings of these studies highlight the need to refocus our efforts on ways to stimulate and support conceptual change in science domains by considering the basic cognitive processes underlying knowledge revision in formal educational settings”. (p 260). And the key question continuous to be the following: “What are the driving forces behind conceptual change that can be activate and in what ways?” (Mason 2001, p 260) As it is well known, conceptual change approaches take the theoretical background first established in 1982 by Posner et al (the PSHG model). Despite the revision made ten years later by Strike and Posner, the model still rests primarily on the analysis of two components: the status of students’ conception or theory; and the conceptual ecology (epistemological commitment, and metaphysical beliefs about the world). For the results of the research above shown, this analysis reveals itself insufficient: They have not led to the desired finding. That could mean that either the object or the method of the analysis has failed; or both. We can say that epistemology is too wide a construct as to offer enough insight about students’ thinking. There must still be something beneath it. From a theoretical point of view, under every epistemology – provision of “truth criteria” for maintaining a coherent, reasonable and generalisable vision between data and beliefs, or between evidences and theories (Bunge 1980) – lies an ontology – convictions concerning the entities that exist in the material or conceptual field, on which the relations that stated by laws and theories are built (Estany 1993) -. Without an adequate comprehension of the conceptual entities or objects on which these laws and scientific theories are built, it is impossible to have correct knowledge either of the mentioned theories, or of the nature of science itself. In practical terms, to say to a teacher that one student is “positivist” or “inductivist” provides information about the kind of criteria he/she uses to validate some knowledge as true (this is the object

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of epistemology). But it does not tell him the characteristics that this student assigns to a certain concept or entity, in such a way as to give information about the nature, the functioning, the role, or the properties the student attributes to that concept or entity. This is something that ontology can offer. From an ontological perspective, the so-called students’ “conceptual errors” are a mere expression of an inadequate scientific ontology. Thus, if we study students’ spontaneous thinking from this point of view, we are doing a finer grain analysis of their conceptions, and we try to support our findings on a deeper theoretical background than that which is normally used (if any) in this line of research. Here we can situate the works of Ogborn (1991), Mariani and Ogborn (1991), Chi and Slotta (1993), Slotta et al (1995), White (1995), Pauen (1999), Tytler (2000), Mannila et al (2001). To this respect, we agree with the conclusion of Wiser and Amin (2001), referring to thermal physics, but adding that it can be extended to other fields of scientific knowledge: “When learning the science view in thermal domains, the core stumbling block is ontological“. (p 332). 3.1.1. Ontological analysis of students’ conceptions Ontological analysis of students’ conceptions seems to represent a big step in theoretical grounding and interpreting the literature produced on this matter. It is showing its full potentiality in the field of modelling students’ spontaneous thinking. It is so because its possibilities of offering a coherent sets of related knowledge, that could make some “what”, “from” and “why” characteristics of students’ thinking more intelligible. And if these models are dynamic in nature, they also have de possibilities of enlightening us about the “basic cognitive processes” that can play a role in changing these spontaneous concepts, as was asked for in conceptual change research. See, for instance, the works of Gutierrez and Ogborn (1992), Vosniadou and Brewer (1994), Gutierrez and Pinto (1997), Venville and Treagust (1998), Buckley and Boulter (2000), Gutierrez (2001). This quick summary of the state of the art in the study of students’ conceptions will give us the context in which we would like to situate our approach to the points that follow. 3.2. Teachers’ spontaneous conceptions and ontology Despite the reluctance of some people to accept the issue, data speak clearly about the existence of teachers’ spontaneous conceptions which are very close to those found in students. There is a very significant fact that could leave us less suspicious, and naturally accept the issue: the last edition of the well known IPN Bibliographies about spontaneous conceptions, has the title: STCSE. Students’ and Teachers’ Conceptions and Science Education (Duit 2002). As everybody knows, the anterior titles of these Bibliographies were: Bibliography. Students Alternative Frameworks and Science Education. The change seems to be indicative of the actual volume of research in the area of teachers’ spontaneous thinking. In the last International Handbook of Science Education above mentioned, two chapters are devoted to this theme, those of Cochran and Jones (1998), and De Jong et al (1998). The first reviews explicitly the issue of pre-service Science Teachers; the second makes the review, in some way as a necessity of the nature of the chapter (about Teacher Thinking and Conceptual Change), and is related to in-service teachers; both refer to Primary and Secondary teachers. The conclusions of the two are quite similar: “The results described so far imply that students completing baccalaureate degrees show, at least to some extent, unorganised, superficial and inaccurate knowledge of subject mater areas. The studies depict teachers’ subject knowledge quite negatively, …” (Cochran and Jones 1998 p 711); “In sum, most of the studies reviewed show that teachers’ subject matter knowledge needs improvement, not only because of deficiencies but also because of views deviate from scientific one” (De Jong et al 1998 p 747). Description of this spontaneous thinking, deviate from the academic scientific view, is widely described in most researches in the field, i. e., Strömdahl et al 1994; and, Tüllberg et al 1994 (conceptions of mol); Bacas 1997 (heath and temperature); Cañal 1977 (photosynthesis), Furió y Guisasola 1998 (electric field); Trend 2000 (geological time); De Manuel and Jimenez 2000 (acid and alkali); Gutierrez et al 2002 (properties of matters). But no one of them is explicitly addressed to analyse the ontological commitment of teachers’ spontaneous conceptions.

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3.2.1. What teachers know matters As it happened with teachers’ view of science, research literature also shows the relationships between teachers’ subject matter knowledge, the way they teach, and the effects on students’ learning. Several authors have remarked these results in their findings, as Strömdahl et al (1994), Tüllberg et al (1994), Lee (1995). We find particularly interesting to present here the results of some of the main reviews on this subject. -The SALISH PROJECT I (1997), Secondary Science and Mathematics Teacher Preparation Programs: Influences on New Teachers and Their Students. This research project was sponsored by the USA Department of Education, and the Office of Educational Research and Improvement (OERI). The main aim of the project was to bring together nine institutions that prepare science and mathematics teachers to study influences of new teachers and their students. In the Executive Summary of the Project one section is devoted to “Linkages”. One of them is stated as follows: “Linkages were found among new teachers’ knowledge and beliefs systems and classroom performances, and performance of their secondary school students” (p 3). -CSMTP Report (2000), Educating Teachers of Science, Mathematics and Technology: New Practices for the New Millenium. This report was prepared by the Committee on Science and Mathematics Teacher Preparation. National Research Council (USA), with the aim of providing “guiding principles” to teachers, governments, universities, schools, and other professional and disciplinary organizations, “on which further action to improve K-12 teacher education in science, mathematics, and technology should be based” (Executive Summary p 7). In relation to our theme, the Report points out: “In reviewing the literature, the Committee on Science and Mathematics Teacher Preparation (CSMTP) found that studies conducted over the past quarter century increasingly point to a strong correlation between students achievement in K-12 science and mathematics and the teaching quality and level of knowledge of K-12 teachers of science and mathematics. (…). The CSMTP believes that these and others studies have clear implications for teacher preparation. Science and mathematics educators as well as practitioner have concluded that content knowledge must be a central focus of a science and mathematics teacher’s preparation, (…)” (Executive Summary p 4). -TPR Project (2001), Teacher Preparation Research: Current Knowledge, Gaps and Recommendations (Wilson et al 2001). This Research Report was prepared for the U. S. Department of Education. Center for the Study of Teaching and Policy (CTP), in collaboration with Michigan State University. As the authors say “The purpose of this report is to summarize what rigorous, peer-reviewed research can and does tell us about key issues in teacher preparation” (Executive Summary p i). For the review, the commission were asked to consider five questions posed by policy makers, educators, and the public. The first was formulated as: “Question 1: What kind of subject matter preparation, and how much of it, do prospective teachers need? Are there differences by grade level? Are there differences by subject area? (p 4) We will only focus on the results related to science. These results, as presented in the Executive Summary, are a little bit surprising, as the same authors note: “It is no surprise that research shows a positive connection between teachers’ preparation in their subject matter and their performance and impact in the classroom. Subject-specific methods courses in education are useful too. But, contrary to the popular believe that more study in subject matter (e.g., through an academic major) is always better, there is some indication from research that teacher do acquire subject matter knowledge from various sources, including subject-specific academic coursework (some kind of subject-specific methods courses accomplish the goal)” (p i). Illustrating the statement that “the more, the better” is not always true, the authors refer to a kind of “threshold effect” in teacher impact on student progress when compared with subject-specific coursework: In relation to physical sciences, an increasing positive relationship exists between the quantity of subject-matter academic coursework and student achievement; but when the number of courses are more than four, there is no more effectiveness in terms of student progress (p 8). That an academic degree is not always indicative of better subject matter knowledge is also recognized in the AETS Position Statement about Professional Knowledge Standards for Science Teacher Educators (Lederman et al 1997). In describing the “Standard 1: Knowledge of Science”, the authors warns: “The science teacher educator should have a particular area of expertise (represented by an academic

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degree or the equivalent)... We recognize, however, that an academic degree may not be indicative of the desired levels of subject matter knowledge” (p 2). 3.2.2 Teachers’ knowledge and ontology It seems obvious that the last two points of this section are related: teachers’ conceptions are ingredients of teachers’ subject matter knowledge. And it also seems clear that what makes reviewers demand a “desired level of subject matter knowledge” is a concern not just about “quantity” but about “quality” of knowledge. To this respect, I would not say that teachers’ conceptions deviated from academics’ are in most cases due to lack (quantity) of subject matter knowledge (at least in the case of Secondary teachers). What I would say, based on my own experience as a science teacher educator, is that the teachers lack of critical thinking about the nature of scientific entities upon which science builds its law, models, and theories. As happened in the case of students: From an ontological perspective, teachers’ spontaneous conceptions are also a mere expression of an inadequate scientific ontology. Epistemological analysis does not offer the level of details needed to make the nature of teachers’ spontaneous concepts intelligible. The worry is that if we do not pay enough attention to this issue, we are on risk of repeating the same pattern followed when studying students’ conceptions, and thus wasting our time instead of situating the problem in a deeper and more promising level. 3.2.3 Ontological analysis of teachers’ spontaneous conceptions It could be said that research on ontological analysis of teachers’ conceptions is at its very beginning. In our paper Ontologies and Physics Teaching Training (Gutierrez and Pinto 2001) we offered an example of how this analysis can be done. The paper was elaborated on the data taken from the STTIS Project. The sample consisted of 20 experienced Spanish secondary teachers, most of them graduates in physics or chemistry; they were volunteers to take part in the research project, in the section addressing to the implementation of curricular innovations in classrooms. The methods of gathering the data were interviewing and classrooms’ observations. The teachers’ spontaneous conceptions were related to energy degradation (full details in the quoted paper) The results were as shown in Table 1. Degradation of energy understood as

Ontological beliefs

Opposite to energy conservation

Energy conservation and energy degradation are considered as two principles that can not go together [in closed systems energy is conserved; in open systems energy is degraded]

Energy transferred to the air

The “place” where the energy is localised determines its quality [if it is “in the air” then it is degraded]

Decrease of the amount of energy

A change in quality is seen as a change in quantity [“each time there is less energy”]

Not related to internal energy

A change in quality is viewed as in sensorial perception [due to changes of temperature instead of increasing of U: “the pieces heat up”]

A change of the form of energy

A change in quality is seen as a change in entity [“energy degradation means to change into another type of energy”]

Heating

A process (heating) is considered as a state variable [“energy has been lost as heat”]

Energy dispersion

Characteristic attribute of the concept is disregarded: no mention is made about capability of doing useful work [“dispersion is degeneration, degradation”]

Table 1. Teachers’ ontological beliefs about energy degradation (Gutierrez and Pinto 2001)

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In the paper we concluded that teachers’ ontological commitment acted as constraints that conditioned the interpretation of the proposed curricular innovation, and the way they taught the concept to their students. In the recent reviewed literature, we have not found other studies related to teachers’ spontaneous ontologies.We found only a paper from Taylor and Coll (2002), Pre-service Primary Teachers ‘ Models of Kinetic Theory: an examination of three different cultural groups, which offers some light to our purpose. The study (according to the authors) was made within the mental model research framework, aiming to investigate Australian and Fijian preservice primary teachers’ mental model for Kinetic Theory. The sample consists of 10 Australian and 24 Fijians, the components of the latter group being 12 indigenous Fijians, and 12 ethnic Indians. The method of gathering the data was interview about instances. The results, according to the authors, were as follows: “This study showed that despite instruction in Kinetic Theory at secondary level, few of the preservice primary teacher participants could apply this model effectively when explaining changes in materials. Furthermore, despite coming from three quite distinct cultural groups, the participants shared many alternative conceptions about physical science”. (Conclusions, p 312). There is no surprise in the contents of this conclusions; but the form of presenting them is a little surprising: as it happens quite frequently in literature related to “mental model” research3, the data are given not as constituents of mental models, but as a description of “alternative conceptions”, which has underneath a kind of “ontological flavour”. This “flavour” emerges on reading the paper, despite the fact that the authors never use the word “ontology”. As an example we quote the results obtained for the conceptions about the change of states in matter for Fijian teachers, reported as a summary in the Appendix of the paper, represented in Fig. 1. Alternative conceptions A.2.1 Change of state associated with something other than temperature change (2) “The humidity causes the ice cubes to melt.” A.2.2 Intermolecular spaces decrease from solids through liquids to gases (1) “The particles tend to come together I mean sort of contract yes during melting they join together.” A.2.3 Condensation is due to leakage or attraction (6) “most probably it (condensation) might have come through the glass.” A.2.4 Evaporation associated with absorption (5) “...the liquid goes back to the sun...I think by (the sun’s rays) absorbing it.” A.2.5 Particles viewed as living entities (1) “I think the particles are living.” A.2.6 During evaporation different gas particles become bound together (1) “here (during evaporation) it’s a matter of air and the acetone being joined together, the particles bind together.” A.2.7 Condensation comes directly from ice (1) “Maybe a little of it (condensation) comes from inside from the ice cubes here.” A.2.8 Evaporation occurs because heating makes the particles of a liquid lighter (1) “When the particles of water is being heated up they tend to get light and rise up into the air.” Fig. 1. Fijian teachers’ conceptions about change of state of matter. From Taylor and Coll 2002, p 313. The numbers indicate the teachers holding that conceptions.

When reading the paper with intentional “ontological glasses”, we could highlight other interesting things: with a little arrangement, and adding some other quotations from the interview protocols transcribed on the paper (referred to in Table 2 with the teacher interviewed assigned number and smaller letters’ size), we can offer the following “ontological perspective” of the data shown in Fig. 1:

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Change of States of matter

Ontological beliefs

Associated with something other than temperature change

TEMPERATURE DOES NOT PLAY ROLE ON CHANGE STATES: [P1: They move far apart because eh...they get to the normal size, that means...it’s far apart in the liquid form and when solid forms it gets together so that it has back to its normal size...] “The humidity causes the ice cubes to melt.”

Intermolecular spaces decrease from solids through liquids to gases

THE PARTICLES CONTRACT DURING CHANGE STATES: “The particles tend to come together I mean sort of contract yes during melting they join together.”

Particles viewed as living entities

ANTHROPOMORPHIC VIEW OF PARTICLES’ BEHAVIOUR: [P3: They (the water droplets in the surroundings) find it very suitable (to get to the sides of the glass), so they come in contact and they form water droplets] “I think the particles are living.”

Condensation is due to leakage or attraction

CONDENSATION IS NOT RELATED TO WATER VAPOUR IN THE ATMOSPHERE: [P13: Maybe when the air particles get below a certain temperature they change their form] - “most probably it (condensation) might have come through the glass.” - Condensation comes directly from ice - “Maybe a little of it (condensation) comes from inside from the ice cubes here.”

Evaporation associated with absorption

EVAPORATION NOT RELATED TO ENERGY OF PARTICLES: - “...the liquid goes back to the sun...I think by (the sun’s rays) absorbing it.” - During evaporation different gas particles become bound together - “here (during evaporation) it’s a matter of air and the acetone being joined together, the particles bind together.” -“When the particles of water is being heated up they tend to get light and rise up into the air.”

Evaporation occurs because heating makes the particles of a liquid lighter

Table 2. Fijian teachers’ ontological beliefs about change of state, according to data from Taylor and Coll 2002. Headings in capital letters added.

As we can observe, ontological analysis at this stage is only a meta-analysis or second order analysis of the described teachers’ spontaneous conceptions. What will (hopefully) follow is the modelling of teachers’ spontaneous conceptions in a set of related and dynamic constituents conforming an intelligible and explicative model of teachers’ spontaneous thinking. 4. Conclusions. Teacher education, epistemology and ontology In revising the literature, we observe that the conceptualisation of Teacher Education programs is far from representing something consolidated. As Cochran and Jones (1998) pointed out “There is a lack of consensus about ideal teacher education programs in general or ideal science teacher education in particular” (p 712). According to different interests or detected necessities, authors propose several contents as fundamental for teacher education programs (i.e. Bell 1998, Mumby y Russell 1998, TPR Project -Wilson et al 2001). If we look at the themes enunciated in the different proposals, and put them together, the result could be listed as below:

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- Learning some important concepts of Science - Learning about Teaching and Learning - Curriculum Development work - Practicing and evaluating new teachers strategies - Developing their own ideas about Teaching and Learning - Teachers’ prior ideas about Science and Science Education - Epistemology of Science - Socially-reconstructed knowledge of what it means to be a teacher of science We could say that epistemology is a subject in which consensus had been accomplished. The long tradition in studying this theme and its consequences for teaching and learning, have contributed to this consolidation as a fundamental component in science teacher education. But ontology is still totally absent from the mind of the designers of the different proposals. The status of teachers’ spontaneous conceptions seems to be interpreted in literature as almost exclusively coming from a lack of subject matter knowledge. And possibly this may be one of the factors. But taking into account the academic preparation of teachers in their own subject matter (at least in the case of Secondary teachers), other factors must exist to explain the phenomenon. In our view, one of these factors is related to the ontological understanding of scientific and of commonsense entities. Scientific ontology consists of scientific concepts or entities formally constructed by a scientific community, and it acquires sense from scientific models or theories to which they refer; spontaneous ontology consists of entities related to the world, spontaneously constructed, and they have meaning if they are able to give account of the state of the world. Both conform two incommensurable (Kuhn) universes of understandings. Teachers need critical knowledge about these two sets of entities in order to differentiate them and to be capable of adequately managing the “rule of games” (Wittgenstein) or the “precise language” to refer to one or the other. The academic background of a graduated teacher is usually rooted within the “normal science” (Kuhn) framework; thus, in these circumstances there is no room for any kind of critical knowledge. Our proposal is that Ontological study should be introduced in teacher education, as a powerful way to acquire the necessary critical thinking about the nature of the entities (their universe of meaning) which they are managing in their teaching. The introduction of ontology in teacher education could have several advantages: - Facing the teachers with their own conceptualisations, be they academics or unorthodox. It will be expected that with one adequate methodology (reflection, discussion, distinction), teachers will acquire the needed critical thinking. - This critical thinking will make teachers aware of the importance of language (the universe of meaning they are referring to) when teaching scientific concepts to students. - The ontological background could enlighten teachers with better knowledge of the status of students spontaneous thinking, thus, facilitating the putting into practice new methods of teaching adequate to such status. With so little data on teacher education in this area, this proposal and its possible advantages are necessarily open to discussion. But we find here a fascinating field of research, plenty of possibilities for bringing about more effective science teacher education. References Bacas P 1997 Detección de las ideas del profesorado acerca de los conceptos de calor y temperatura. Alambique, 13, 109-116. Bell B 1998 Teacher Development in Science Education. In: Fraser, B. J. and Tobin, K. J. (eds), International Handbook of Science Education. Kluwer. London, p 681-693. Bruner J S 1960 The Process of Education. Harvard Univ. Press. Cambridge, Ma. Buckley B C and Boulter B 2000 Investigating the role of representations and expressed models in building mental models. In: Gilbert, J. K. and Buolter, C. J. (eds), Developing models in Science Education. Kluwer. London, p 119-135.

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Bunge M 1980 Epistemología. Ariel. Madrid. Cañal P 1997 La fotosíntesis y la respiración inversa de las plantas, ¿un problema de secuenciación de los contenidos?. Alambique, 14, 21-36. Cawthron E R and Rowell J A 1978 Epistemology and Science Education. Studies in Science Education, 5, 31-59. Chi M T H and Slotta J D 1993 The ontological coherence of Intuitive Physics. Cognition and Instruction, 10 (2 y 3), 249-260. Cochran K F and Jones L L 1998 The subject matter knowledge of preservice Science Teachers. In: Fraser, B. J. and Tobin, K. J. (eds), International Handbook of Science Education. Kluwer. London, p 707-718. Craven J A and Penick J 2001 Preparing the new teachers to teach Science: the role of the Science Teacher Educator. Electronic J. of Science Education, 6 (1). (ISSN 1087-3430) Available on line:< http://unr.edu./homepage/crowther/ejse/cravenpenick.html> [July 2003] CSMTP (Committee on Science and Mathematics Teacher Preparation. National Research Council) 2000 Educating Teachers of Science, Mathematics, and Technology: New Practices for the New Millennium. National Academic Press. Washington, DC. Available on-line: [July 2003] De Jong O Korthagen F and Wubbels T 1998 Research on Science Teacher Education in Europe: Teacher thinking and Conceptual Change. In: Fraser, B. J. and Tobin, K. J. (eds), International Handbook of Science Education. Kluwer. London, p 745-758. De Manuel E and Jimenez M R 2000 Las concepciones sobre ácidos y bases de los opositores al cuerpo de profesores de secundaria. Alambique, 24, 66-76. Désautels J and Larochelle M 1998a About the epistemological posture of science teachers. In: A. Tiberghien, E. L. Jossem and J. Barojas (eds), Connecting Research in Physics Education with Teacher Education. I.C.P.E. Book. The International Commission on Physics Education. (I.S.B.N. 0-9507510-3-0). Available on-line: [July 2003] Désautels J and Larochelle M 1998b The epistemology of students: The “thingified” nature of scientific knowledge. In: Fraser, B. J. and Tobin, K. J. (eds), International Handbook of Science Education. Kluwer. London, p 115-126. Duit R 2002 Bibliography - STCSE. Students’ and Teachers’ Conceptions and Science Education. IPN - Leibniz Institute for Science Education. Universidad of Kiel. Duschl R and Hamilton P (eds) 1994 Philosophy, Cognitive Psychology and Educational Theory and Practice. State Univ. of NY Press. Albany, NY. Duschl R and Hamilton P 1998 Conceptual Cchange in Science and in the learning of Science. In: Fraser, B. J. and Tobin, K. J. (eds), International Handbook of Science Education. Kluwer. London, p 1047-1065. Estany A 1993 Introducción a la Filosofía de la Ciencia. Crítica. Barcelona. Fraser B J and Tobin K J (eds), 1998 International Handbook of Science Education. Kluwer. London, Vol. I and II. Furio C and Guisasola G 1998 Difficulties in learning the concept of electric field. Science Education, 82 (4), 511-526. Gil D and Pessoa A N 1998 Physics Teacher Training: anlysis and proposals. In: A. Tiberghien, E. L. Jossem and J. Barojas (eds), Connecting Research in Physics Education with Teacher Education. I.C.P.E. Book. The International Commission on Physics Education. (I.S.B.N. 0-9507510-3-0). Available on line: [July 2003] Gutiérrez M S Gómez Crespo M A and Pozo J I 2002 Conocimiento cotidiano frente a conocimiento científico en la interpretación de las propiedades de la materia. Investigaçoes em Ensino de Ciências, 7 (3). (ISSN 1518-8795). Avalible on line: [July 2003] Gutierrez R and Ogborn J 1992 A causal framework for analysing alternative conceptions. Int. J. of Science Education, 14 (2), 201-220. Gutierrez R and Pinto R 1997 Mental models of physical systems: from description to explanation. In: Oblak, S., Hribar, M., Luchner, K. and Munih, M. (eds), New ways of teaching Physics. Proceedings of the GIREP-ICPE International Conference . Board of Education of Slovenia. Lubliana (Slovenia), 381-384. Gutierrez R and Pinto R 2001 Ontologies and Physics Teachers Training. In: R. Pinto and S. Surinach (eds), Physics Teacher Education Beyond 2000. Elsevier Editions. Paris, p 185-188. Gutierrez R 1987 La investigación en Didáctica de las Ciencias: elementos para su comprensión. Bordón, 268, 339-362. Gutierrez R 2001 Mental Models and the fine structure of Conceptual Change. In: R. Pinto and S. Surinach (eds), Physics Teacher Education Beyond 2000. Elsevier Editions. París., p 35-44. Gutierrez R 2002 Mental models: new tools for new lines of research? Discussion of the concept and its different uses in Physics Education. In: Proceedings of the GIREP 2002 International Conference “Physics in new fields and modern applications”-opportunities for Physics Education. On-line publication at [July 2003] Hammer D 1994 Epistemological beliefs in introductory physics. Cognition and Instruction, 12 (2), 151-183. Hashweh M 1996 Effects of Science Teachers’ Epistemological Beliefs in Teaching. J. of Res. in Science Teaching, 33 (1), 47-63. Hewson P W Beeth M E and Thorley N R 1998 Teaching for Conceptual Change. In: Fraser, B. J. and Tobin, K. J. (eds), International Handbook of Science Education. Kluwer. London, p 199-218. Hodson D 1993 Teaching and learning about Science: considerations in the philosophy and sociology of Science. In: Edwards, D. et al (eds), Teaching and Learning and Assessment in Science Education. P. C. C. & The Open University. London, p 47-55.

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Koulaidis V and Ogborn J 1989 Philosophy of Science: an empirical study of teachers’ view. Int. J. of Science Education, 11 (2), 173-184. Lakin S and Wellington J 1994 Who will teach the “nature of science”?: teachers’ views of science and their implications for science education. Int. J. of Science Education, 16 (2), 175-190. Lederman N Ramey-Gassert L R Kuerbis P Loving C Roychoudhuray A and Spector B S 1997 AETS Position StatemenT: Professional Knowledge Standards for Science Teacher Educators. Available on-line: [July 2003] Lederman N 1992 Students and teachers’ conceptions of the nature of Science: a review of research. J. of Res. in Science Teaching 29 (4), 331-359. Lee O 1995 Subject matter knowledge, classroom management and instructional practices in middle school science classrooms. J. of Res. in Science Teaching, 32 (4), 423-440. Liu C.-T Baker B Shaka F Banks L and Norgren M 1998 Science Teaching Beliefs. A final paper summitted to Salish Research Project II. Southwest Missouri State University. Available on line: [July 2003] Mannila K Koponen I T and Niskanen J 2001 Building a picture of students’ conceptions of wave- and particle-like properties of quantum entities. European J. of Physics, 22, 1-9. Mariani C and Ogborn J 1991 Towards an ontology of commonsense reasonig. Int. J. of Science Education, 13 (1), 6985. Mason L 2001 Introduction. Learning and Instruction, 11 (4-5), 259-263. Matthews M R (ed) 1998a Constructivism in Science Education. A philosophical examination. Kluwer. Dordrecht. The Netherlands. Matthews M R 1998b The nature of Science and Science Teaching. In: Fraser, B. J. and Tobin, K. J. (eds), International Handbook of Science Education. Kluwer. London, p 981-999. Mellado V 1998 Preservice teachers’ classroom practice and their conceptions of the nature of Science. In: Fraser, B. J. and Tobin, K. J. (eds), International Handbook of Science Education. Kluwer. London, p 1093-1110. Moje E B 1995 Talking about Science: an interpretation of the effects of teacher talk in a high school Science classroom. J. of Res. in Science Teaching 32 (4), 349-371. Mueller C L and Wavering M J 1999 Science Interns’ Beliefs about the Nature of Science and Teaching. In: Rubba, P. A., Rye, J. A. and Keig, P. F. (eds), Proceedings of the 1999 Annual Conference of the AETS (Association for the Education of Teachers in Science). ERIC Clearinghouse for Science, p 1148-1157. Av. on line: [July 2003] Munby H and Russell T 1998 Epistemology and context in research on learning to teach Science. In: Fraser, B. J. and Tobin, K. J. (eds), International Handbook of Science Education. Kluwer. London, p 643-665. Ogborn J 1991 Ontology, causation and explanation. Working paper. Institute of Education. London University. Pauen S 1999 The development of ontological categories: stable dimensions and changing concepts. In: Schnotz, W., Vosniadou, E. and Carretero, M., (eds), New Perspectives on Conceptual Change. Pergamon (imprint of Elsevier Science). Oxford, UK, p 15-31. Porlan R 2002 La formación del profesorado en un contexto constructivista. Investigaçoes em Ensino de Ciências, 7 (3). (ISSN 1518-8795). Avalible on line: [July 2003] Pro A de 2003 La construcción del conocimiento científico y los contenidos de ciencias. In: Jimenez, M. P. (coord), Caamaño, A., Oñorbe, A., Pedrinaci, E., de Pro, A., Enseñar Ciencias. Graó. Barcelona, p 33-54. Rogers P J 1982 Epistemology and history in the teaching of school science. European J. of Science Education, 4 (1), 1-10. Roth W-M and Roychoudhury A 1994 Physics students’ epistemologies and views about knowing and learning. J. of Res. in Science Teaching, 31 (1), 5-30. SALISH Project 1997 Secondary Science and Mathematics Teacher Preparation Programs: Influences on New Teachers and Their Students. Executive Summary. University of Iowa. Iowa City, IA. Available on-line: http://edweb3.edu/cvsme/original-cvsme/salish.htm [July 2003] Schnotz W Vosniadou E and Carretero M (eds) 1999 New Perspectives on Conceptual Change. Pergamon (imprint of Elsevier Science). Oxford. UK. Séré M G Leach J Niedderer H Psillos D Tiberghien A and Vicentini, M 1998 Improving Science Education: issues and research on innovative empirical and computer-based approaches to labwork in Europe. Research Project: Labwork in Science Education. Final Report. Available on-line: [July 2003] Slotta J D Chi T H M and Joran E 1995 Assessing students’ misclassifications of physics concepts: an ontological basis for conceptual change. Cognition and Instruction, 13 (3), 373-400. Strömdahl H TüllberG A and Lybeck L 1994 The qualitatively different conceptions of 1 mol. Int. J. of Science Education, 16 (1), 17-26. STTIS Project (Science Teacher Training in an Information Society) 1997-2001. Funded by the European Commission Directorate General Research through the TSER program, in the 4th framework programme. The team leaders were: Laurence Viennot of Université Denis-Diderot, Paris VII (FR), Elena Sassi of Univ. Federico II of Naples (IT), Andreas Quale of the University of Oslo (NO), Roser Pinto, from the Universitat Autònoma Barcelona (SP), as Project coordinator, and Jon Ogborn, then at Sussex University (UK). Available on-line: [July 2003]

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Summer M K 1982 Philosophy of Science in the science teacher education curriculum. Eu. J. of Science Education, 4 (1), 19-28. Taylor N and Coll K 2002 Pre-service Primary Teachers’ models of Kinetic Theory: an examination of three different cultural groups. Chemistry Education: Research and Practice in Europe, 3 (3), 293-315. Available on-line: [July 2003]. Trend R 2000 Conceptions of geological time among primary teachers trainees, with reference to their engagement with geoscience, history and science. Int. J. of Science Education, 22 (51), 539-555. Tsai C-C 1999 “Laboratory exercises help me memorize the scientific truths”: a study of eighth graders’ scientific epistemological views and learning in laboratory activities. Science Education, 83 (6), 654-674. Tüllberg A Strömdahl H and Lybeck L 1994 Students’ conceptions of 1 mol and educators’ conceptions of how to teach “the mole”. Int. J. of Science Education, 16 (1), 145-156. Tytler R 2000 A comparison of year 1 and year 6 students’ conceptions of evaporation and condensation: dimensions of conceptual progression. Int. J. of Science Education, 22 (5), 447-467. VENVILLE, G. J. and TREAGUST, D. F., 1998, Exploring conceptual change in genetics using a multidimensional interpretative framework. J. of Res. in Science Teaching, 35 (9), 1031-1055. VOSNIADOU, S. and BREWER, W. F., 1994, Mental models of the day/night cycle. Cognitive Science 18, 123-183. Waggett D 2001 Secondary science teacher candidates’ beliefs and practices. In: Rubba, P. A., Rye, J. A. and Crawford, B. a. (eds), Proceedins of the 2001 Annual Conference of the AETS (Association for the Education of Teachers in Science). ERIC Clearinghouse for Science, p 963-1014. Available on line: [July 2003]. White P A 1995 Common-sense construction of causal processes in nature: a causal network analysis. British Journal of Developmental Psychology, 86, 377-395. Wilson S M Floden R E and Ferrini-Mundi J 2001 Teacher Preparation Research: Current Knowledge, Gaps and Recommendations. Research Report prepared for the U. S. Department of Education. Center for the Study of Teaching and Policy (CTP) in collaboration with Michigan State University. CTP. University of Washington. Available on-line: [July 2003]. Wiser M and Amin T 2001 “Is heat hot?” Inducing conceptual change by integrating everyday and scientific perspectives on thermal phenomena. Learning and Instruction, 11 (4-5), 331-355.

ACTIVITY BASED PHYSICS INSTITUTES: IN-SERVICE TEACHER PROFESSIONAL DEVELOPMENT WITH COMPUTER SUPPORTED TOOLS AND PEDAGOGY David R. Sokoloff, Department of Physics, University of Oregon, Eugene, USA Introduction: Activity Based Physics In the past 16 years effective curricular materials have been developed that are based on the outcomes of physics education research, employ new pedagogical approaches, and utilize exciting computer-based tools for collection, display and analysis of scientific data. During this time period, many school districts have purchased the technology needed to implement these new strategies. Yet many secondary physics and physical science teachers still do not have the technology available to them and/or lack the training to make effective use of these approaches and tools. While a wide range of professional development programs has been developed to assist in-service teachers in working with specific curricula and computer-based tools or in acquiring basic computer skills, little comprehensive research exists that documents the effectiveness of these programs. In fact, researchers have observed that drive-in workshops, summer institutes, and isolated coursework have limited utility for transforming high school teachers as practitioners, action researchers, and local leaders for reformed physics education. (Hammerman, 1995; Martin-Kniep, Sussman & Meltzer, 1995). Continuous investigation and growth through critical analysis of classroom practice, student learning, and the teacher’s own learning is crucial for teachers who wish to adopt the more powerful pedagogies advocated in educational reform (Schifter & Fostnot, 1993; Beatty, 1999). A number of communities of physics teachers have themselves sought ways to extend what they learn in workshops with their own continuing research, as in the case of the Bay Area Physics Teacher Action Research Group [PTARG] where their collaboration endured for years. (Feldman,

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1996; 1998). In almost all of these instances, faculty and their doctoral students at graduate research universities or members of educational research groups [such as EDC and TERC] served as facilitators/mentors to groups and to individual high school teachers and community college instructors. Often, the relationship between the teachers and their mentors endured for years resulting in collaborations for research (Feldman & Minstrell, 2000) and for curriculum development (Camp, et al., 1994). Since 1986, the Activity Based Physics (ABP) Group has been developing curricula and computer tools to enhance active learning of physics and physical science, and conducting professional development workshops designed to help teachers use these materials effectively. Table 1 lists current members of the Group. Group members have conducted physics education research

Table 1. Current Members of the Activity Based Physics Group 1. Martin Baumberger, Chestnut Hill Acad. 2. Patrick J. Cooney, Millersville University 3. Karen Cummings, So. Conn. State Univ. 4. John S. Garrett, Sheldon HS (retired) 5. Priscilla W. Laws, Dickinson College

6. Edward F. Redish, University of MD 7. David R. Sokoloff, University of OR 8. Ronald K. Thornton, Tufts University 9. Maxine C. Willis, Gettysburg High School

Table 2. Curricular Materials from the Activity Based Physics Suite Interactive Lecture Demonstrations (ILD): Live demonstrations with enhanced learning from predictions, small group discussions, and comparison with real-time results graphed using Microcomputer-Based Laboratory (MBL) tools. Most introductory physics topics. (Sokoloff & Thronton, 1997, 2004; Thornton & Sokoloff, 1999.) RealTime Physics Active Learning Laboratories (RTP): Series of laboratory modules that use MBL tools to help students develop important physics concepts while acquiring vital laboratory skills. Mechanics, Heat and Thermodynamics, Light and Optics and Electric Circuits. (Sokoloff, Laws & Thornton, 1998 (1), 1998 (2), 2000, 2004; Thornton & Sokoloff, 1997.) Tools for Scientific Thinking (TST): Laboratory curriculum for teachers who want to replace some traditional laboratories with ones using MBL tools to teach physics concepts. Motion and Force and Heat and Temperature. (Sokoloff & Thornton, 1992; Thornton & Sokoloff, 1993.) Workshop Physics (WP): Curriculum that supports honors and AP classes by replacing lectures and formal laboratories with activities that guide student inquiry. Tools include spreadsheets, MBL and digital video analysis. Includes most traditional introductory topics. (Laws, 1997(1).) Explorations in Physics (EiP): Interdisciplinary curriculum emphasizing topics needed to satisfy new science standards. Each module includes 12-15 hours of guided inquiry followed by 12-15 hours of topic-related open-ended projects chosen by small student teams. Spreadsheets, MBL and video analysis tools are used. Variety of physical science topics. (Jackson, Laws & Franklin, 2002.) The following two curricula developed by L.C. McDermott and members of the University of Washington Physics Education Group, do not make use of technology: Physics by Inquiry: A guided inquiry, workshop style curriculum in which students are guided in small groups with carefully prepared worksheets to reason through simple physical observations and experiments. Activities available for most introductory physics topics. (McDermott et. al., 1996, 1997(1).) Tutorials in Introductory Physics: Small group-learning activities with worksheets that emphasize concept building and qualitative reasoning. Tutorials available for most topics. (McDermott et. al., 1997(2), 2002.)

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(Sokoloff & Thornton, 1997; Thornton & Sokoloff, 1990, 1997, 1998; Thornton, 1996; Laws, 1991, 1997(2); Redish et. al., 1997) and used the research of others (for example McDermott, 1991; McDermott & Redish, 1999; Halloun & Hestenes, 1985; Hake, 1998) to inform their development of commercially distributed, research-based, award winning instructional materials and computer tools that have been shown through educational research to be highly effective in helping students learn physics.. Members have had major funding from NSF, FIPSE, U.S. Dept. of Ed., the Dana Foundation and the Howard Hughes Medical Institute. This has culminated in the Activity Based Physics Suite, a collection of curricular materials, developed by members of the ABP Group. Table 2 describes the Suite curricular materials and Table 3 describes the computer tools. The Suite materials and tools are based on physics education research, and all have the same underlying educational philosophy. The Suite will be published by John Wiley in January, 2004 in conjunction with a new research-based text, Understanding Physics. (Cummings, 2004.) All of the curricular materials have been designed for flexible use. They are published in printed and electronic forms to enable teachers to combine and modify them to meet the needs of different student populations. Also, an informative new book by E.F. Redish, Teaching Physics with the Physics Suite (Redish, 2003), is available from the publisher at no cost. A subset of the Physics Suite materials have been collected on an Activity Based Physics High School CD (available from Vernier Software and Technology and PASCO Scientific), and are available for secondary school classroom use at a very affordable price. In addition to curricular materials, the CD includes a Teacher Resource Guide—to support adaptation of the materials to teachers’ own classroom settings, and an Action Research Kit—to support local research on student learning.

Table 3. Physics Suite Computer Tools Calculator-Based Laboratory Tools (CBL): Interface and software that allow data from electronic sensors to be transmitted to a graphing calculator and graphed in real time. (Vernier.) Graphical Analysis: Software that allows students to graph data entered by hand or from other software packages such as VideoPoint, Visualizer or from MBL or CBL systems. (Vernier.) Microcomputer-Based Laboratory Tools (MBL): Interface and software that allow data from electronic sensors to be transmitted to a computer for real-time graphing and analysis. The most popular of these are the LabPro/LoggerPro and Data Studio systems. (Vernier & PASCO.) VideoPoint®: Software that enables users to extract position data from frames of a classroom generated or supplied digitized movie. The data can then be graphed and analyzed. (Laws & Pfister, 1998; PASCO.) Visualizer®: Software that allows display of actual physical data and the output of analytic models in a 3-dimensional vector space, and the time evolution of vectors and trajectories. (Center for Science and Mathematics Teaching, Tufts University.) Workshop Physics Tools (WPTools): Macros or Excel® “add-in tools” to enable users to create scatter plots or overlay graphs and do analytic modeling or curve fitting more easily. (Workshop Physics, Dickinson College.)

Members of the ABP Group also have extensive experience developing institutes, seminars and other professional development activities. In the past 16 years approximately 5500 physics teachers at the secondary school and college level have attended nearly 200 extended institutes or shorter workshops taught by Group members. Table 4 lists the extended (one week or longer) workshop series during this period for secondary teachers as part of national, sponsored projects. Our experience with the challenges faced by many teachers suggests that a comprehensive

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Table 4. Physics /Physical Science Teacher Workshops by ABP Group Members 2000-2003 Activity Based Physics Institutes (NSF)—30 high school teachers at Oregon and Dickinson two weeks for two consecutive Summers 2000-01 and 2002-03. 1996-98 Summer Seminar: Interactive Teaching Methods and Computers(NSF)—30 high school teachers at Oregon (1998) and Dickinson (1996-97) for two weeks. 1993, 95, 97 Summer Outreach in Science (Howard Hughes Medical Institute)—30 high school science teachers at Oregon for two weeks each Summer. 1993-96 Student Oriented Science (U.S. Dept. of Ed.)—2-day academic year workshops and follow-ups for 24 high school teachers each year at Tufts, Oregon and Dickinson. 1988-92 Oregon Science Teaching: Implementation and Research (U.S. Dept. of Education— Eisenhower)—Monthly academic year (1988-90), and Summer (1990-92) workshops with followups for 15 teachers each year at Oregon. 1989-90 LabNet (NSF)—20 teachers at two-week institutes held at Dickinson and Tufts each Summer. 1987-88 National Microcomputer-Based Laboratory Leadership Institutes (NSF)—Summer workshops held at Tufts University for 24 high school teachers.

approach is required to change their teaching strategies and epistemology. To be effective, teachers must first know how to use new technologies, and then how to teach using Suite materials. Teachers who are most successful with new, active learning approaches are those with a deep understanding of how to combine computer tools with effective teaching strategies. The experience gained in offering professional development workshops over the past 16 years has resulted in the recent publication of a second CD, the Teacher Education Module (available from Vernier Software and Technology) that addresses the needs of teachers of teachers who wish to implement computersupported, activity-based workshops. The materials on this CD include suggestions, guidelines, specific curricular examples, and videos to guide workshop presenters. A Model for Activity Based Teacher Professional Development The ABP Group is committed to continue helping secondary physics and physical science teachers in grades 9-12 maximize their potential to improve their students’ 1) functional understanding of concepts, 2) ability to solve problems, 3) ability to describe phenomena, 4) appreciation for the basis of scientific inquiry, and 5) use of computer-based laboratory tools for scientific investigation. What follows is a description of the most recent series of Activity Based Physics Institutes that were just completed in June, 2003, and the features that we believe promote the following primary institute goals: 1) To recruit qualified teachers seeking professional development in physics and physical science teaching and willing to adopt regional or national leadership roles, especially teachers of underrepresented student populations, in rural school districts, empowerment zone schools and enterprise communities. 2) To educate teachers about the powerful role physics education research can play in curriculum development, classroom pedagogy, and assessment of student learning. 3) To familiarize teachers with the Activity Based Physics Suite, help them to adapt these materials to serve their classroom needs, and help them to meet local and national SMT standards. 4) To help teachers learn how to conduct action research in their classrooms so that they can appreciate the basis and rationale for the new pedagogical approaches, and improve the effectiveness of these new approaches in their classrooms. 5) To enable teachers to become educational leaders who can initiate local reform efforts in science education beyond their own classrooms.

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6) To build and maintain a community of leader/researchers whose shared vision is aligned with physics education reform and responsive to national issues in science education. To achieve these goals, the project had the following components, which have been refined over the years based on previous projects: ■ Activity Based Physics Institutes. A total of 60 high school physics and physical science teachers were recruited nationally to participate in institutes at either at a West Coast site (University of Oregon in Eugene, OR) or an East Coast site (Dickinson College in Carlisle, PA) (30 at each site), and each received 160+ hours (four weeks) of professional development over two consecutive summers, 2000-01. The same program was repeated in 2002-03. This use of two sites has the following advantages: • Lower participant travel expenses. • Increase in the applicant pool and diversity of participants. • More effective mentoring of participants by project staff. • Availability to the significant rural populations in close proximity to both sites. • Increase in regional collaboration after the institutes, since each site will attract at least some clusters of participants who are close enough to actively consult with each other. • More effective networking among cohorts of 30 teachers, rather than one cohort of 60. Selected participants received a travel stipend that was adequate for most teachers in the continental U.S. to travel to the closest institute site. (We did have one participant from Hawaii, and one from American Samoa, but their travel was supplemented from school district or personal funds.) In addition, each participant was given an institute stipend if s/he attended both years of the program. While we desired to recruit teachers who already had the necessary classroom sets of computer-supported tools, we tried to assure that implementation was not impeded for participants who lacked these. Therefore, each applicant had to submit a signed statement of support from a local school or district administrator guaranteeing that a minimum of one specified complete set of computer, interface, probes and software would be available to the teacher. In this way, each teacher was assured to be able to implement at least Interactive Lecture Demonstrations in her/his classroom. We developed the High School CD and distributed it free of charge to the first cohort of participants (2000-01). For the second cohort (2002-03), a High School CD license was added to the list of required materials to be guaranteed locally. Having even the minimal set of equipment and software also has the synergistic effect that administrators can observe the efficacy of the resulting pedagogy, and many are then more willing to invest the funds necessary to purchase a complete set. During the first week of the institutes, the focus was on direct experience working with the Physics Suite materials contained on the High School CD, and examining the pedagogy made possible with computer-based curricula and tools. The main topics were mechanics and electric circuits. In these sessions, we asked the teachers to actually work through the activities in the curricula as their students would. Only in this way can participants really appreciate the significant pedagogical changes in our approach to learning. As much as possible, the equipment and computer tools were set up by the institute staff in order to keep the focus of the institute on pedagogy using technology not the technology itself. While improving content knowledge was not a primary institute goal, our pre-testing of participants using conceptual evaluations we have developed (for example, Thornton & Sokoloff, 1998), suggest that some participants were in need of such remedial work. An incidental result of teachers working carefully through the materials is that they learn the concepts. The second week’s focus was 1) completing a curriculum project that adapts the materials to each individual teacher’s local needs, 2) learning how to conduct action research in the classroom, and 3) developing leadership and community-building skills. Appendix A includes the complete schedule of the Summer, 2002 Institute. Participants’ thoughts on the institute experience were collected every few days through reflections recorded on Blackboard. This provided formative feedback for the institute staff to adjust institute features, and also has provided valuable information for the summative evaluation of the project.

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The overall structure of the second summer institute for each cohort was similar. There were, however, four significant differences: 1) The emphasis was on different physics topics, heat and temperature, energy, waves and sound and optics. 2) Sharing sessions were scheduled so that each returning participant could report on her/his experiences implementing active learning and disseminating to colleagues during the previous school year. 3) Participants were given more responsibility for setting up the equipment and software, to help them work out any problems they may have had, and to build more confidence. (This is important, since most high school teachers in the U.S. do not have much technical support in their schools.) 4) Instead of working on a curriculum implementation project during the second week, participants were encouraged to do a capstone project on energy that incorporated much from the energy and heat and thermodynamics units that they worked on the first week. ■ Follow-up and Cohesion Activities. An Activity Based Physics web-site and a listserv were used to facilitate correspondence. These were used initially to handle technical problems that participants had with implementation. As the project progressed, more teachers used the listserv to report on classroom successes, successes in getting grants and other funding and local workshops and other dissemination activities. The following outcomes were a result of this professional development model: 1) 120 secondary physics and physical science teachers had training in using curricular materials in the Activity Based Physics Suite and in the implementation of pedagogy based on the outcomes of physics education research. They were enabled to have immediate experience implementing the materials and classroom strategies through a requirement of local support. 2) Based on their testimonies, many of these teachers have implemented active learning with the available tools, and have significantly changed their pedagogy. 3) Many teachers have conducted action research and/or taken leadership roles in their school districts for recruiting and mentoring other physics and physical science teachers. How Successful Was this Model? The pre-institute attitudes and teaching strategies of the 120 institute participants have already been assessed. However, the summative evaluation of these recently completed Activity Based Physics Institutes is not yet available. (A detailed longitudinal study of attitudinal and behavioral changes effected by participants’ institute experiences is being conducted by Dr. James Hoefler of Dickinson College. In addition, Maxine Willis, one of the Institute instructors will be studying the effectiveness using classroom visits and interviews, as part of her sabbatical leave project in 20042005.) Anecdotal evidence, based on communications on the listserv and participants’ presentations during the Summer, 2001 and 2003 sharing sessions, indicates a high degree of implementation of more active approaches, with many teachers using a subset of the Physics Suite materials. We do have formal summative evaluations of our previous institute programs, on which the most recent series was based, that document a remarkable degree of change in the participants. For example, there is a detailed evaluation report of our Summer Seminar series (1990-96) written by Dr. Hoefler. This series had many of the same features, except that the institutes were only of one summer duration (80+ hours of instruction.). Approximately 230 college and high school teachers attended during this period. In a survey designed by Dr. Hoefler (Hoefler, 1998) to evaluate the impact of the seminars on the participants, the 92 respondents indicated that as a result of the institutes: • 81% were optimistic about the value of the new approaches • 66% devoted less time to lecturing, and more time to activity-based learning • Based on the survey responses, the seminar series impacted 84,000 students between 1990 and 1997.

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• Conceptual learning had improved for over half of their students, and 62% of their students reported enjoying the new methods better than old approaches • They disseminated activity-based methods via direct contact with a total of 430 colleagues inside and outside of their institutions. Additionally, 31% of the respondents reported spreading the word by means of presentations and workshops. • Three quarters applied for a total of $4.6 million and received $3.3 million to implement these methods. • Only 60% of respondents submitted written suggestions for improving the seminars, and nearly half of these ended up writing, “change nothing.” The executive summary of the report concludes that the “…seminars are viewed in a very positive light by an overwhelming majority of the seminar alumni who took part in this study.” We believe that one reason for our successes in changing teachers’ classroom practice is the postinstitute communication mechanisms (support of classroom action research, web-site, listserv, email, informal mentoring at national AAPT meetings) that we have incorporated into all of our institute programs. Two of the high school teachers currently in our ABP Group, Maxine Willis and John Garrett are fine examples of the transformations that are possible. (There are many other examples of participants who have changed their pedagogy significantly.) Willis and Garrett have emerged as outstanding teachers and teacher leaders by coupling motivation and professional maturity with strong mentoring from the college/university ABP Group members in their geographical areas. Their contributions to the work of the ABP Group continue to improve and expand all areas of curriculum development, training and dissemination, and, their active involvement enhances the Group’s credibility with high school teachers. The Next Step, Research on Professional Development While there is considerable evidence for the success of this institute model, we are aware of its shortcomings. In addition, many concerns are found in recent literature about research and instructional improvement (Feldman & Minstrell, 2000). Some of these concerns provide a basis for the following research questions: 1) What motivates teachers to want to investigate what works with their students, and in what ways do these investigations lead teachers to become better constructivist educators? 2) What are the group dynamics for teams of researchers with ABP Group facilitation? Which social configurations work best: dyads, triads, larger groups, and how do these groups function in a “virtual community” over the internet? 3) The ABP Group is comprised of 4-year college faculty, university faculty, and high school teachers. How do their backgrounds, personalities, learning and teaching perspectives, and immediate commitments determine their ability to succeed in a mentoring role, especially with regard to teacher-initiated action research? Specifically, how do curriculum developers and workshop leaders transform into research team leaders and mentors, and can (or should) they sustain this role for years as described by Feldman (1998)? 4) How do factors such as varying levels of physics understanding, technical expertise, pedagogical skill, social skills, educational research skills, classroom rapport, among others, influence success as ABP teachers and researchers? 5) How do the workshop leaders become transformed in their practice as a consequence of working with teacher research teams? We are currently planning a new series of institutes which will have a greater focus on researching the model. These are a few of the questions that will be investigated in this project, but we expect many more issues to arise during the institutes, follow-up and mentoring activities. If the project is funded, the new series will return to a one-summer model, and will incorporate these additional features: ■ Equipment Loan Program. We will purchase 5 complete classroom sets of computer interfaces, probes and software for each institute site, and establish a loan program for these instructional

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materials. This will enable as many as one half of the participants to borrow these materials for at least one half of the school year. In addition, we will supply copies of the High School CD to teachers whose schools do not own a license. Our experiences from the past institute programs in which we made computer-based tools available on loan suggest that a significant number of the participants who borrow the tools will be able to convince their schools or districts to purchase them. This will significantly increase the availability and potential impact of the loaned tools over the duration of the project. ■ Additional Second Week Focuses. The second week’s focus will be 1) completing a curriculum project that adapts the materials to each individual teacher’s local needs, 2) learning how to conduct action research in the classroom, 3) developing leadership and community-building skills, 4) participating in sessions on educational research methodology, and 5) forming research teams. ■ Follow-up Leadership Meetings. Beginning the second Summer , two follow-up options will be available to participants: three-day meetings at the institute sites and/or reunions at national AAPT meetings. At the three-day meetings, participants will share their classroom experiences integrating the new teaching strategies and tools. The sharing can take place during the 1-day overlap when the new recruits will have an afternoon and evening with the veterans prior to the start of the institute. They will also receive additional leadership training skills to help them serve as change agents for other teachers in their regions, and they will meet in their research teams. Participants will be encouraged to bring a colleague who will participate in the immediately following 2-week Summer institute. Similar sharing, mentoring and research team meetings will take place at the AAPT reunions. ■ Research Study on Our Professional Development Model. Participating teachers will be tracked for the duration of the grant, to examine in detail the effectiveness of this professional development model in changing their pedagogy and epistemology. The research teams will study the issues that determine the success or failure of in-service professional development. The impact on teachers will also be compared to that for the professional development model used in our most recent series of Activity-Based Physics Institutes. Additional essential research will take place through mentoring the research teams. WebCT or Blackboard will facilitate communication among these groups. The research results will be disseminated broadly to those in both science disciplines and in education involved in the preparation and enhancement of teachers. This project will also build upon our knowledge from previous institutes. The research questions pursued will be informed and refined by the summative evaluation activities from the previous project. Also, in addition to exploring changes in participants’ pedagogy and epistemology effected by their institute experiences, the availability of previous summative data will allow us to study three significant practical aspects of our professional development model: 1) In terms of the eventual impact on students, is it more cost-effective to provide 160+ hours of instruction to a group of teachers, or half as many hours of instruction to twice as many teachers? We will answer this question by comparing the two-summer institute model in the Activity Based Physics Institutes we have just completed to the one-summer model in this project. 2) Will developing a mentoring relationship with participants, and bringing them back together for reunions at subsequent institutes and/or at national AAPT meetings be as effective in establishing and supporting the leadership and dissemination roles as having a full two-week follow-up session in the following summer, as in the Activity Based Physics Institutes we have just completed? 3) Will the availability of computer-based interfaces and probes on loan from the project to teachers who do not yet have these available to them in their schools increase the effectiveness of the institutes in bringing about pedagogical changes and more effective use of computersupported curricula in their classrooms? Will the availability of the loaned computer-based tools increase the chance that teachers’ schools and/or districts will make permanent purchases of them?

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Conclusions Carefully designed, comprehensive professional development programs can effect significant pedagogical and epistemological changes while introducing secondary teachers to activity based curricula supported by computer-based tools. Important features include 1) study of the research base for the new pedagogical approaches, 2) intensive experience with the curricula and tools, 3) institute time to plan adaptation to individual classroom needs, 4) local action classroom research on student learning, 5) availability of the curricula tools and 6) formal follow-up activities. However, there is still much to be researched about the features that determine the success or failure of these programs. References Beatty, B. R. (1999, April 19-23). Teachers Leading Their Own Professional Growth: Self-Directed Reflection and Collaboration and Changes in Perception of Self and Work in Secondary School Teachers. Presented at the Annual Meeting of the American Educational Research Association, Montreal, Quebec, Canada. Camp. C., Clement, J., Brown, D., Gonzalez, K., Kudukey, J., Minstrell, J, Schultz, K., Steinberg, M., Veneman, V., and Zietsman, A. (1994). Preconceptions in mechanics: Lessons designed to deal with student’s conceptual difficulties. Dubuque, IA: Kendall/Hunt. Center for Science and Mathematics Teaching, Tufts University. http://ase.tufts.edu/csmt. Cummings, K, Laws, P.W., Redish, E.F. and Cooney, P.J. (2004). Understanding Physics. New York, John Wiley & Sons. Feldman, A. (1996). “Enhancing the practice of physics teachers: Mechanisms for the generation and sharing of knowledge and understanding in collaborative action research.” Journal of Research in Science Teaching, 33(5). 513-540. Feldman, A. (1998). “Implementing and assessing the power of conversation in the teaching of action research.” Teacher Education Quarterly, 25(2), 27-42. Feldman, A. & Minstrell, J. (2000). “Action Research as a Research Methodology for the Study of the Teaching and Learning of Science.” In Anthony E. Kelly & Richard A. Lesh (Eds.), Handbook of Research Design in Mathematics and Science Education (pp. 429-455). Mahwah, New Jersey: Lawrence Erlbaum Associates. Hake, R.R. (1998). “Interactive-engagement versus traditional methods: A six-thousand student survey of mechanics test data for introductory physics courses,” Am. J. Phys. 66, 64-74. Halloun, I.A. and Hestenes, D. (1985). “The initial knowledge state of college physics students,” and “Common sense concepts about motion,” I. A. , Am. J. Phys. 53, 1043-1065. Hammerman, J. K. (1995). “Teacher Inquiry Groups: Collaborative Explorations of Changing Practice.” In Barbara Scott Nelson (Ed.), Inquiry and the Development of Teaching: Issues in the Transformation of Mathematics Teaching. Center for the Development of Teaching Paper Series (pp. 47-56). Newton, MA: Center for Development of Teaching, Education Development Center, Inc. Hoefler, J. M. (1998). Dickinson Summer Seminars Program Evaluation for 1990-1997. http://physics.dickinson.edu/~wp_web/wp_resources/wp_evaluation.html. Jackson,D.P., Laws, P.W. and Franklin, S.V. (2002). Explorations in Physics. New York, John Wiley & Sons. Laws, P.W. (December, 1991). “Calculus-based physics without lectures,” Phys. Today 44,(12), 24-31. Laws, P.W. (1997(1)).Workshop Physics Activity Guide, Modules 1-4 w/ Appendices. New York, John Wiley & Sons. Laws, P.W. (1997 (2)).“Millikan Lecture 1996: Promoting active learning based on physics education research in introductory physics courses,” Am. J. Phys. 65, 14-21. Laws, P.W. and Pfister, H. (1998). “Using digital video analysis in introductory mechanics projects,” The Physics Teacher 36, 282-287. Martin-Kniep, G. O., Sussman, E. S., & Meltzer, E. (1995, Fall). The North Shore Collaborative Inquiry Project: A Reflective Study of Assessment and Learning. Journal of Staff Development, 16(4), 46-51. McDermott, L.C. (1991). “Millikan Lecture 1990: What we teach and what is learned—Closing the gap,” Am. J. Phys. 59, 301-315. McDermott, L.C. and the Physics Education Group at the University of Washington. (1996). Physics by Inquiry. New York, John Wiley & Sons. McDermott, L.C. Shaffer, P.S. and Vokos,S.(1997(1)). “Sample course on Physics by Inquiry.” In The Changing Role of Physics Departments in Modern Universities: Proceedings of the International Conference on Undergraduate Physics Education, University of Maryland, College Park, 1997, edited by E.F. Redish and J. Rigden, pp. 989-1005. Woodbury, NY, American Institute of Physics. McDermott, L.C. Shaffer, P.S. and Vokos,S.(1997(2). “Sample course on Tutorials in Introductory Physics.” In The Changing Role of Physics Departments in Modern Universities: Proceedings of the International Conference on Undergraduate Physics Education, University of Maryland, College Park, 1997, edited by E.F. Redish and J. Rigden, pp. 1007-1018. Woodbury, NY, American Institute of Physics. McDermott, L.C. and Redish, E.F. (1999). “Resource Letter PER-1: Physics Education Research,” Am. J. Phys 67, 755-767.

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McDermott, L.C., Shaffer, P.S. and the Physics Education Group at the University of Washington. (2002). Tutorials in Introductory Physics, First Edition. Upper Saddle River,NJ, Prentice-Hall. PASCO Scientific, http://www.pasco.com. Redish, E.F.. Saul, J.M. and Steinberg, R.N. (1997). “On the effectiveness of active-engagement microcomputer-based laboratories,” Am. J. Phys. 65, 45-54. Redish, E.F. (2003). Teaching Physics with the Physics Suite. New York, Wiley. Schifter, D. L., and Fosnot, C. T. (1993). Restructuring mathematics education: Stories of teachers meeting the challenge of reform. New York, NY: Teachers College Press. Sokoloff, D.R. and Thornton, R.K. (1992). Tools for Scientific Thinking—Motion and Force Curriculum and Teachers’ Guide. Second edition. Portland, Vernier Software. Sokoloff, D.R. and Thornton, R.K. (1997).“Using interactive lecture demonstrations to create an active learning environment,” The Physics Teacher, Vol. 35, pp. 340-346. Sokoloff, D.R., Laws, P.L. and Thornton, R.K.(1998 (1)). RealTime Physics Module 1: Mechanics. New York, John Wiley & Sons. Sokoloff, D.R., Laws, P.L. and Thornton, R.K.(1998 (2)). RealTime Physics Module 2: Heat and Thermodynamics. New York, John Wiley & Sons. Sokoloff, D.R., Laws, P.L. and Thornton, R.K.(2000). RealTime Physics Module 3: Electric Circuits. New York, John Wiley & Sons. Sokoloff, D.R. and Thornton, R.K. (2004). Interactive Lecture Demonstrations in Introductory Physics. New York, John Wiley & Sons. Sokoloff, D.R., Laws, P.L. and Thornton, R.K. (2004). RealTime Physics Module 1: Mechanics, Module 2: Heat and Thermodynamics, Module 3: Electric Circuits, Module 4: Light and Optics. New York, John Wiley & Sons. Thornton, R.K. and Sokoloff, D.R. (1990). “Learning motion concepts using real-time microcomputer-based laboratory tools,” Am. J. Phys. 58, 858-867. Thornton, R.K. and Sokoloff, D.R. (1993). Tools for Scientific Thinking—Heat and Temperature Curriculum and Teachers’ Guide. Portland, Vernier Software. Thornton, R. K. (1996). “Using large-scale classroom research to study student conceptual learning in mechanics and to develop new approaches to learning.” In Microcomputer-Based Laboratories: Educational Research and Standards, Series F, Computer and Systems Sciences, Vol. 156, Robert F. Tinker, ed. Berlin, Heidelberg, Springer Verlag, pp. 89-114. Thornton, R.K. (1997) “Learning physics concepts in the introductory course: Microcomputer-based labs and interactive lecture demonstrations.” In Conference on the Introductory Physics Course, J.W. Wilson, ed. New York, John Wiley & Sons , pp. 69-85. Thornton, R.K. and Sokoloff, D.R. (1997). “RealTime Physics: Active Learning Laboratory.” In The Changing Role of Physics Departments in Modern Universities: Proceedings of the International Conference on Undergraduate Physics Education, University of Maryland, College Park, 1997, edited by E.F. Redish and J. Rigden, pp. 11011118. Woodbury, NY, American Institute of Physics. Thornton, R.K. and Sokoloff, D.R. (1998).”Assessing student learning of Newton’s laws: The force and motion conceptual evaluation,” Am. J. Phys. 58, 858-867. Thornton, R.K. and Sokoloff, D.R. (1999). Microcomputer-Based Interactive Lecture Demonstrations (ILDs) in Force, Motion and Energy with Teachers’ Guide. Portland, Vernier Software. Vernier Software and Technology. http://www.vernier.com. Workshop Physics, Dickinson College. http://physics.dickinson.edu/~wp_web/WP_homepage.html.

SCIENCE AND TECHNOLOGY: WHAT TO TEACH? Jon Ogborn, Advancing Physics project, University of London Institute of Education, UK What’s the problem? It is common in human affairs to know the answer before seeking the reasons. And arguments in favour of science and technology in the curriculum do often look like reasons seeking to justify a foregone conclusion. We know that we want science and technology to play an important role in the curriculum: all that is left is to find good-sounding reasons why. While such self-interested arguments may impress those involved in science education; they will not always impress others. Those responsible for the shape of the whole curriculum do not necessarily start with a built-in disposition to favour science and technology. They want good and

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sufficient reasons. And if change is demanded they want those changes to address real and specific problems. From time to time it is in fact necessary to take apart inherited justifications, and think them through again. This is such a time, but because we have now experimented with science and technology in the secondary curriculum for all pupils, and the old justifications have worn thin when rubbing up against the daily realities. There are two problems to be addressed. One is the mis-match between the science and technology on offer in the curriculum, and the needs and concerns of those who are obliged to study them. The second is the very poor fit between claims made for an education in science and technology, and the results it seems possible to achieve in reality. Especially, there is need to deal with the awkward fact that science and technology, taught to the many, are things only practiced by the few. The point of teaching science Science is a minority activity A central fact about science is that it is actually done by a very small fraction of the population. The total of all scientists and engineers with graduate level qualifications is only a few percent of the whole population of an industrialised country. Thus the primary goal of a general science education for all the population cannot be to train this minority who will actually do science. A larger proportion have jobs of various technical kinds which use a variety of scientific ideas, so a further possible component of science education is a training in such technical know-how. This however is open to doubt: technologies change rapidly, and much technical work involves following rules rather than solving problems. The most we can ask for is a certain technical self-confidence. Nor is it easy to sustain the claim that everyone, in our technological world, needs a scientific background to understand how washing machines, refrigerators, radios, computers and TV sets work. Commercial technology puts a lot of effort into making it not necessary to understand the workings of its technical artefacts. Indeed, technologies often make the science and technique behind them as invisible as possible. Nevertheless, there must be a role in science and technology education for technical know-how, if only because many more people will use that in their lives and work than will become makers of scientific knowledge. Teaching to ‘be scientific’ A common retreat in the face of these arguments has been to suggest that the goal of teaching science should not primarily be that of teaching scientific ideas, but should be that of teaching pupils to ‘be scientific’, to teach them ‘scientific method’. ‘Process’ is then given priority over ‘content’. This line of thought falls apart under the intolerable weight put upon ‘scientific method’; something nobody can satisfactorily describe in detail. There is no Royal Road to ‘being scientific’; all there is in general is a determination to find ways of thinking about physical reality to which no serious alternative can be (for the time being) entertained. What there is in addition is a host of techniques, all tied to particular scientific ideas and theories, which constitute the craft resources of scientists. Making a bacterial culture properly, separating pure substances, or measuring with an appropriate sensitivity, are the kinds of activity that make up the methods of science, together with appropriate forms of mathematical analysis and modelling. Knowing in order to value What claims can then decently be made for science in the school curriculum? First, the achievements of the sciences have been, over the past three or four hundred years, to tell us important and interesting new things about ourselves and the world we live in. They by no means tell us everything, or even the most important things, which we want to know about the world. Their special character is to offer knowledge that can be relied on for action. And this reliable knowledge is also much more than a compendium of things that happen to have been observed: it presents the world under quite novel guises, saying that things are in reality often not at all as they seem to be.

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The many surprising stories that science tells about how things are include: • that diseases are caused by micro-organisms invisible to the naked eye; • that heritable traits are carried by a chemical code; • that species have all evolved from simpler organisms; • that the forces which hold materials and molecules together are basically electrical in nature; • that the many varied substances we see around us are made up of different re-arrangements of the same few particles; • that we live on a rocky ball with a hot interior which circles the Sun; • that the Universe had a beginning in a huge explosion. Such stories are a substantial contribution to our culture. So powerful an impression has scientific knowledge created in some minds that it has been wrongly thought of as ‘the only true knowledge’, forgetting the large number of things in the world which we do not at all understand in this way (the sin of scientism). Thus there is a need for people to learn about science, both to participate in a culture to which it substantially contributes, and to be aware of the scientistic traps of overestimating it. This means recognising clearly that the value of scientific achievements is not settled in advance by the fact of their being scientific: once scientific knowledge is achieved it still remains to decide what value to put on it. But to make this valuation needs knowledge; in ignorance the achievements of science are frequently either grotesquely over- or under-valued. And of course such valuations of scientific knowledge are not matters of consensus and reliable knowledge: they are just what they seem to be - matters of opinion about which there can be debate. The question at issue is the interest and utility of the many different sorts of scientific knowledge, which will not all be judged in the same way by everyone. Note that I do not here mean deciding if the knowledge offered is well-founded or not, but deciding what if any value to put on it. In doing so, it will not be possible to avoid considering knowledge to which one might attach the highest value if we had it, but which we do not in fact have. “How do our brains work when we think?”, is one such example. And there may be well-founded knowledge one may reasonably judge to be trivial. It is in this kind of way that the limits of scientific knowledge could come to be addressed, and that pupils could be led to consider how they will choose to regard the achievements of science as part of their culture. It is sometimes said that education in science is needed in a democracy for people to judge the areas of investigation to which they want resources committed, and to evaluate the ensuing results. Valuable though an informed public opinion is, this proposal obviously suffers from a degree of optimistic unreality (in a world in which a US Senator could speak in Congress of ‘the supercolliding super-conductor’). It would I think be fairer to say that knowing enough of the science of the past to evaluate it should have the higher priority. The other might even follow more realistically from such a goal. This way of thinking about science in education, as knowledge needing to be known sufficiently to be attributed a value, also helps us avoid an insidious trap which ensnares much educational thinking and school practice. Pupils pass hourly from classes in one subject to classes in another, and (after the primary school) each teacher of each subject seems to be charged with the duty of saying, “Be like me!”. Each subject claims to show you how to be a member of that particular community. Looking back, we can see that this process has its main effects in its seeming failures. Although each of us may be pleased and proud to be an X (scientist, linguist, literary critic, geographer or mathematician), we are also very content and sometimes even proud not to be a Y or a Z. In particular the claim not to understand science is too often a proud boast, not an admission. Of course the teacher of a given subject will often rightly want to be its advocate, and to put the case for its worth. But to translate that into an aim for each subject to produce pupils who are all in some part X’s, Y’s and Z’s is pointless and self-deceiving. It is not honest for science education to pretend to ‘make each child a scientist’. However, it is also essential to realise that forming judgments is not only a matter of being well-

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informed, but is also a matter of consulting developing tastes and feelings, and of having those tastes and feelings educated. Thus it is important that science is taught in such a way that pupils can feel something of what it might be like to do science. They need chances to be ‘a scientist for the day’, in this very particular sense. And in the sciences this means, not trying out being ‘a scientist’, but trying out being one of the many different kinds of scientist, sensing the very different rewards and problems of the varied kinds of knowledge-making gathered for convenience under the title ‘natural science’. These differ so much, and appeal so differently to different people, that it does nobody any service to pretend that they are all the same. Thus we need to look for variety, not uniformity, of experience of what the sciences are like. Teaching about science The upshot of the above arguments is that a good part of science education for everybody has to be teaching about science, not the beginning of a training to do science. There is a place for activities which are in some way like doing science, since a way to develop a taste for and to arrive at a judgment of the value of an activity is to try doing something which models doing it. But it does mean giving up the notion that we are teaching most pupils to ‘be scientists’ or to ‘be scientific’. It follows that a good part of science education has to be devoted to popularising scientific knowledge and to giving popularised accounts of how that knowledge was established. This idea goes against the grain of the way many of us think about teaching science. A common idea is that the task is to provide through experiment and demonstration evidence that establishes an idea, so that pupils may be rationally convinced of the correctness of the ideas being taught. ‘Learning’ is thus set equal to ‘rational conviction’. On the view of science argued for here, this is just impossible. Secure knowledge is arrived at in science through long and patient cumulative work, within a social structure directed towards achieving that security. And it has often been noted that the school experiment or demonstration designed to ‘establish’ or ‘test’ an idea generally does no such thing: the outcome is a foregone conclusion, ‘wrong’ results are immediately discounted, alternative explanations are swept aside. The event is more like a ritualised witnessing than it is like the making of knowledge. I argue, however, that this is no bad thing, if the aim is instead the effective, even dramatic, communication of ideas. Experiments and demonstrations then have a quite proper rhetorical role, in illustrating and dramatising a story about how things are or how they work. What then of learning how scientific knowledge is made? Just because reliable scientific knowledge is arrived at in a slow and complex process of extended work, one needs to distinguish clearly between communicating the outcome and laying bare its basis. And laying bare its basis requires, not a few ‘clinching’ experiments in which alternatives are denied and mistakes are discounted, but - in some selected examples - talking or working through the process itself, in which alternatives are examined, and in which trouble is taken to account for discrepancies and anomalies. This can clearly not be done all the time, but it does need to be done some of the time. And the reason to do it is not that pupils’ beliefs in certain ideas will then acquire a rational basis, but is to let them know, through this limited experience, what is required to arrive at the kind of certainty that can sometimes be achieved in science. The prejudice against telling scientific stories about the world without showing exactly what justifies them means that we defer, usually until much too late, some of the more interesting and fundamental ones. Biology perhaps offends least, including DNA and heredity; physics perhaps offends the most, avoiding talking about fundamental particles, fields, radiations, space and stars until after most pupils have abandoned the subject. It seems to me that one way to get used to the ‘ontological zoo’ (the ‘inhabitants’ of scientific ‘worlds’) is to hear stories which involve its inhabitants. And this is also a way to grasp what is involved in scientific explanation; that it departs from commonsense explanation, in seeking to explain that which for commonsense purposes is taken as given and is indeed used to explain. Of course such stories must raise the question, “Who could believe such a thing?”, but it is not always necessary to offer the grounds of belief before describing what people believe.

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Technical competence and know-how A dimension of equal importance to knowing the main stories which science has to tell about how the world works, is that of technical competence and know-how. It is central to the scientific culture that it is a culture of action and doing. Scientific realism is sustained by action on the world. Besides the practical benefits of being able to join in a ‘do-it-yourself’ spirit in the technical culture, is the importance of the values, pragmatic and aesthetic, of being able to do things well. The key here is the development of confidence and self-esteem. Abilities worth learning include the obvious domestic ones of wiring plugs, repairing plumbing, keeping food safe, and reading electricity and gas meters. They extend to choosing and using a camera, to maintaining a car, to calculating the size of radiators needed to heat a room or to working out the cost-benefit of insulating the roof, and to knowing enough to understand the labels showing the contents of food packages or medicines. They certainly include understanding of diet. Beyond these are competencies in the use of scientific instruments: how to focus and use a microscope, how to connect and use ammeters and voltmeters, how to test for the presence of important chemical substances, how to check drinking water for bacterial contamination. In addition, much more importance than has previously been given ought now to be devoted to the use and functioning of information technologies: telephone, fax, radio, television, electronic mail, and the use of computers. It is tempting to focus too much on instruments and artefacts. There is also crucial know-how about ourselves and our bodies, knowing how to maintain health, avoid disease, and how to cure or treat minor complaints or injuries. There is valuable know-how about how to treat animals and plants, caring for them and getting benefit from them. School science ought not to be above a little petcare and gardening, and where possible some farming. And there is know-how about the environment, including both how to deal with it by way of making shelters or purifying water, and how to avoid damaging it unnecessarily. In all this the emphasis can usefully be much more vocational than has been common. Often such know-how has been treated mainly as ‘applications’ of scientific principles, with the stress much more on understanding the principles than on competent performance. When this is done, the ‘applications’ are made to seem secondary and relatively unimportant. It seems likely that the rapid increase in vocational qualifications being witnessed at present will have a beneficial influence on how we think about practical competence and know-how, particularly in showing how practical use in a context can be an organising principle for a substantial fraction of the curriculum. Such courses start from practical tasks and useful competencies, giving their accomplishment priority over ‘principles’. And in this way, school science might link better to further education. The science curriculum If the science curriculum is to be attractive it needs to focus on questions which are of importance and interest to people. Why else should they listen? It also needs to exhibit the most important members of the scientific ‘ontological zoo’, which will be the main actors in many of the stories which there are to tell. And it will need to provide opportunities for experiencing a good variety of kinds of science and of methods and techniques, particularly those in which the sciences have developed important new ways of being rational about the world. Questions that matter By no means all scientific world-pictures connect with fundamental basic human concerns in which everyone is interested. There can be no pretence that science is designed just to answer the big questions we all want answered, when in fact it is designed instead to answer those questions which can be answered. But some scientific knowledge does touch large human concerns, suggesting five themes: • life • matter • the Universe

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• the made-world • information These are all areas of potential interest to many, they are all areas where the sciences have something fundamental to say, and together they display a good deal of the variety to be found amongst scientific ideas and thinking. Another essential reason to address questions of importance to people is to motivate the necessary task of describing the ‘ontological zoo’ of science. Inevitably the inhabitants of the zoo seem strange, so it is important that they are shown to play an important part in stories which explain something about: • who we are and where life came from, • what the stuff of the world is like ‘inside’, • how the Universe is built and how it may have begun, • how we have shaped the physical world around us, sometimes for the better • how information transmitted and reproduced underlies both communication and the nature of life. Finally, if we address questions that matter, and not just questions we can answer, we will be driven to confront the limits of scientific knowledge, and to consider what value to give to that knowledge which we have. The nature of life The most truly startling fact behind the immense variety and complexity of forms of life, is that underneath there is a great simplicity. There is one mechanism of inheritance, the replication of DNA or related molecules, behind the continuance of all forms of life from bacteria through trees and insects to ourselves. Their variety and complexity derive from evolution. Evolutionary change, resulting in what looks like the designed complex functioning of for example eyes and brains, is not a process tending towards specific goals, but is driven by selection from variety provided by random genetic change, in an environment also modified by previous evolution. Evolution is unlike the classical laws of physics in being an historical phenomenon. The biologist studies what happens to have happened, not what must have happened. Reasons and explanations may only be possible after the event, so providing excellent opportunities for thinking about what can and cannot be explained. Further, evolutionary thinking is special in taking us away from the individual organism to reason at the level of populations of organisms. Huxley’s phrase, ‘ the survival of the fittest’, is often wrongly used to refer to individual survival. Together, these are amongst biology’s more important contributions to rational ways of thinking about the world. Biology is also important in raising crucial ethical questions about how living organisms ought to be treated, and about what limits we ought to set on how we investigate them. And this is related to the inter-dependence of living organisms; organisms rely on each other to survive but are also shaped by competitive evolution. Biological investigation can often link closely to the commonsense world in which we eat because we are hungry and do things for a purpose. But such commonsense thought is quickly challenged. Colonies of ants can show complex and flexible organisation even though each individual has only a tiny repertoire of automatic behaviour. The question of what purposive behaviour to attribute to a cat or a dog is both complex and profound. Serious diseases can be caused by bacteria too tiny to be seen with the eye, whilst the nature of viruses challenges our very notion of what it is to be ‘alive’. This variation in scale, in which there is a whole living world ‘inside’ the human-scale living world of commonsense, provides an important introduction to the same changes of scale as we go to the world of atoms and molecules. Evolution offers another lesson about scale; about time-scales. Commonsense knows what is possible on human time-scales, but finds it hard to appreciate the qualitative difference that scales of hundreds of millions of years can make. Just as it is hard to imagine mountains built and destroyed, or continents moving, so it is hard to imagine the scale of change that can be wrought by evolution, given enough time.

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In commonsense thinking, the possibility of autonomous action is a basic feature of human and other living things. In much of biology, this category of commonsense thought does not seem to be challenged. But in the end it is. It is made more complex by an understanding of the nervous system, and of voluntary and involuntary actions. And ultimately it has to be understood in terms of the supply of free energy which organisms acquire through feeding or photosynthesis, and which is delivered where action is needed by such chemicals as ATP. Much more remains at best partially understood, especially how actions are determined upon in the brain. The commonsense idea of freedom of choice of action has as yet no scientific explication, and philosophers debate whether it ever could have. The nature of matter The scientific world-picture of the nature of matter is again one in which all is not as it seems. Behind the appearances, in which there are a great variety of kinds of matter each with its own arbitrary properties which make it what it is, lies a level at which kinds of matter differ in the arrangement and bonding together of not very many different kinds of particle. It is common, but I think quite wrong, to argue for delaying any talk of atoms and molecules until rather late in the secondary science curriculum. They are such crucial inhabitants of the ‘ontological zoo’ that to ignore their existence until the last moment makes no sense. Rather, we need to accept the challenge of telling the stories of tiny worlds inside our commonsense world, and of making those new microscopic worlds as vivid as possible. A good way to start is with lenses and microscopes as early as the primary school, looking at pond life, at sweat coming out of pores, at the fibres on the edge of torn paper, at snow melting and so on. The stories told in biology about bacteria help go down a further level. And nowadays there can be scanning tunnelling microscope pictures of molecules on the surface of materials, to show that they are really there. Science education has been at fault in the past in dealing with far too little of the variety of kinds of matter: looking mainly only at metals and gases. A lot of experimentation and play with ceramics, glass, wood, plastics and rubber as well as metals, and with water and other liquids, is needed. Many stories can be begun about what makes materials differ. Strong irregularly arranged bonds in ceramics make them crack easily. Long coiled molecules in rubber and plastics which unwind when they are stretched, which is easy to do. Faults in the molecular arrangement of metals make them ductile so that we can shape them. Strong fibres in wood let trees bend in the wind without breaking; the model for modern glass-reinforced plastics. Looking at and trying to imagine what is going on in physical changes is crucial: watching ice and wax melt, watching water boil, watching water drops evaporate on a warm surface and watching them condense on a cold one, for example. Air and other gases present the hardest feat for the imagination, since their reality as physical substance seems so tenuous, and the pressure of our atmosphere is not so obviously detectable. A good way to induce a sense of reality is to act on things, suggesting work on air with pumps, fans and vacuum cleaners. The marvel of chemical change is that one substance can turn into another and back again. There is iron hidden in rust-red rock; there is oxygen and hydrogen hidden in water; there is sodium and chlorine hidden in common salt. And their behaviour changes as they combine. We cannot breathe water though there is oxygen in it, and we are not poisoned by salt though there is chlorine in it. Besides the fact that matter can change, by re-arrangements of molecules and exchanges of energy, we need to understand which changes can happen under what circumstances. The key idea here is that of difference, the direction of changes always being such as to reduce a difference (that is, to increase the total entropy). Of course, differences can be created, otherwise we could not exist, but only at the expense of destroying a larger difference. It is not always the simplest molecules that are the easiest to understand. The ‘lock and key’ mechanisms of many biological molecules are rather readily intelligible; for example the way haemoglobin is folded around iron atoms so as to have a pocket ready to trap an oxygen molecule. Certainly lots of pictures of molecules of interesting substances ought to be permanently around in

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the science classroom. See for example Peter Atkins’ beautiful Scientific American book Molecules. The question of the nature of matter raises in its strongest form the problem of scientific explanation. Whereas in commonsense explanation, the world contains a variety of substances each with its proper behaviour, the scientific world picture adds a layer in which what was previously used to explain becomes that which is to be explained. To explain how a metal can bend or how ice can melt, we cannot appeal to bending or melting, but must invoke stories that are nothing to do with bending or melting. So we must populate the world with new entities - atoms, molecules and bonds - which participate in new kinds of stories of which bending and melting, or chemical change, are the outcomes. Historically, stories about the fundamental particles of matter - quarks and leptons - have not formed part of science education at school. Nor, even more so, has the move in quantum theory in which the ideas of particle and field merge, bringing together matter and energy as two faces of the same thing, and losing the commonsense distinction between an object and the actions it makes. Just what can be done here is a matter of current debate. The nature of the Universe From the commonsense point of view, the Earth is the place we live in; the frame within which our activities are set. It cannot move, because it is the background against which movement is understood to occur. Thus in the commonsense conception the Earth is necessarily static and placelike. When Copernicus set the Earth going around the Sun, he did much more than set the Earth moving. He changed its fundamental status, from being a static place within which things move, to being itself a moving object like any other. This is an enormous imaginative step, radically changing the basic nature of that which we thought we knew best, our immediate physical surroundings. Our houses, fields and towns become patches on the outside of a moving spinning rocky ball. Most pupils’ imaginations are easily defeated by this shift. People being upside-down on the other side of the Earth is bad enough; what is worse is the idea that all this is moving without anything to make it move and without any sensation of movement. A consequence is that the idea of movement itself, another fundamental category of commonsense thought, has to change. In commonsense thinking, actions cause movements and movements do not happen without a cause, whether it be the action of a living thing or a push or pull on an object. But now there is movement, of planets and moons, which has no cause. In Newton’s mechanics this shift of thought gets worse, because for Newton all movement has no cause. So shocking is this that we never dare say it directly in school physics, putting it in the form, “All bodies acted on by no net force move in a straight line for ever”, which is however barely less unacceptable to commonsense. That a train travelling at constant velocity is acted on by no force seems ridiculous. It really does now seem clear that the attempt to teach Newton’s laws of motion in the context of everyday movement on the Earth is doomed to failure. A few students learn how to make the right calculations, but even graduate physicists revert to commonsense if asked to think qualitatively about motion. The best hope seems to be to introduce the ideas in the context where they can make some sense, that is in accounting for eternal motions in the heavens. Calculations for cars and trains would be better done with energy flowing in from a power source and out via friction. Accelerating a car is then to be seen as getting kinetic energy into it whilst losing as little as possible. There is an unaccountable tendency for teaching about the Universe to stop at the Solar System, as if 150 million kilometers or eight light-minutes is the largest distance we dare imagine. Primary teachers are expected to convey ideas about the rotation of the Earth and its movement around the Sun, as accounting for day and night and for the seasons. We have just seen what an imaginative leap this requires; a fact that has too rarely been admitted. But matters usually stop there, with nothing said about the birth, life and death of stars; about the formation of planets; about the making in explosions of supernovae of the heavy elements without which the chemistry of life can not get started; nothing about galaxies and clusters of galaxies; nothing about the expansion of the

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Universe; and nothing about its origin in a hot big bang whose remnant radiation is detectable now as a microwave background. It cannot be right that these stories, fundamental to understanding the scientific perspective on where we and everything around us came from, are left untold. They, together with the theory of evolution, constitute a profound challenge to natural human anthropocentrism. Whether one likes them or not, whether one finds them bleak or inspiring, they are what the sciences have to say about how human beings fit into the Universe, and to ignore them is to live in a lop-sided culture. To think about the Universe is to disturb the commonsense idea of what is normal. Commonsense normality lives with: • temperatures of about 300 K; • densities of around one kilogram per litre; • a gravitational field of 10 Newtons per kilogram; • energies of bonds made and broken from a few to a few hundred kilojoules per mole; • a length scale from millimetres to perhaps kilometres; • a time scale from seconds to years. Typical events in the Universe are very different: • temperatures from near absolute zero in space to millions of degrees in stars; • densities from a few particles per cubic kilometre to a neutron star with the mass of the Sun in a region a few kilometres across; • gravitational fields in black holes strong enough to tear matter apart; • enormously strong nuclear bonds; • distance scales on which a year’s journey of a beam of light is negligible; • time scales up to tens of thousands of millions of years. It is often said that these are all unimaginable, but the human imagination is not so poverty stricken. It is a duty of science education to find ways of educating the imagination to help take them in. The made-world Science, being intimately bound up with action on the world, has a close relationship to technology. The two interact powerfully and subtly, each feeding and living off the other. Scientific work such as that of Faraday has given us nation-wide electrical power networks. Technological developments, from the telescope to radar through steam engines, have yielded new fields of science to explore. Computer technology continually opens up new technical and scientific possibilities. Together, technology and science play a crucial role in shaping our societies. Because of electricity, the day is extended into the night, both allowing everyone more time for work or play, but also permitting twenty-four hour shift working. In consequence, mass production of goods has radically changed the nature of employment. Science and technology have altered the nature of warfare, making it more and more destructive and ‘efficient’. The end of warfare has been announced more than once, following the invention of weapons - from the Colt pistol to the nuclear bomb - which it was expected would make war too terrible to contemplate. Too often, the social impact of science and technology are trivialised in school science into a celebration of the beneficent effects of growth in scientific knowledge, technology being presented almost exclusively as ‘the application of scientific principles’. The technology most favoured for discussion is often the latest high technology, from biotechnology and genetic engineering to computing and communications. The subtle relations between science and technology are I think better seen in more familiar examples, including medicine, agriculture, building and the provision of clean water. In many such cases, the technology came first and the science afterwards - if at all. Much technology still rests at the level of craft and know-how. Nor is the language of technology simply the language of science taken over for practical use. There is often very little overlap between technological and scientific language, technological language being a language in the service of immediate practical action and judgment.

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In school science, a good initial focus, starting in the Primary School, would be the development of agriculture and cities. The shift from a nomadic to an agricultural way of life produced huge social changes, forcing the invention of new social structures as people came to live close to one another in fixed places. A higher population density led to new ways for diseases to spread, and to requirements for ways to distribute food and water. The technology of water purification and distribution would repay detailed study, showing important changes from the beginnings of civilisation up to the present day. So would the development of agriculture, changes in which have several times induced large shifts in social structure. We should not forget that the origins of astronomy were in part due to the need to forecast the seasons for agriculture, or that the origins of geometry lie in the need to measure land and construct buildings according to plan. Other technological systems of importance are building and transport. The strengths and characteristics of building materials provide a valuable way of looking at the mechanical behaviour of matter, and the fact that stone bridges built to carry horse traffic now carry diesel trucks indicates the importance of safety margins built into engineering designs. Girder and suspension bridges, easily modelled in the classroom, introduce clever ways of building strong structures from the minimum of material. Transport systems, and machines using gears, levers and pulleys, provide a concrete way of thinking about forces and energy, and the dissipation of energy through friction. The heating of homes and the distribution of electricity are good ways to think about energy transfers. What is needed here is plenty of solid technological information, with facts and figures. What power does the engine of a Channel Tunnel train need to have? How much energy is lost through the non-insulated roof of a house, and what does it cost? Technology is in many respects closer to commonsense thinking than is science, being closely concerned with immediate action and with outcomes and understandings that obey the criterion of being ‘good enough’ for the context and the occasion. A large part of science teaching can usefully start here, in biology with agriculture, health and diet, in chemistry with the making and designing of useful forms of matter, and in physics with materials, energy and power. But, when technology is put first, science teachers begin to worry about whether the scientific principles will get adequately covered. Further, the scientific background to a given technical problem is not always simple even when the problem is simple: the science behind a technology is necessarily as difficult as it happens to be. For example, painting a wall seems simple enough, yet requires the paint to be both liquid and solid under different conditions, if it is to flow on the brush but stay put on the wall. Paint must be a ‘non-Newtonian’ liquid, with a viscosity which depends on the rate of shear - a topic usually reserved for university study. This means that the technology has often to be studied in its own terms, and not as ‘science with ulterior motives’. In the past we have given science pride of place, but should now be making the two much more equal. In particular this means giving attention to the language of technology, which often deals with scientifically difficult matters in its own pragmatic way. It also means giving much more value than usual to technical know-how: to home wiring layout as well as to how to wire a plug, to simple plumbing, to the care of animals and plants, to nutrition and diet, to cooking. Other technical know-how, such as papermaking, dam building, applying fertilisers and pesticides, and manufacturing dyes, drugs and plastics, are worth studying more at second hand, linked to visits and field work where possible. It is not, I think, possible to attract every student equally to the great ideas of science. Giving technology greater importance is one way of diversifying the attractions of a popularised science education. Nor should this be seen as second best: the scientific habit of mind is quite wrong in its tendency to dismiss technology as ‘not really fundamental’. It is strongly connected to science, but it is also radically different from science. Information Our century has seen the development of a new cluster of sciences and technologies, concerned with the transmission, storage, processing and replication of information, which have yet to find a

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secure place in the school curriculum. Amazingly, they are invisible to the eye of the curriculum planner. Yet they underlie our understanding of how biological organisms reproduce themselves and how their form and their behaviour is controlled. They provide the framework for understanding channels of communication from telephone lines through satellite transmission to fibre-optic cables. They are the basis for understanding the nature and functioning of computers. They offer some future hope for understanding how brains work. They are needed to evaluate means of predicting and forecasting, from the weather to the economy. And, like other technologies, they are re-shaping our social world yet again. In schools, computers have often gravitated towards the mathematics department, giving mathematics teachers useful and salutary experience of the intransigence of physical and technical artefacts, but not in that environment realising their full potential. In school science, sound and electromagnetic radiation are still taught as means of transmitting energy rather than information, with the stress too much on their physical nature and too little on how information is coded into their signals. Nothing is said about channel capacity, or rates of transmission of information, for example by telephone and by TV transmission. No link is made between the storage capacity of a floppy disk and the time it takes to transmit the information on it. No comparison is made with the information stored in a human chromosome, nor with the numbers of errors to be expected when such information is copied. In fact, daily practice has out-paced the school curriculum. The secretary who does word processing or data-base management knows the language of files and storage, of bytes and megabytes, better than the school teacher appears to do. Home computer games generate and process visual images; the mechanisms of image processing are largely foreign to the curriculum. Telephone callers experience the time delay due to the finite speed of propagation of electromagnetic waves, but the topic is reserved for a later stage of education. Allied to all this are the attractive and more traditional topics of the recording of sound and images on laser-readable disks and magnetic tape, and of ways of reproducing them with maximum fidelity. The importance of the aesthetic aspect of information handling should not be neglected. Our information-rich societies are increasingly reliant on collecting, storing, accessing and handling large amounts of information. To put a credit card in a machine in a foreign country and draw cash from a bank at home no longer seems even novel. The frequent arrival of personalised advertising mail, seemingly out of the blue but actually generated from a data-base sold to the advertiser, has come to seem a banal nuisance, but of course actually raises large questions of social control. The possession of detailed information about every citizen is rightly a matter of political debate. All this has an important scientific-technical basis. Crucial to understanding how we attempt to control the vicissitudes of the future is the notion of modelling, including models for weather forecasting and models for economic forecasting. At least we now know why weather forecasting can never be made reliable beyond a few days, if the reasons for the failings of economic forecasting remain more obscure. School science and mathematics stays too close to those few very simple models which can be dealt with through analytical methods, and pays far too little heed to models which require computational numerical methods, which (paradoxically, it seems) are often easier to understand. There are many ways in which computers can be used for modelling. One is computer simulation of discrete events and their interactions, which may involve computational logic. Another is the cell automaton, recently adapted for modelling in school science. Work on information, codes, errors, and signals has led to considerable development in rational ways of thinking about systematic and random phenomena; work which began in the eighteenth century in the development of ideas about probability and statistics, but which has been greatly augmented in our own times. Of particular importance is the subtle notion of randomness or noise. And there is a crucial link to the way in which we understand the direction of physical processes, as based on the random behaviour of molecules. Increase of entropy (decrease of difference) can alternatively be understood as loss of information.

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In short, there are many ideas in the varied fields related to information which are at present treated, if treated at all, in a scattered and variable way in a number of different areas of study, in statistics, in biology, in physics and chemistry, and in computing, and which now deserve to be brought together much more clearly. Learning science Many theories of the learning of science draw their inspiration, and gain a semblance of conviction, by relying on some idea of the nature of science. For example, theories which stressed ‘discovery’ as essential to learning science relied on a simple empiricism in which scientific knowledge could be read direct from the face of Nature. They gained appeal from assimilating the task of learning to the task of finding knowledge, so that the student’s learning could be seen as the same activity as that of the scientist. It thus became essential to such theories to regard the discovery of scientific knowledge as an individual matter of interacting directly with physical reality through experiment and observation. And it could be left to Nature to do the teaching, since the learning process of becoming convinced of an idea was seen as the same as the discovery of finding an idea. Learning was seen as simply a matter of becoming persuaded of an idea because it was plainly the case; the ‘certainty’ of scientific knowledge became transmuted into the rational conviction of the learner. At least we are now clear that this is all nonsense. More traditional views of the learning of science appeal no less to ideas about the nature of scientific knowledge. A common view is to see scientific knowledge as a clear-cut, explicit and ‘logical’ account of how things are, so that teaching science is essentially a matter of laying out definitions, facts and their consequences with the greatest possible clarity. Failures to learn are, from this point of view, usually attributed to lack of clarity on the part of the teacher or to inattentiveness on the part of the student. The theories of Ausubel and Gagné, requiring scientific knowledge to be carefully analysed prior to any teaching into hierarchies of logically interdependent categories, and then to be taught in such a logically pre-planned sequence, fall into this mode. Learning is still understood as a process of the learner becoming rationally convinced, but now by the power of a logical system of thought. The roots of all this in the logical-positivist description of scientific knowledge are plain to see. And, again, we know that it doesn’t work. Logic cuts little ice with the pupil’s imagination. Constructivist views of learning stress the active role of the learner’s intelligence, and the interaction of things done and said in the classroom with what the student already believes. Learning here tends to be seen as ‘making sense for me, here and now’, and this has led some to deform the nature of doing science so that it too can be seen in the same way. In its less acceptable forms, constructivism places the whole burden of learning on the learner, and tries to justify this absurd act by making it seem an epistemological necessity. Science is in some ways an oddity, so far as theories of learning are concerned. Just because scientific knowledge has a substantial degree of certainty, and has achieved a measure of independence of persons and context, it easily seems that learning science is simply a matter of becoming rationally convinced of this knowledge in the same way as the scientific community has become convinced of it. There seems to be no need for rhetoric, for persuasion. Thus it is I think that theories of learning science have modelled themselves too closely on ideas about the sources and growth of scientific knowledge itself, tending to ignore the wide gulf that there is between the making of new knowledge and the learning of established knowledge. In the more extreme cases, learning is seen as just a kind of recapitulation of the making of knowledge. Luckily essentially nobody acts consistently on such a view, or would openly uphold it, but in various often weakened forms it still influences teaching. Facing the difficulty of science It seems to me essential that we face up to the necessary difficulties of learning science, and do not attempt to wish them away. Science is difficult to learn for a number of reasons. One is that many

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of its explanations necessarily run counter to, or even undermine, commonsense everyday knowledge, particularly when what to commonsense knowledge are basic facts are turned into that which is to be explained. Another is that the close and detailed work needed to establish any area of scientific knowledge leads to this work being done in a tight and specialised community which has need to make fine and careful distinctions. Thus there grows up a considerable technical vocabulary, in which terms have special and restricted meanings which differ from the meanings given to similar terms in everyday life. A third difficulty is that many of the sciences rely heavily on formalised models to aid thinking, and that in learning such formalisms it is often difficult to draw on commonsense knowledge to help one along. All the above difficulties are matters of common currency, though it is rarer to hear good ideas about how to deal with them. Less commonly stressed, but in my opinion at least as important, if not more, are the huge imaginative leaps which learning science requires. Vulgarising science Some of the difficulties of learning science can be addressed by regarding much of teaching as popularisation. The term in French for the same thing is ‘vulgarisation’, which to the Anglo-Saxon ear forces into the open the challenge this notion presents. Few teachers will feel confident in the role of populariser, and many will feel that it undermines the very standing of what they have to teach. Yet such a role follows inevitably if science education is to be given to the whole population, making science available to all as the Vulgate made the Bible more widely available. The only alternative (one to some extent being adopted at present) is to strip science of everything that makes it difficult and to arrive at a curriculum of just those things which it seems possible to teach without excessive pain. This is thoroughly destructive, not least because it omits much of what science has to say which is of basic importance and interest to human beings. It must be better to seek ways of teaching about science, which in popularising it mitigate or avoid some of the difficulties but at least recognise their presence, so that the important and interesting stories can be told in some acceptable form. Science should feed the imagination To tell any of the scientific stories successfully - to popularise them - is necessarily to try to excite the imagination. The inhabitants of the ‘ontological zoo’ have to have life breathed into them through analogy and metaphor. Their strange goings on have to come to seem a natural part of how they are. Attempting to do this obliges the teacher to do something of the first importance, often largely neglected. This is to talk about the fundamental qualitative nature of scientific entities; that a gene is a tiny localised packet of information; that molecules move forever without reason; that fields fill empty space without blocking the path of anything, and so on. Science offers opportunities to stretch the imagination in very specific and important ways. And that these are the special ways in which it stretches the imagination, is an important lesson to learn about what science has historically turned out to be like. One way is to dive down inside matter to smaller and smaller scales, from the body to cells and microbes, to shapely protein molecules which lock and unlock doors, to molecules and atoms, to electrons and protons, to quarks and leptons. The first stretch of the imagination is simply one of scale; to have some idea of how big and so of how numerous things are at each level. The second is to find that the inhabitants at a lower level are not miniatures of those at a larger level, but are cut from very different cloth. Where they explain what is going on higher up, they do so indirectly. This imaginative stretching to smaller scales can begin in the primary school, looking at dirty pond water with a hand lens, and the primary teacher should know that this activity is preparing important imaginative ground for later on, and should say so. A second way in which science stretches the imagination is by going up in scale, both in time and space. Stories of evolutionary history are one way to begin, as are stories of the stars and planets. And here the essential lesson is the development of scientific rationality through the progressive removal of anthropocentrism from scientific thinking. Yet another essential imaginative leap of

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science is to have made space active, filling it with invisible fields. Television is less mundane than people imagine, as indeed ‘seeing at a distance’ ought to be! The imagination needs feeding on a more modest scale too. To watch snow crystals melt with a hand lens and to ask whether the water is to be thought of as coming out of the ice, or as forming on the ice, or whether the ice is turning into water, is such an exercise in imaginative thinking. So are watching dye diffusing into water, watching water droplets condense on a glass of cold water, watching wax melt, and watching wood burn. And so is observing animal behaviour and noticing our tendency to project our own desires and purposes onto them. One of the best is to watch the Sun set, and to try to imagine the horizon coming up to cover the Sun instead of seeing the Sun going down behind the horizon. Children often suppose that imagining the world really to be radically different from the way commonsense imagines it is simply a species of madness. For just the same reason, they find history peculiar, thinking of past modes of thought as simply absurd. This does not at all mean that they find imagining things difficult. Concrete modes of thought give plenty of access to new imaginative worlds, through metaphor and analogy. What they have to understand is that science tries to make tight connections between free-flowing imagination and stubborn reality; that the game is to suppose that what has been imagined really is so. This suggests a role in science teaching for fantasy, asking children to imagine things in whatever ways they can, and then to see what happens if those imaginings are taken seriously as suggesting how things really are. Play with theory An essential component of science is its tool kit of ways of thinking and modelling situations. It needs to be seen as the imagination at play, working out the consequences of imaginative moves. Oddly, the most imaginative aspect of science is widely thought of as the least imaginative. It is the matter of formalisation; of creating a finite set of formal objects and rules, which dance to tunes we decide for them. That science uses such resources is a part of its rationality, and as much effort needs to go into making them accessible, attractive and easy to understand as needs to go into doing the same for other scientific ideas. Thus a popularised science is by no means a science without mathematics; rather the contrary. The advent of the computer makes it much easier to play with theory, and the computer itself - a machine which obeys rules we ourselves provide for it - makes an excellent concrete representation of the idea of formalisation. If a mathematical system exists wholly on pencil and paper, it is very hard for students to distinguish between the effort needed to work out the consequences of a set of rules, and the work needed to choose or create a formalism. The effort of calculating obscures the effort of formalising or modelling. With the computer, the two are separated, and much of the effort of calculating is taken over by the machine. But the effort of telling it what and how to calculate is not. Such computer models need not involve any difficult mathematics. Young pupils think most readily, as they do in commonsense thinking, with objects and the events that the objects’ behaviour creates. So a natural beginning is with computer modelling which provides objects which are given rules of behaviour. Thus if objects representing rabbits are told to create another ‘rabbit’ when there is space near them, the ‘rabbits’ breed until they fill the screen. If objects representing a species of pond life are told to jump about the screen at random, frequently in one region (‘no food’) and less frequently in another (‘rich in food’), they congregate in the ‘food rich’ region without being told to do so. If objects representing molecules are told to jump about at random, they invariably diffuse to fill all the space available to them, however they are started off. Objects representing molecules that can combine or dissociate find an equilibrium that is the same whatever the initial concentrations. A very striking fact about such models is that very simple behaviour given to each object is enough to create quite complex features of the overall behaviour of a set of objects. Crucial lessons about the virtues of simplicity in modelling are there to be learned. The natural tendency to add more and more ‘realistic’ detail is one often to be resisted.

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Understanding how scientific models are made involves another leap of imagination. One has to pass from thinking of the world as divided into objects and events, as it is in commonsense, to seeing it as analysed into variables. People become population densities, pushes become forces, amounts of stuff become concentrations, a bright light becomes a luminous flux. So basic to the scientific imagination is this step, that we have got into the habit of ignoring it and of not noticing the difficulties it presents to younger pupils. And these difficulties are compounded by having to learn, at one and the same time, the idea of the strategy of thinking about variables, and the mathematical devices needed to combine them and to calculate with them. Help is on offer from computer programs which can express interactions between variables without requiring relationships in algebraic form. The work of science One of the hardest tasks we have to set ourselves is to exhibit the nature of the extended work involved in the production of new realities. Lulled by the Cartesian myth of certainty built in from the bottom by ‘correct’ use of ‘scientific method’, we have too often presented scientific work as a simple and short path from hypothesis through test to conclusion. What is missing are the crossconnections, the interventions elsewhere of any entity we take to be real. And what is also missing is the essentially social nature of the enterprise. This calls for substantial historical work, showing the twists and turns of argument and experiment, generally over many years, as a new idea comes to fruition. There cannot be many such examples in any curriculum, but there must be some. Good work on collecting examples has been done over many years, and the issues have been widely discussed. But developing more and better examples than we have is still an important task. Such historical accounts need also to be matched with examples from investigations in the classroom, if the reality of the process is to be internalised at all. This means extended investigations, not by individuals, but by groups, with results and ideas being presented, amended, checked and counter-checked. Again, such experiences will necessarily be few, but the need for them cannot be avoided. Somehow, model versions of the social process of science need to be recreated in the classroom. Investigations need to be done and re-done. Explanations of them need to be formulated and discussed, looking for inconsistencies with other things that are known, and then checked through further experiments. Above all, alternative accounts need to be proposed, and attempts made to eliminate all but one. It is here that the essential importance for science of writing can emerge. Often, the requirement to write about experiments strikes younger pupils as an unnecessary imposition. “I saw it happen; why write it down?” And we should recall that commonsense thinking is most often oral, not written. Why is writing so important to science? One reason is the need to externalise ideas so that they can be criticised. Another is the complexity of what can happen in reality, and the consequent need for carefully designed experimentation, so that describing or planning a scientific experiment generally puts too great a burden on oral communication for it to bear. And a third is the need to record so that later work can build on earlier. Striving to transcend the immediate context means finding ways to express ideas, which can be carried from one context to another. How to conclude? Throughout, I have argued that science makes a special kind of link between what we can imagine and what we take to be real. Science emerges from taking seriously the simple and obvious thought, that although we can think whatever we like, we cannot do whatever we like. The task for science education is to communicate both the startling imaginative range of what science draws from the first, and the toughness and security of the knowledge it has gained by the slow hard work of systematically confronting the one with the other. The central point is that the teaching of science needs to convey that the development of science is not inevitable, and that its achievements are hard won, historical, contingent achievements, to be

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valued just in so far as one values the particular knowledge which has been constructed. How to retain both the sense of the practical certainty of some of the knowledge we have, and the sense that it was humanly made in actual historical circumstances and could not have been, seems to me to be the core of the issue. The sciences we have are just what, contingently and historically, we happen to have. The main reason for learning about them, which should determine how they are taught and learned, is to enable people to form judgments of their worth. A few will join the future process of making more scientific knowledge; if we are successful most will be in a better position to evaluate for themselves the very special addition to culture and rationality which the sciences happen to have provided. And we should hope that more taste the pleasures of the startling insights into reality that the sciences can offer.

REVITALIZATION OF THE LABORATORY ACTIVITIES AND INTEGRATION OF THE SUBJECT INTO THE POST-GRADUATE EDUCATIONAL PHYSICS PROGRAM Gorazd Planinsic, Physics Department, Faculty for Mathematics and Physics, University of Ljubljana, Slovenia 1. Introduction Description of the situation Education programs are subject to changes and University programs are no exception. The pace of changes of University programs depends on many factors ranging from the competition and the way how the University is financed (from the state or from the tuitions), to political reasons, such as current changes in Europe that resulted in Bologna process. In general, changes in University programs are introduced in small steps, though the frequency of these steps may vary, as said before. In the past, the situation at the Department of Physics, University of Ljubljana was very stable, almost static over decades. The main reasons were: • University education in Slovenia is state financed. Any attempts for the changes in the programs faced huge administrative barriers. • There was almost no internal competition: the Department was practically the only place in the country to study physics. • High quality of teaching staff and intensive collaboration with the research institutions in the country and abroad resulted in the high level study program, which was directly comparable to similar programs around the world. Since the original program was very good, there were no big demands for changes until recently. The situation started to change after Slovenia became independent and entered the process for joining EU. Our Department was among the first to adopt the system of credits (ECTS) and started the preparations to implement the Bologna directives. In the near future a sequence of changes in the study program is to be expected, that will not be only cosmetic in nature. In this paper I report about the first step in this direction – the revitalization of an existing experimental subject at undergraduate level. The new concept of the subject is aimed at developing given competences in the students through concrete steps in appropriate units. In addition I present the integration of the same undergraduate subject into the training process of the post-graduate students on Educational Physics program. We believe that this combination creates synergies between both study levels. Obvious economic efficiency of the proposed combination is also appreciated, though it was not the central motivation behind the idea. 2. Revitalization of the ‘Laboratory skills ‘ Old structure and the goals of the subject The subject called Laboratory skills was part of the study program since the very beginning. As written in the syllabus from 1963 the old goals of the subject were

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• to acquire skills for preparation and construction of experiments and tools • to learn how to handle and repair simple instruments • to learn how to do basic measurements • to expose individual to independent practical work The subject included 3 hours of work per week, was taught in the first and second year and was compulsory on most of the courses. Students typically worked in groups of ten. About 100 students per year attended the subject and this number did not change until today. Each group went through the sequence of separated units (referred to as ‘skills’) and each unit was covered in 9 hours (3 h times 3 weeks). Each group went through the same units, but since units were cyclically changed the order of units was different for each group. This prevented the construction of a coherent structure of the subject that would enable logical linking of the units and accomplishment of the final report, the lack of which was certainly one of the major drawbacks of the old scheme. The subjects was graded in the same way as other subjects, though the objectivity of grading the Laboratory skills was always questionable because of the group work character and the fragmented structure of work in units that were typically led by different instructors. (Note that in addition to Laboratory skills there has always been another classical experimental subject called Practicum, which extends over first three years of undergraduate studies. At this subject students are required to accomplish predefined physics laboratory experiments during their individual work.) The original role and the evolution of the subject can be better understood if we look at the descriptions of some units. Back in 1963 we find the following list of units: • Glass blowing and etching • Mechanical workshop • Electrical wiring • Black and white photography • Handling of mercury First changes appeared in 1985, when some outdated units were replaced with modern ones, but the structure of the subject and the goals remained more or less unchanged. At that time the core of the subject represented the following units: • ACAD, ORCAD • Mechanical workshop • Printed circuit boards • Digital photography • HTML, LaTeX, Mathematica In 1998 a new unit, called Project laboratory was added to the list, and it later proved to be a seed unit and a test field for today’s structure of the subject. At Project laboratory student groups were given specific tasks but no detailed guidelines how to complete it. They had three weeks time and a limited support from department workshop to complete the work but there was no requirement (i.e. no time) for the report at that time. New goals and new structure In the beginning of 2002 a new structure of the whole subject was set. The main goals of Laboratory skills have been redefined in accordance with new European higher education directives and can be summarised in the following points • fostering the development of science-transferable skills, • exposure of the students to circumstances that are similar to those in the real life situations. Within the given subject this goals are achieved through the following concrete steps • give students well defined problem but no initial hints for the solution; give them time for preparation and brain-storming • require role assignments within the team • confront students with the constraints of the project (time, equipment, money, help from the workshop...)

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• let students to take their own approach (but guide them when they get lost) • require a final report It has been argued that the old name does not describe adequately the essence of the new subject, but for now we concentrated on the content and left the renaming for the next step, which in our case still requires far more than a simple formality. New structure of the subject The main difference is that instead of spending the time in separate units, each group of students spend the semester on completing a given task (project). Overall number of hours and teaching load remained unchanged. The work of each group of students work is performed in the following four steps, 1. preparation and brain storming (1week) 2. practical work (3 weeks) 3. data analysis and composing of web report (3 weeks) 4. finalization (up to 3 weeks) of which the second and the third step take place at the Department at specified time and location but the responsibility for the completion of the first and the last step is entirely left to the groups. In the new form the subject is graded on the pass/ no pass base. In order to pass the subject the full-time presence in the second and the third step is required as well as on-time completion of a web report. As indicated above some work in the new scheme has been transferred to the time outside formal teaching hours. This gives students more freedom but also more responsibility in respecting the deadlines. All the groups that worked under the new program during the last year completed their tasks on time and showed that they have been able to self-organize outside the school time, as expected. The shift of some work to the time outside the school made space for the following improvements: • number of students in the groups was reduced from 10 to 7 (4 would be ideal number) • time and space has been created for selected facultative short lectures or workshops on specific skills that have been taught before and are still regarded as useful (ACAD, Mathematica, electronic circuits design...) An important part of the program is development of competences and science-transferable skills. These are achieved through solving concrete problem with lot of freedom to choose How to do it, but under well defined external constraints, similar to those met in the real life. The main constraints and related competences/skills are summarised in the following table Constraint

Competence, skill

Knowledge base (1st and 2nd year students)

Efficient use of all the group potentials; role assignment;

Time limit (18 hours in-school time)

Time management; planning

Group work (7 students/group)

Communication; tolerance

Limited help from the Dept. Workshop

Planning, communication

Limited extra budget 20 EURO (optional)

Money and material management

Among the listed constraints the time limit has perhaps the major effect on the choice of the projects. Note again that the experimental part of the project should be completed during the 9 inschool hours (though it is not unusual that highly motivated groups spend additional time to complete the work or improve the results outside the school time). An important novelty for us and for the students was also moving to almost entirely electronic way of dissemination of the material and presentation of the reports. The answers to the web Questionaire (see below) show that the majority of the students prefers this way of communication.

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The short period for project completion requires the choice of relatively simple projects. This has another advantage: with some simplifications many of this projects can be used in high schools as laboratory exercises or a base for research projects and therefore they have additional pedagogical value. Projects The choice of the project is one of the crucial points. It is not easy to find the projects that can fulfil the constraints listed above and be attractive at the same time. Sharing the successful project ideas between the departments (as proposed by Christian Ucke from Technical University Munich, during the Udine Seminar), would help a lot. In general it is not recommended to choose modified versions of standard Laboratory projects that students meet in conventional labs and mainly require a lot of systematic (i.e. boring) measurements. Here are just a few of the papers sources of good project ideas that proved to be most useful for us Journals: Physics Education, The Physics Teacher, American Journal of Physics Books: J. Walker: The Flying Circus of Physics, John Willey & Sons (1977); Berkeley Physics Course (3 volumes) McGraw-Hill, (1968) - Home experiments. Of course a lot of project ideas can be found on the web but often this source become really useful as a reference, once the main idea is formulated and a number of questions appear. However, there is a web page that needs to be exposed as an excellent resource for project ideas. As pointed out by Gunnar Tibell, Uppsala University at Udine Seminar, the problems given each year at the International Youth Physics Tournament (see http://www.sfz-bw.de/iypt/iypt.html) fit extremely well into the Project laboratory scheme presented here. It is hoped that in future both sides will benefit from sharing the experiences and ideas, as proposed by Tibell. Several good project ideas appeared when we chatted with other colleagues from the Department, with physics teachers and with colleagues working in industry. And finally, more and more good ideas are initiated by the senior students and post-graduate students, as will be explained later. Project descriptions often begin with “Measure...”, “Design and test the experimental set-up ...”, “Design a demonstration experiment that will show...” and sometimes includes extensions such as “......suggest and try two (or more) different methods...”, “......compare your values with...”. The preparation part of practical work usually goes through the following three phases: • Finding the ”right things“ (containers of specified dimensions, computer fans, bulbs, LEDs, rubber tubes, electro motors... .) • Putting the things together (fixing stands, using glue-gun, soldering wires, cutting tubes, drilling holes for the screws... .) • Collecting the required instruments from around the Department and learn how to use them (power supplies, all kind of meters (multi-meters, thermometers...) or computer interfaces with sensors, amplifiers, laser pointers, oscilloscope... .) In each of these phases the project instructor (also called ‘demonstrator’) has an important role. The instructor has worked on the problem her/himself, so she/he knows one solution but her/his role is to help students accomplish their solution, which may not be the same as instructor’s solution. The instructor works more as a coach who intervenes when the team goes in a wrong direction but as long as the work is on the right path she/he stays at a side. In our case the instructors may be post-graduate students of Educational Physics course, teaching assistants, or assistant professors. The indispensable part of the equipment is a digital camera, which help students to document their project work and make the design of their web report prettier and easier. Our project ideas (in English) from last year can be found at the following address: http://student.fmf.uni-lj.si//fiz/projlab/_arhiv/2002_03/obvestila/Udine2003/

The Web Questioner On the last day of in-school meeting the students are asked to complete short, anonymous web questioner about their work. The post-graduate students on Educational Physics program prepared

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the draft of the questioner. In the first place the feedback information from the questioner helps us to choose more suitable project ideas but also to better prepare the instructors. 1.year, 2.sem. (spring 2003) %(N=40)

2.year,1.sem. (fall 2003) %(N=24)

How do you evaluate your contribution to the final result? same as others less than others major part

80 10 10

79 4 17

How would you evaluate the final result of your team? we have done more than it was required we have completed the task we have not completed the task

32 48 20

4 96 0

What do you think about your project task? interesting, just right difficulty not interesting interesting but too easy interesting but too difficult

63 17 3 17

71 21 0 8

Compare the electronic (internet) and classical (paper) way of dissemination of material and information at this subject. electronic is better equal classical is better

70 25 5

67 25 8

What do you think about your team? majority contributed something to the final result perfect, efficient, coherent team some were working, others waited for the end this was no team

68 25 5 2

50 42 8 0

The short summary of answers from two semesters is given below. Though the sample was rather small, the improvements seen by comparing the two columns have been observed also in practice. This year we had about five students that came and asked if they can take the Project laboratory again though they have already passed the subject or the subject was not required on their course. 3. Integration of the Project laboratory into post-graduate Educational Physics Program Post-graduate Educational Physics program at Department of Physics in Ljubljana runs since 1964. Nowdays the program includes the following subjects that are distributed over the two-year period: • Didactics of physics • Topics from classical physics • Physics of matter (Soft matter, Solid state, Optical methods) • Workshop physics • Projects from experimental physics • First selected subject from other post-graduate physics courses • Second selected subject: psychology, pedagogy or philosophy • Seminar The bold typed subjects are compulsory but the final selection of the subjects should sum up to 90 credit points. The optional subject called Workshop physics is linked with the undergraduate subject Project laboratory (extensively described in the previous paragraphs) in the following way. During the lectures on Didactics of Physics with Projects the role of the Group experimental work in school is extensively discussed. The specifics of undergraduate Project laboratory are addressed

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and students are encouraged to propose their ideas for future projects. Those students that decide to take the Worksop physics (usually the majority) are first requested to work through the chosen project by themselves. If the project proves to be suitable for our purpose (in the light of the constraints presented in the previous paragraphs) then a student writes the instructions for the project. After that he/she takes the role of the instructor and works with the group of undergraduates during the three weeks of their practical work. During the next three weeks groups work with another instructor. In this part they learn the basics of web page design while completing their web reports. Though the post-graduate student does not work with them during this second period, she/he is available to the group for the consultations. Once the project is completed and the web report is accepted, the post-graduate student has to write the report in which she/he gives a detailed analysis of the work of the group. The reports are later discussed and used as valuable feedback information for future. The post-graduate students are graded on the pass no-pass base for this subject. Instead of the Conclusion The presented revitalization of the undergraduate subject and integration of it into the postgraduate Educational Physics Program was a small step in the chain of many “natural” processes that are about to occur on many Universities in Europe in the near future. We believe that the presented approach may be a good model of how to make a first step. More collaboration in this field would encourage many Departments to make these steps.

THE PRE-SERVICE PHYSICS TEACHER EDUCATION MODEL IMPLEMENTED BY THE FFC RESEARCH PROJECT INVOLVING 8 ITALIAN UNIVERSITIES: GUIDELINES AND PRELIMINARY RESULTS Rosa Maria Sperandeo-Mineo, Physics Department, University of Palermo, Italy [email protected] Many conferences and papers have documented a growing dissatisfaction with the quality of physics teaching and learning and have called for widespread changes in objectives and in practice of teachers and learners. Moreover, many papers on teacher education report that pre-service teachers bring to teacher education coursework a subject-matter understanding very different from the kind of conceptual understanding that they will need to develop in their future pupils. This has been shown in many fields of science education [1, 2], and physics in particular, where it is well documented [3] that the procedural understanding of physics, that pre-service teachers typically exhibit in university physics courses, is not adequate for the teaching of physics according to many proposed innovations involving deep changes in contents and pedagogical methods. This mismatch points to the need to transform and deepen prospective teachers’ understanding of subject matter, and to redirect their traditional ways of thinking about subject matter for teaching. This paper describes the guidelines and some preliminary results of the physics teacher preparation model developed within the FFC (La Fisica per la Formazione Culturale) Italian Research Project, supported by the Italian Ministry of Research and Education (MIUR). The project involves 8 research groups of different Universities: that is the majority of the university groups involved in research on physics education in Italy. They are constituted by university researchers and experienced teachers (in many cases collaborating with the Universities from many years). The focus of the Project [4] is on the finding out components of teaching and learning, that are essential to a cultural transmission in scientific areas (in particular, physics and mathematics), and on supporting both planes of understanding, and motivation to understanding. Its aim can be schematised as follows:

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• The production of a model-proposal for the construction of paths (PERCorsi) of development of the basic culture in physics (knowledge, competences, motivations) at all levels of preuniversity schooling; • The production of a model-proposal for the university pre-service preparation (FORMazione) at university level of teachers of primary and secondary school. The model also involves possibilities of implementation in settings of in-service training. By synthesizing, the first objective is mainly connected with the implementation of new approaches to physics teaching, and the second one with the physics teacher preparation, though the two aspects are strongly interacting. Given the topic of the Seminar this paper will focus mainly on the second objective. It is structured in three parts: 1) The theoretical underpinning; 2) The guidelines and characteristics of the Project’ approach; 3) Some preliminary results of experimentations of the teacher preparation model and the main conclusions. 1. The theoretical underpinning In order to understand the background of the model of teacher preparation implemented by FORM, the structure of pre-service teacher preparation in Italy is briefly described. To teach in secondary schools (both lower and upper level) all teachers must possess a disciplinary university degree, usually 4 years for Mathematics and Physics, 5 for Engineering. After the degree, prospective teachers acquire their professional preparation through a two years Specialization School that requires an entrance test, given the programmed number. Consequently, the Specialization School presumes that the disciplinary preparation of prospective teachers has been completed during their disciplinary degree. Then, teacher training usually consists in scientific courses involving disciplinary didactic, history and epistemology of the discipline and courses about education. The experience accumulated in the first implementation of the Specialization Schools shows that such hypotheses are generally not adequate, in Physics as well as in many Scientific Areas. This for different reasons, mainly depending from the following facts: • The knowledge of the discipline supplied by the university curricula is focused on contents (laws and theories); processes which characterise the discipline and connections with the real phenomena are very soon effectively disregarded. • Teaching methods of degree courses, usually, involve a teaching approach based on a lecture format; experimental science courses include some laboratory activities, often restricted to the verification of regularities and laws presented during the class periods. Trainee teachers assume this kind of direct learning experience as university students, as the guideline of presentation of the discipline. Then, it has been considered necessary to offer examples of teaching and learning approaches based on different methods and strategies. Moreover, the new pedagogy assigns new roles to teachers: that is a teacher that has to transform himself or herself from being a ‘dispenser’ of knowledge to being a ‘coach’ managing the evolution of student skills and shaping their knowledge [5, 6]. Can we suppose that trainee teachers make alone this transformation? Our hypothesis is that it is relevant the need to offer direct experience of these new roles. As a consequence, our research project has been structured by taking into account a twofold aim: • From a theoretical point of view, we aimed to gain a better understanding of factors which either promote or hinder the development of good teaching practice. • Moreover, our study aimed to contribute to the research-based design of physics teacher education courses. The starting point of FORM-Project is the awareness that models of pre-service teacher preparation are strictly correlated with approaches (methods, strategies and contents) of the physics to be taught. If our main aim is in modifying the physics teaching approach by a procedure of transmission of consolidated knowledge to the implementation of teaching/learning

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environments where teachers, manage and support the pupil’s processes of knowledge construction, we have to be involved in deep modifications of the structure of the teacher training courses [3, 5]. We assumed that in order to communicate new knowledge and new behaviours, we need teachers’ training strategies that build the new knowledge on the previous one. Many research results report that there is a close parallelism between how the change occurs in pupils’ scientific conceptions and how a change in the conception of teaching can be produced [1, 7]. In fact it has been shown that: • teachers who learn in a different way may be oriented to teach in a different way; • well founded change in teachers’ didactic activity involves also a conceptual change. Many researches have tried to analyse what science teachers know and what they do, in their classrooms. Different kinds of knowledge and competencies have been recognised as relevant. They are very difficult to factorize or separate in well defined groups. A picture that can, perhaps, capture them and their relationships is that of a net where, as first order approximation, regions of similarity can be pointed out and evidenced, but not enucleated from the context.

Fig. 1. The recent literature and many reforms in the field of science teacher education suggest that teacher preparation has a “threefold structure with the anchoring points being teachers Subject Matter Knowledge (SMK), Pedagogical Knowledge (PK) and Pedagogical Content Knowledge (PCK)” [8]. The idea of a tripartite structure can be found in many papers, starting from some Shulman’s papers, where these domains of knowledge are represented as separate but interacting [9, 10].

Among the many characteristics of the teacher’s Subject Matter Knowledge analyzed in the literature our project focuses on : • The quality of knowledge (focusing on conceptual knowledge and on the analysis of the relationships between qualitative and quantitative understanding). • The procedural knowledge (focusing on experimenting, modelling procedures and analysis of the relationships between problem solving and problem posing). • The knowledge about Science (focusing on the relevant points of the historical development and their sociological accounts). • The epistemological framework (in the sense of clarifying what is the nature of the entities constructed by Science to explain “facts”, laws and theories). In the area of Pedagogical Knowledge our project focuses on the need to make explicit some relevant elements of the adopted cognitive model, as for example: • to know is a building process (mainly a process of making connection among existing individual knowledge and new information); • it is context dependent (it depend on the context, including pupils’ mental states); • it needs scaffolds (that is, it needs supporting tools). Many researches have tried to analyse what can be defined as Pedagogical Content Knowledge.

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Perhaps, the Shulman’s [10] definition is, up to now, the best definition, since it acknowledges the importance of the transformation of the subject matter knowledge per se, into subject matter knowledge for teaching . He described PCK as: “…representations of ideas, powerful analogies, illustrations, examples, explanations, and demonstrations….. including an understanding of what makes the learning of specific concepts easy or difficult: the conceptions and preconceptions that students of different ages and backgrounds bring with them to the learning.” (Shulman, 1987). Our project is focused on some components of PCK, like: • To supply different representations of a given content that are suitable for teaching. • To connect these representations with appropriate and coherent teaching strategies (this is a very important point, very soon we suppose that our teachers become constructivist through lectures describing constructivism). • To focalise on pupils’ common-sense knowledge and learning difficulties in the different physics fields. Methods and strategies implemented by FORM can be described in a context of teaching learning environments schematised by figure 2. These are structured in such a way to involve

The Teaching/Learning environments for Trainee Teachers Fig. 2

Trainee Teachers (TTs) in activities focusing hands-on learning and metareflection, by stimulating them to explicit their mental representations and the involved explanation-building processes through negotiation in collaborative inquiry [11]. Moreover the setting is such to make TTs experience the same learning environments they are supposed to realise in their future classrooms. Appropriate pedagogical tools (often based on ICT) are supplied, in order to help them in conceptualising and in gaining the abilities connected with experimental and modelling procedures. The core of the project is made up by a set of operative tools that we have called “Work-Packages for teacher preparation”. Each WP is focused on a given field of physics, or a given set of phenomena, or a given approach, or a teaching/learning strategy . They are supposed to constitute a guide and a resource tool for teacher trainers, although not a rigid and prescriptive series of guides. They present a self consistent proposal for a teaching learning approach in a given field, but with clear indications about the links with other fields. In fact, teacher knowledge and competencies in a given field must be framed in a unitary background of what physics is and how it operates. Obviously, the WPs prepared by the various research groups are different in many aspects, but all share some common characteristics: the pathways for their structuring and implementation. The staring point has been the attempt of interlacing the fields of the specific physics content and that of the teaching/learning problems, by making transparent these inter-connections and the

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consequent choices. In each content specific area, concepts and conceptual schemes, the underlying constructs, the epistemic accounts, have been analysed and connected with the results of research involving the pupils’ conceptions and representations, the path-ways of reasoning, what is known about the context dependence of learning, the constructivist approach and so on……. As a consequence, the WPs, product of such analysis, contain: • examples of teaching/learning sequences that discuss the links with the global rationale of the approach; • the rationale of the scaffolding tools and support materials (many work-packages introduce Informatics Tools, as cognitive tools); • the learning knots and the ways are they faced; • the critical teaching details (that is, what can seem a detail but in effect is a critical point for a correct understanding); • teachers’ common problems in classroom implementation. Actually, the physics fields explored involves topics of classical physics as well as topics of quantum physics. Others are in preparation. However, the project does not intend to be exhaustive, but to prepare prototypes containing the necessary elements to orientate TTs toward the construction of an appropriate Pedagogical Content Knowledge. Concerning the classical physics, the topics explored are the followings: • RTEI: Real Time Experiments and Images, (E. Sassi and co-workers, University of Naples) involving the study of Motion and Forces focusing on the use of the PEC (Prediction Experiment Comparison) learning cycle and exploring a phenomenological approach from complex real phenomena to ideal cases. • A first approach to Thermal Processes (M. Michelini and co-workers, University of Udine) aimed to a first multidisciplinary introduction to thermal property of matter, starting from hot/cool sensations to thermal processes and focusing on heat and temperature concepts. • PROTERM: from Thermal Processes to Entropy (R.M. Sperandeo-Mineo and co-workers, University of Palermo) mainly aimed to correlate macroscopic properties of matter to microscopic models, in order to describe and explain thermal processes from a microscopic point of view. • The different forms of internal energy (L Borghi, A.De Ambrosis P. Mascheretti, University of Pavia) reporting a deep analysis of microscopic models that can describe the different forms of internal energy (not only in gases but also in solids and liquids) and aimed to a better understanding of the First Principle of Thermodynamics. • The Generalised Kinematics (M.Vicentini University of Rome and R.M. Sperandeo-Mineo University of Palermo) aimed to present a possible unitary description of phenomena belonging at different fields of physics, in which a process starts by triggering a removal of a constraint. It focuses on the different steps of this unitary approach: the pointing out of the relevant physical variables, the experimental singling out of the variable relationships and the searching for a unitary explanation. In the field of quantum physics, the project studies different approaches evidencing different points of view. Their main objective is in stimulating TTs in rethinking, from different perspectives, their previously acquired knowledge. • The first approach (C. Tarsitani, University of Rome) can be characterise as phenomenological and exhaustive: - it points out that some phenomena cannot be explained without quantum mechanics and radical changes in the representation of physical systems; - it introduces a new conceptual and formal structure (the mathematical theory of linear transformations) as a typical transversal tool which unifies, at least formally, different sectors of physics. • The second approach (S. Rinaudo, University of Torino) is mainly oriented to outline the historical evolution from Classical Physics to Quantum Physics and from Quantum Physics to Quantum Mechanics by pointing out continuous paths and conceptual/ methodological jumps. It is focused on the Feynman’ paths approach.

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• The third approach (G. Vegni and M. Giliberti, University of Milano) is focused on the field concept by re-thinking the classical physics from this point of view and by pointing to the Quantum Theory of Fields. It presents a coherent approach, not necessarily chronological, in fact, some recent experiments are described. • The forth approach (M. Michelini and co-workers, University of Udine) can be called “Approaching Quantum Physics following the Dirac’ path”; it is focused on the concept of quantum state and on the superposition principle and introduces an easily understandable formal mathematical formulation (that is,Vector Spaces and Linear Operators). Two kinds of experimentations have been performed: the first one involving the authors of the WP and their students; the second one involving different Universities. The validation procedures have been based on the analysis of data collected from a variety of sources: • open answer tests • logbooks of the Trainer and Observers (when present), • the analysis of TTs’ worksheets and other empirical material prepared by TTs , • the final task, where the TTs were required to design Learning Activities, inspired to the WP rationale, and to test them in class practice, during their apprenticeship work. Moreover, TTs were requested to prepare a portfolio: a dossier built by the TTs’ including the results of their individual work as well as comments about the structure of the presented materials. It gave us information about the ways TTs perceived the proposed approach and the proposed activities and tools. 3. Preliminary results and conclusions The analysis of the experimentation results is in progress. However, some preliminary conclusions can be drown by comparing the experience of the different groups and analysing these on the light of the literature’ results. Our research induce us to put forward several inferential claims, that are important for teacher educators and subject-matter specialists: 1. Exemplary teaching practices, that wishes to take into account the new role of teachers, necessarily include the interaction of SMK, PK, and PCK. 2. A constructivist philosophy is required to fully “appreciate” the interplay among these three different kinds of knowledge and their role in teaching and learning. 3. The nature of such interaction may be, sometime, counter-intuitive to our notions of teaching. In fact, it is many times shown that an increased emphasis on SMK does not necessarily affect instruction; rather, it is more likely that an adequate PCK can influence SMK. Our results, as well as some results reported in literature [12], give a picture of the development of Pedagogical Content Knowledge that calls into question some implicit assumptions of research. In fact, PCK involves a transformation process, but this transformation does not seems the same that Shulman described. PCK construction does not involve only knowledge of pedagogical presentations, of instructional strategies and of pupils’ preconceptions or learning difficulties. It is not a unidirectional shift from subject-matter to pedagogical content knowledge: in fact, PCK development is not always a matter of directly converting any kind of existing subject matter knowledge. Often, TTs need to embrace a different notion of what understanding physics means, and this requires a fundamental shift in their notion of what to know physics entails, at conceptlevel as well as at epistemic-level. We need to consider that the key ideas in teaching high school physics tend to be centred upon the experiential world and knowledge background of learners (usually called the common-sense knowledge). Moreover, the key ideas of physics, learned in the university courses, represent its logical and formal structure in the final forms of the scientists’ understanding of the subject matter at the present time. The knowing of concepts or principles of a higher level theory does not ensure a sound understanding of concepts, principles, analogues and representations belonging to the

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world of actual objects and commonsense experiences. In fact, to know the theories reported in the physics books does not mean to have a clear understanding of physics as a set of procedures and results useful to know reality: i. e. what Dewy, as first, and recently many epistemologists have called Physics as a Cognitive Theory[13]. Our results, as well as results reported in literature, show that this usually does not occur, but the two planes, experiential and theoretical, often are maintained separated in the TTs’ representation of the reality. These findings strengthen our starting point: the need to explicit what kind of physics is the physics to be taught. In fact, it is almost indubitable that how teacher educators/researchers define SMK has important implications for how TTs define, analyze, and develop their PCK. This involves that the programming and implementing teacher preparation courses preliminarily need clear and detailed answers to question such as: how the key ideas in the discipline are related to the key ideas in teaching. By synthesizing, our main result rests on the observation that the transformation of knowledge is not a one-direction process, from subject matter knowledge (SMK) to pedagogical content knowledge (PCK), as sometime the literature suggests. On the contrary, this transformation appears to be founded on a dialectical ‘‘interaction’’ between trainee teachers ’conceptions of subject matter, and appropriate pedagogy. In fact, the construction of a subject-matter pedagogy (PCK) needs relevant changes in the knowledge of subject matter itself (SMK) and these changes play the role of trigger this construction process. References [1] [2] [3] [4] [5] [6] [7] [8] [9] [10] [11] [12] [13]

Mellado, V. (1998). The classroom practice of preservice teachers and their conceptions of teaching and learning science. Science Education, 82, 197–214. Zuckerman, J. T. (1999). Student science teachers constructing practical knowledge from inservice science supervisors’ stories. Journal of Science Teacher Education, 10 (3), 235–245. Tiberghien , A., Jossem, E. L. and Barojas, J, (1998). Connecting Research in Physics Education with Teacher Education. I.C.P.E. http://pctidifi.mi.infn.it/ffc/ Von Glasersfeld, E. (1993). Questions and answers about radical constructivism. In K. Tobin (ed), The practice of Constructivism in Science Education (Hove: Lawrence Erlbaum). Sprinthall, N.A. (1995) Cognitive developmental theories of teaching. In L. W. Anderson (ed), International Encyclopaedia of Teaching and Teacher Education (Oxford: Elsevier Science Ltd.). Posner, G. L., Strike, K. A., Hewson, P. W. and Gertzog, W. A. (1982). Accomodation of a scientific conceptions: toward a theory of conceptual change. Science Education, 66, 211-227. Zeidler, D.L. (2002). Dancing with Maggots Journal of Science Teacher Education, 13(1),27-42. Shulman, L.S. (1986b).Those who understand: Knowledge growth in teaching. Educational Researcher ,15 (1), 414. Shulman, L.S. (1987).Knowledge and teaching: Foundations of the new reform. Harvard Educational Review ,57 (1), 1–22. Aiello-Nicosia, M.L. and Sperandeo-Mineo, R.M. (2000): “Educational reconstruction of the physics content to be taught and pre-service teacher training: A Case Study”, International Journal of Science Education, 22, 10851097 Niess, M. L. & Scholz, J. M. (1999) Incorporating subject matter specific teaching strategies into secondary science teacher preparation. In J. Gess-Newsome & N. G. Lederman (Eds), Examining pedagogical content knowledge (pp257-276). Dordrecht, The Netherland: Kluver Academic Publisher. Giere, R. (1990) Explaining Science: A Cognitive Approach (Chicago: University of Chicago Press).

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PHYSICS, TOYS AND ART1 Christian Ucke, Physics Department, Technical University Munich, Germany Physics toys have been my hobby for about 20 years. Over the years more and more people have become interested in this sort of toy. The problem that physics is not loved by pupils exists not only in German schools. Toys are one way to stimulate interest. After a short introduction I am going to show two toys with detailed explanations. The first part of my talk deals with the physics of toys in everyday objects. This means explaining how to use everyday objects such as a paper clip to make physics toys. This is not the same as everyday physics, where you try to explain everyday phenomena with physics. For all the toys which I am going to show today you can find detailed publications on my homepage [1]. I apologize for the fact that I am going to mention toys or artistic objects from only six different countries. I am sure that there are many objects in other countries with connections to the contents of my talk. For an introduction, it is always good to have famous physicists for support. Here two very well-known physicists, Wolfgang Pauli and Nils Bohr, are looking at a tippe-top. It would be interesting to know their thoughts at this moment, but nothing has been passed down. The construction of this top is very easy. The physics background is very complicated. There have probably been more than 30 publications concerning this object in the last 50 years. And it is important to know that there is no simple explanation of the flip-over phenomenon. You have to dive deeply into differential equations to solve the physics. This is, of course, not very satisfying, especially not for teachers. I want to add only one remark: This tippe-top was patented in Germany by Miss Helene Sperl [2] in 1981. Several examples were described in the patent. I have rebuilt these, and it is interesting to know that none of these tops work as they should. What the German patent office explained to me about how it can happen that a patented object does not behave as described is another story for itself. I want to mention this simple tippe-top idea which you can make with paper clips. I first saw this idea in a publication by Yoshio Kamishina [3]. It doesn’t work as well as the classical tippetop but clearly shows one principle: that the centre of gravity of the whole object does not lie in the centre of the big circle. A tippe-top version of the German toy creator and artist Reinmut Weber uses the same principle but looks much nicer. Paper clips are very good objects for doing physics experiments.There is a book [4] which contains many ideas, but not the ones which I will describe here. The invention of the paper clip in 1899 is credited to a Norwegian named Johan Vaaler, who patented the device in Germany because Norway had no patent law at the time. In 1999 a memorial stamp was published. Vaaler did nothing with his invention, however, and a year later a U.S. patent for a paper clip, called the Konaclip, was awarded to Cornelius J. Brosnan of 1

Invited evening talk.

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Springfield, Massachusetts. In England, Gem Manufacturing Ltd. quickly followed with the now familiar double-oval shaped Gem clip. Although some people dispute the originator of the paper clip, Norwegians have proudly embraced their countryman, Johan Vaaler, as the true inventor. During the Nazi occupation of Norway in World War II, Norwegians made the paper clip a symbol of national unity. Prohibited from wearing buttons imprinted with the Norwegian king’s initials, they fastened paper clips to their lapels in a show of solidarity and opposition to the occupation. Wearing a paper clip was often reason enough for arrest. How can you make a top out of a paper clip? ‘Paper clip’ stands only for an easily available piece of wire. Professor Takao Sakai from Japan proposed a nice idea [5]. He used it as an exercise for students of mechanical engineering. I doubt that the students were amused. This is the solution he proposed. This solution needs no soldering or gluing. One can recognize the axis of the top. To get a big moment of inertia the wire should be at a great distance from the axis. But there also has to be a connection between the arc and the axis – the spokes. The interesting question is the size of the angle! If the angle is too big or too small, the centre of gravity will be not on the axis. This top is a so-called unsymmetrical top because the moment of inertia Ix is not equal to Iy The problem of the right angle can be calculated by calculus [6]. The result is the simple equation tanα = 0.5 or α = 26.570 or ß = 53.130. With an approximation it is possible to calculate the problem without calculus. It results in an angle of 60 degrees, which is not very different from 53 degrees. In the figure, the possibility of building a symmetrical paper-clip-top according to Takao Sakai is shown. This case is a little bit more difficult to calculate but results in the surprisingly simple equation tanα = 2/3 or α = 33,70 or 2α = 67,40. Thus it is Ix = Iy. This paper clip top is not so easy to make because you have to bend the wire many times. It is well known among physicists and especially engineers that a top can rotate stably only around the axes of maximum and minimum moment of inertia. If the axis of a top coincides with the middle moment of inertia Iz, it is unstable. This is the case for a paper clip top if the height of the half axis has just the length h = 1.65r. Then it is Ix < Iz < Iy There are many further possibilities for constructing a top out of a paper clip, as you can see from the following examples.

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A simple way to build Sakai1-tops is to divide the total length of the straight bended paper clip wire into ten parts. Thus you can start with the first half axis if you bend one tenth in a right angle and then go on bending another one tenth in a right angle. Then bend the arc and at the end repeat the same procedure from the beginning. To make the tops in reality it is not so important to have exactly this angle. This would be difficult. It is also not so easy to make a perfect arc. It is important to have the centre of gravity in the axis. After making some tops you will get a feeling for how to construct them so that they will rotate well. As you can see, the arc is not perfect and the angle is also not correct. The only important thing is that the two parts of the axis form a straight line which goes perpendicularly through the centre of gravity of the plane formed by the arc and the spokes. This toy looks like a simple top. And it is a top, created by the German artist Christoff Guttermann [7]. But it contains a trick: if you turn one half of the top at a right angle, you get an object which can be described as two halfcircle-discs connected to each other vertically. This object has a strange behaviour. If this object rolls down a slightly tilted plane, the distance between the centre of gravity and the plane remains constant. The path of the centre of gravity is more like a serpentine. If you look at it exactly, this line is composed of circular arches, as shown later on. Because of this movement, such objects can be described as two-disc-rollers, and they are called wobblers (from the verb: to wobble) in English. There are so-called beer-mug-mats (stein-stands) that are excellently suitable for self-construction of wobblers. They are easily available, especially in Bavaria in Germany, mostly circular, but sometimes also as ellipses. They can be worked on easily with a knife and some glue. This is a simplified construction where two half-circle-discs are connected to each other vertically.

When rolling down a plane, such a wobbler always touches the plane at two points which can be connected with a straight line. By connecting all corresponding bearing-surface points to each other, a convex hull is obtained, also called a connection torso.

In 1970 the Englishman Colin Roberts discovered a nice geometrical object that he called a Sphericon [8]. It is exactly the connection torso of a wobbler with two half-circle discs. Sphericon is an artificial word creation from sphere and cone.

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99 One can now proceed a step further and wonder what will happen if two entirely circular discs are connected to each other vertically. This can be done very easily by cutting radial slits into the circular discs. The result is displayed in the figure. Using such a construction, – with the wobbler rolling along a plane – , the distance of the centre of gravity remains exactly constant if the distance between the centres of the two circular discs fulfills the condition indicated in the figure.

The figure shows an example with beer-mats. The authors forwarded this sample to the corresponding brewery in order to get some more mats. Not only did we obtain several hundred items but two cases of beer were also sent “to facilitate the scientific work”. From this you can see that such labour “can be worthwhile”.

The principle of rollers made of two entirely circular discs has been used in various toys. We will mention here the Finnish children’s toy Ensihammas. The shaking movement seems to fascinate children, too. Using two parts of a German construction toy called RONDI, one can combine two wobblers immediately. The distance stipulation is well fulfilled. We asked the toy company about this property and it turned out that it was a coincidence. While rolling along these two-disc-rollers also always touch a plane exactly at two points. By connecting the contact-points of the roller to each other, you get the connecting torsos. This is a completely aesthetic-looking body. The English artist Rick Flowerday converted this idea into a toy.

The German designer Alexander Schenk converted this idea into a household object which he called Doublette. You can separate it into two parts, and then it is a salt and pepper shaker [9]. But here the right condition for a true wobbler is not fulfilled. This makes sense because this object will not roll down a slightly tilted plane easily, for instance a table, and thus won’t fall onto the floor and spread salt and pepper everywhere.

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At first glance the Oloid looks like a completely identical object. Originally, it was used as the coating body of the so-called upsidedown-turnable cube by Paul Schatz. It can be constructed easily under the stipulation that the distance between the centres formed by the circular discs of the Oloid are exactly as long as the diameter of a circle. Since this distance does not correspond to the condition for a constant centre-of-gravity distance, the Oloid shakes back and forth when it is pushed slightly. When pushed more strongly it rolls over a plane fairly easily since the centre of gravity varies only very little in height.

The Rolodil is an oloidal sporting device which may be good for fitness. It was never produced in large quantities.

The drawn-in sphere touches the plane while the two-disc-roller rolls along the bearing-plane. We call it the touching sphere. I mention this only because there is an unexpected connection to tennis balls.

This object (constructed by the program Mathematica®) shows the curve on the touching sphere when the wobbler is rolling. You can see the similarity to a tennis ball at once.

The curve described for a regular tennis ball (radius h = 3.2 cm) (the „tennis ball curve“) is amazingly similar to the touching-line l of a half ellipse-wobbler.

This sculpture was created by the German artist Vieweger. It stands in front of a tennis club in Munich and shows the tennis ball curve clearly.

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S

S



π

_



r/ 2 0

3 . 7 2 1

Finally, here is a representation of the paths of the center of gravity of the two-disc-rollers projected on the plane. You can see half-circles or entire circles including the corresponding touching lines of the rollers. Although the curves look quite similar to each other, the left-hand path, which is derived from the two-half-circle disc wobbler, can be calculated easily, while the righthand path from the completecircle-disc wobbler still has not yet been calculated quantitatively. That is only one of the problems still unsolved and worthwhile of consideration in the future.

References: [1] http://www.ucke.de [2] Sperl, Helene: Patentschrift Nr. 63261, Wendekreisel, Kaiserliches Patentamt Berlin, 12. Juli 1892 [3] Kamishina, Yoshio: Proceedings of International Workshop on Hands-On Activities for InSchool and Out-of-School Learners Focusing on the Marginalized Youth, Pattaya, Thailand 1999 [4] Moje, Steven J.: Paper Clip Science, Simple&Fun Experiments, New York 1996, 96p. [5] Sakai, Takao: Topics on tops which enable anyone to enjoy himself, Mathematical Sciences (Surikagaki) 271, 18-26 (1986) [6] Ucke, Christian: Professor Sakai’s Paper-Clip Tops, Physics Education (India) 19, 97-100 (2002) [7] http://www.kreiselvonchristoffg.de/intro_large.html [8] http://homepage.ntlworld.com/paul.roberts99/index.html [9] http://www.design-produkte.de/doublette.htm

2. Special Aspects 2.1 The role of the institutions in improving the science teaching and the quality in teacher education and training THE IMPROVEMENT OF SCIENCE TEACHING AND THE ROLE OF INSTITUTIONS TO IMPROVE THE QUALITY OF PRE-SERVICE AND IN-SERVICE TEACHER EDUCATION - OUTCOME OF THE ROUND TABLE DISCUSSION Aart Kleyn, Leyden University, The Netherlands Leonard E. Jossem, The Ohio State University, USA Seventeen participants* brought to this Round Table, orally and in print, a broad array of topics and points of view out of which there emerged a set of ideas and concerns more-or-less common to the educational systems of the countries represented. 1. Educational systems around the world are complex networks involving: Students, teachers, and parents Schools, colleges, and universities Professional organizations, industries Governmental agencies Economic and social structures Historical traditions and attitudes Each of these components plays a role in the educational system. Their properties and the nature and the extent of the interactions among them are important determinants of the structure and operation of the educational system, including their successes and their failures. 2. The rapid advances in science and technology over the past half-century have resulted in major changes in economic and social conditions and have created the need for mass education and for a scientifically literate citizenry. 3. While there is a strong need for continuing research on the education of students and of teachers at all levels, scholarly physics education research has already provided convincing evidence of the efficacy of the active involvement of learners - at all levels - in the learning process. 4. The results of this research have clear implications for the reform of educational practices, as well as for the preparation and mentoring of teachers at all levels. It is in considering the difficulties of implementing such reforms that the need for close interaction and effective cooperation among all the components of an educational system becomes so strongly apparent. 5. Achieving the common goal of continuing and lasting improvement in complex educational systems - improvements in their curricula, educational methodologies and practice, and in the overall quality of science education - all this is not a simple or an easy task. It will require time, continuing hard effort on the part of many persons, changes in attitudes toward education, and substantial continuing financial support for the project. The challenges are many, but falling behind has serious consequences. Can any nation afford to fall behind?

* In alphabetical order: Laura-Julia Anita, Maria Bortoluzzi, Marta Gagliardi, Enrica Giordano, Nella Grimellini Tomasini, E. Leonard Jossem, Aart Kleyn, Olivia Levrini, Giunio Luzzato, Marisa Michelini,Tatjana Mulaj, Zenun Mulaj, Ingrid Novodvorsky, Aleksander Pospelov, Elena Sassi, Salvatore Serio, Gunnar Tibell

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SCIENCE TEACHER PREPARATION AND MENTORING IN THE USA Leonard E. Jossem, The Ohio State University, USA In the last decade public concern about the quality of education in the USA and pressures for accountability at all levels of education have had a major influence on policies and practices with respect to teacher education. The preparation and mentoring of science teachers,specifically, physics teachers, has been the focus of attention by federal and state agencies, professional societies and educational institutions. Teacher education, taken in its full meaning, is a complex subject and needs to be considered in context. The context in which I am able to speak about it is that of the educational system in the USA – although we do share many problems with the educational systems in other countries. Elementary and Secondary Education There are about 16,000 Public School Districts in the country which supervise about 91,000 elementary and secondary schools where 2,767 K teachers teach 47,182K elementary and secondary school students. The funding to operate this system comes primarily from the local school districts and from the individual states, with the Federal government contributing only about 7% of the approximately $358x10^9 annual expenditure at this level. The passage of Public Law 107-110, the “No Child Left Behind Act of 2001” (NCLB) by which the Federal government mandates the setting of standards for course content and teacher preparation,

Fig. 1 will remind you of the situation in the USA.

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annual testing of students, and accountability under penalty of not receiving Federal funding, comes at a time when all states are under severe financial pressures. In the elementary and secondary schools the areas most affected at the moment are reading and mathematics, but deadlines for the sciences are only a few years away. Undergraduate and Graduate Education Of the approximately 6.5K post-secondary institutions in the USA there are approximately 1K Two-Year colleges which enroll nearly 6x10^6 students. Four year (and above) colleges and universities enroll approximately e 7.5 x10^6 undergraduate students. Graduate and professional student enrollment is approximately 2x10^6. Assessment Based Accountability Over the last several years educational policy has become a major focus of discussion and legislative action in the USA. Public Law 107-110, the “No Child Left Behind Act of 2001”, is an omnibus bill of 670 pages covering many aspects of elementary and secondary education. The aspects which have most publically debated are those having to do with : Title II: Preparing, Training, and Recruiting High Quality Teachers and Principals and Title VI: Flexibility and Accountability The US Department of Education publications put it this way: “Every state should have a wellprepared teacher in every classroom by the end of the 2005-2006 school year. A prepared teacher knows what to teach, how to teach and has command of the subject matter being taught. In history and physical science, more Fig. 2 illustrates one of the reasons for concern about the state of the educational enterprise. than half of America’s students are being taught by a teacher who has never studied the subject in any concentrated way. *That’s more than four million students in physics, chemistry and history classes every day with teachers lacking preparation for teaching their subjects. America’s schools are not producing the science excellence required for global economic leadership and homeland security in the 21st century.” Ensure schools use research-based methods to teach science and measure results. Establish partnerships with universities to ensure that knowledgeable teachers deliver the best instruction. No Child Left Behind requires that federal funding go only to programs that are backed by evidence. Over the last decade, researchers have scientifically proven the best ways to teach reading. We must do the same in science. America’s teachers must use only research-based teaching methods and the schools must reject unproven fads. (US Department of Education, FAQs and “Fact Sheets” ) The new law also requires that beginning in 2007 states measure students’ progress in science at least once in each of three grade spans (3-5, 6-9, 10-12) each year.

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Fig. 3 and Fig. 4 provide further illustration of the reasons for concern.

Standards National Standards The National Academy of Sciences/National Research Council published the book National Science Education Standards 272 pages, 1996 TheAmerican Association for the Advancement of Science (AAAS) has published Benchmarks for Science Literacy file:/// State Standards Each of the 50 States sets up its own state-wide standards for science in the schools. Information about each state is available at the URL Assessment and High Stakes Testing Each State has its own accountability and assessment progam. For detailed information see Assessment and Accountability Systems: 50 State Profiles at the URL Institutional Responses In the area of Institutional Responses I mention only those in Physics. In particular, those of the American Association of Physics Teachers, the American Physical Society, and the American Institute of Physics. AAPT, APS, AIP Letters to Physics Department Chairs A 1999 Letter (see ) urging Departments of Physics and Astronomy to exercise leadership within their institutions to assure that future teachers are well prepared to teach science. A 2003 letter to Physics and Astronomy Departments urging tham to officially endorse the 1999 APS/AAPT/AIP statement. National Task Force on Undergraduate Physics The report on project SPIN-UP (Strategic Programs for Innovations in Undergraduate Physics) is available at the URL

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New Faculty Workshops The AAPT in conjunction with the American Astronomical Society (AAS) and the American Physical Society (APS), holds a workshop for new physics and astronomy faculty members in November each year. PTRA: Physics Teaching Resource Agents This program seeks to provide sustained professional development to teachers of physics and physical science by maintaining a nationwide cadre of over 100 accomplished high school teacherleaders trained and updated yearly to conduct extensive series of workshops in their local regions throughout the U.S. SPIN-UP/TYC: Strategic Programs for Innovations in Undergraduate Physics at Two-Year Colleges is a project to find exemplary physics programs at two-year colleges. PhysTEC: Physics Teacher Education Coallitio Professor Novodvorsky will describe the PhysTEC program in the Session GT5. AAPT Sections The AAPT Executive Board has made available a limited amount of financial support to encourage AAPT Sections - 46 in North America - to actively address issues concerning the preparation of K-12 teachers. American Physical Ssociety Committee on Education Forum on Education American Institute of Physics The AIP Statistical Research Center provides statistical data on physics education at all levels NationalAcademy of Sciences Thebook Learning, Remembering, Believing: Enhancing Human Performance (1994) Daniel Druckman and Robert A. Bjork, Editors contains an Epilogue on Institutional Impediments to Effective Training in which the authors note that: “The role of organizational values, attitudes, and structures in enhancing or impeding individual and team performance was not on the committee’s agenda, ......Yet, after almost a decade of work on issues of performance, we are struck by the key role of the organizational context in which performance occurs.” “What we have encountered repeatedly during such site visits is most curious: an openness to changes that might improve individual or team performance coupled with institutional and organizational reasons why those changes cannot be implemented. We have gotten this message—to a greater or lesser extent—from people in a wide range of military, commercial, governmental, and educational settings. In short, what has become apparent to us is that specifying the techniques and innovations that do and do not have the potential to enhance individual and team performance is only part of the battle. Without an organizational culture that fosters the changes needed to implement those innovations, proposals for change, however credible their source or convincing the evidence, will have little effect. This fact, however, is hardly news to most trainers and other practitioners. The purpose of this epilogue is to take the next step, that is, to specify some of the institutional attitudes and constraints that, in the committee’s experience, appear to be the principal organizational impediments to improving human performance. This is a topic which, though difficult, would seem to merit greater attention than it has so far received

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CONTRIBUTIONS FROM EDUCATIONAL RESEARCH: SOME COMMENTS Elena Sassi, Department of Phisical Sciences, University of Naples “Federico II”, Italy The themes of this Round Table are very rich; only brief comments are therefore possible. The belief at the basis of my comments is the following: for any country, none excluded, educated humans are the most precious resource, irrespective of the country’s reserves of raw materials, its technological know-how or its military power. Fortunately nowadays there is a widespread consensus and concern about the urgent need for better science education. Many factors contribute, amongst them the following: - the “Knowledge Society” scenario and the many recent changes that have triggered the design of curriculum reforms in several countries; - general guidelines about education recently agreed in the EU, such as the Sorbonne and Bologna declarations; - the many programs and initiatives in the field of education supported by the European Community that provide funding and trigger cross-fertilization amongst different countries; - the needs and requirements of society, whose awareness about the consequences of an ineffective science education at school is increasing (slowly); - the EU’s aim to recognise and harmonise the different national contexts and traditions of school systems1. Effective science education innovation implies major re-design and reforms of rationale and practice of science teaching at school and therefore major innovation in science teacher education. A key point is the awareness of the importance of establishing teacher education processes coherent with the rationale of the innovation. Different institutions (education authorities, schools, universities, , educational research institutes, teacher training agencies, teacher associations, national and international research laboratories, etc.) are involved in improving science education, in all its phases: identification of values and strategies, shaping of innovative processes, production of materials, experimentation and validation, large scale diffusion, etc. I shall focus mainly on the role of the educational research institutions. I’ll use a schema describing a kind of ideal and effective interaction amongst the main institutions that should be involved in producing and supporting improvement in science education. The “school” blob refers to all the experiences, rules and praxis accumulated in the school system. The community of teachers and learners, teachers’ associations and similar groups are also

Fig. 1 Institutions involved in the improvement of science education 1

In Italy the school system is the nation’s biggest enterprise: about 90% of the schools being run by the state with about one sixth of the population globally involved. Since 1962, when the reform of middle school was enacted, very many changes have occurred, but not set in a coherent framework, e.g. about 60% of secondary schools are engaged in “experimentation” at curricula and course level. Currently in our school system many initiatives of excellence coexist with many unsatisfactory situations.

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included. The “school” is the main actor in implementing innovation in all its different aspects. In the case of science education, important innovation goals are: - to foster effective and lasting learning; - to help students become capable of orienting themselves within the vast bodies of knowledge which are evolving rapidly in many contexts; - to bring about improvements in teaching-learning of well acknowledged and emerging content areas; - to develop meta-cognitive skills (e.g. learning how to learn in a distributed knowledge environment). Therefore innovation depends crucially on the capability of teachers to evaluate, internalise and implement the proposed strategies, approaches and contents, on their professional development and cultural growth. The “educational research” blob indicates all those institutions (universities, science research institutes and groups, schools for teachers-to-be2, institutes for in-service teacher training, etc.) engaged in a variety of studies including epistemological issues, research on learning-teaching processes and disciplinary didactics. A central issue here is to understand why the impact of educational research on class practice is still so weak and to act to make it much more effective. Today there is increasing interest in teacher education models/criteria and the development of related materials. Another increasingly important research sector concerns the impact of educational technologies (ET) in improving science teaching/learning and the changes in teachers’ competencies required by the use of ET and ICT in class practice 3. The “educational authorities” blob indicates both central institutions such as ministries of education (in countries such as Italy that have a centralised structure, and all those local educational boards in charge of deciding about education. It also represents the body of laws, rules (and related interpretations), reforms and innovation projects related to the school system and teacher education4. The kind of ideal and effective interaction amongst these institutions is schematised in the figure by links connecting the blobs. The semantic associated to these links is very rich; to outline the many dimensions of the theme addressed in this Round Table, here a list of some major aspects of these links. The main tasks and initiatives of “School” towards “Educational Authorities”: - selection and provision of best teacher training experiences/materials produced in the framework of school autonomy, also eliciting and sharing submersed knowledge; - critical monitoring of innovation implementation (difficulties in this process; knowledge, needs, requirements of local contexts; experience-based proposals).

2 In Italy, for instance, a secondary school teacher-to-be is required to attend a two-year Specialization School for Teaching (SSIS) after his/her University degree. For the past five years, twenty SSIS, one in each region of our country, have been run by consortia of Universities. 3 Emblematic examples are real-time lab-work, modelling-simulation environments, cooperative learning through virtual communities. 4 To make an example, reform of Italian secondary school is has been under discussion for about the past forty years and there is still no complete, coherent plan. In ’97 the Ministry of Education announced a global reform of the whole school system, which had remained substantially unchanged for about 80 years. The 1997 reform was based on: - a review of what ought to be taught, - a radical re-organization of the school cycles (primary, middle and secondary), - significant increase in the administrative and didactic autonomy of schools, - a plan to develop educational technologies in all schools. A board of forty “sages” consulted about implementation of the reform set down the following criteria : - to integrate disciplinary transmission within a network structure of knowledge; - to foster acquisition of practical and operative skills (e.g. use of technologies); - to aim at in-depth study of selected topics at each school level; - to abandon the traditional scheme of lecture - individual study - assessment in favour of learning environments based on communication technologies. The main criteria for scientific education are to start from phenomenology-based learning and proceed to critical analysis of science and technological development. Translating these criteria into official operative instructions was the task of committees and workgroups organised by the Ministry of Education, in the framework of the new school autonomy (approved in March ’97). Several steps were taken to make the reform plan operative (e.g. science teachers’ associations have proposed syllabuses; specific proposals have been published in journals and on the Ministry of Education website; etc..). However, during this complex process a new government was elected in Spring 2001, one that is changing radically the above reform.

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The main tasks and initiatives of “Educational Authorities” towards “School”: - reform and updating of curricula and syllabuses, and of school organization; - clear, effective laws and rules and their interpretations; - processes and actions, at systemic level, to improve science education, support teacher training and ordinary class activities (e.g. visibility and easy access to best practices in teacher education and research based models and materials; technology enhanced teacher education via virtual communities and various forms of e-learning); - attention to local needs; identification and propagation of best practices in schools. The main tasks and initiatives of “School” towards “Educational Research”: - sharing of problems, experiences and best practices; - participation in research projects; - take-up of research based proposals/activities and implementing them in class practice. The main tasks and initiatives of “Educational Research” towards “School”: - to establish collaborative research projects with schools; - to research disciplinary didactics and related teacher education themes as components of a unique process; to focus on ideas and action in order to improve the impact of research on school practice; - to participate in teacher education activities; to support access to research results. The main tasks and initiatives of “Educational Authorities” towards “Educational Research”: - to establish institutional working groups for scientifically based reforms and innovation in education (e.g. through review of current situations, setting of priority/goals, analysis of national and international best practices, etc); - to support and contribute to adequate investments in strategic themes of educational research; - to cooperate (in the case of local authorities) with local research groups in order to address and overcome specific local problems. The main tasks and initiatives of “Educational Research” towards “Educational Authorities”: - to call attention to strategic themes in science education innovation; - to be operatively open to compare criteria/viewpoints and to participate in design and critical analysis of educational reforms; - to offer expertise, results and proposals; - to carry out pilot teacher education programmes; - to help address and solve local problems, in cooperation with local authorities and schools. Since the scenario has so many dimensions, I will discuss a few actions of “Educational Research” that, in a framework of synergic interaction with “School” and “Educational Authorities”, may have strong impacts. Universities should focus on redesigning their models of science teacher education, which still have a strong component of “chalk and talk” lectures and confirmatory lab-work. For instance, in Italy the newborn SSIS (schools for teachers-to-be) are still tend to adopt traditional academic approaches to teaching. The research community should focus on producing research-based models, proposal and materials suitable both for teacher education programs and class activities. A major effort is needed along this line; usually schools do not have ready access to educational research results, neither do they have the time and resources to transform them into products for their class activity. It is the specific role of science education institutions to make national and international research results usable; some good examples already exist but their visibility has to be improved. Specific studies on science teacher education5 are concrete tools for producing example proposals and for

5

In the framework of EU funded programs, some projects and network such as LSE, STTIS, STEDE, STTAE have addressed this theme and some published materials are already suitable for implementation (cfr. References). As an example of research-based methodological recommendations for teacher education programs aimed at fostering the take-up of innovations, let me summarise a result of the STTIS project (Science Teacher Training in an Information Society, 1999-2002): when teachers implement innovative proposals within their ordinary class practice, they always do transform to some extent the innovation rationale, some transforming trends being enriching, some reductive. Therefore it is important to take into account such transforming trends in the design phase of the training program and to address them in detail in the implementation phase. The critical analysis of transformations made by fellow teachers is an effective way to identify possible/plausible factors that hinder or favour the appropriation of the innovation rationale and its integration in class practice.

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improving teacher education. In this respect there are some critical facts that should be taken into account when engaging in research about teacher education. Cases of excellence already exist within schools, where individual teachers, or groups of teachers possibly belonging to different schools, have developed very interesting applications of self training, often using ICT. While such experiences involve but a small fraction of the whole school system, they are nonetheless numerous and represent a valuable resource. In order to be effective teacher education must be rooted primarily within the school itself. The research community may offer stimuli and guidance but it is up to the school to draw on these example triggers and develop expertise by working with this innovation in everyday schooling. The know-how developed in situations of excellence will not spread automatically throughout the entire school system, but will rather be passed on in a slow and sporadic manner. It is the task of the educational research community, instead of thinking in terms of “natural propagation”, to see this dissemination process as a complex system. This means identifying suitable “structures”, made up of people, organisations and technologies, that can foster and accelerate the spread of existing experiences and create new skills. Given the current situation of science teacher education, there are a couple of broad objectives that, in my opinion, have strong priority, and which educational research can help to attain . These broad objectives are framed in a larger one, namely that of improving the impact of research on ordinary class work. The first broad objective is to have science teachers firmly convinced of the necessity and value of enriching their disciplinary content knowledge (CK) and of transforming it into pedagogical or educational content knowledge (PCK) suitable for the dynamics of their interaction with students. Many, if not the majority, of science teachers still believe that to be a good teacher it is sufficient “to know the content” . This knowledge is necessary but alone does not produce effective teaching, as very many studies in physics education have demonstrated. The passage from CK to PCK is not yet an acknowledged and common component of teacher education and more effort in this direction is required of the educational research community. The second broad objective is to have science teachers with sound competencies in the use of Educational Technologies (ET) and ICT6, and in their use in subject areas and infusion across the curriculum. A teacher with such competencies not only knows how to use ICT tools, but understands how and when the use of ET and ICT is appropriate for specific purposes in science education. Nowadays, in several countries, schools are being equipped with hardware and software resources. However, many science teachers are not yet confident in using educational technologies: - to improve their subject teaching; - to start changing the teaching methodology from being teacher-centred to learning-centred; - to support their education and professional development; to collaborate naturally with fellow teachers in solving common problems and to share their teaching experiences and materials. Some ET-based approaches have the potential to improve greatly the quality of science education, especially in some areas like physics. For brevity’s sake here are but two examples: - integrated use of real-time lab-work and modelling activities to foster/support links between phenomenology and formal thinking; - extensive use and construction of still and dynamic images in order to exploit visual knowledge so as to facilitate the study of familiar and complex physics phenomena and of their mathematical description, the goal being to establish concrete bridges between two disciplinary areas normally perceived as far apart (a typical example are waves and their interaction).

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Definitions proposed by UNESCO: Informatics = science dealing with the design, realization, evaluation, use and maintenance of information processing systems, including hardware, software, organizational and human aspects and the industrial, commercial, governmental and political implications of these Informatics technology = technological applications of informatics in society Information and Communication Technology (ICT) = combination of informatics technology with other, related technologies, specifically communication technologies

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These types of approaches, not related to a specific subject but of transversal nature, require of teachers a deep awareness of the approach rationale and sound skills to guide toward convergence the open class dynamics triggered by such approaches. In conclusion, science research institutions and groups can and do play important roles in the process of improving the quality of science teacher education. Various dimensions are involved, here the focus has been on synergic collaboration with the school system and educational authorities at least on these issues: - to define priorities, strategies and contents of science education innovation; - to build, test and propose models/materials for teacher education; - to foster and support the take-up of innovations in class practice.

TEACHING AS THEY WERE TAUGHT: THE IMPORTANCE OF REFORMED UNIVERSITY COURSES Ingrid Novodvorsky, University of Arizona, Tucson, USA The following comment is from a preservice physics teacher who was reflecting on his experiences in a high-school physics classroom: In [the field experience] classroom this week, I was surprised by the significant lack of “lecturing”, instead having short explanations followed by the students working on problems amongst themselves. On the surface, in the conscious part of my mind, this was a wildly different way of teaching, compared to what I saw as the standard paradigm of science instruction. But deep in my mind, I knew that this was the “right” way to teach; let the students learn by doing. As I sat writing this paragraph, I put it all together and realized why. Because in research science, the paradigm is working through the problems, struggling with the concepts, but when it all comes together, it’s like daylight. The standard teaching paradigm I’m so used to from many years as a student is the teacher lectures, and then we do simple homework, and confirmatory labs. I was finally seeing science teaching being done like science, and that’s why I knew deep down that it was “right”. A Call for Reform This preservice teacher was clearly struggling with the contradiction between how he was taught science, and how science was being taught in this high-school classroom. This is exactly the type of questioning that is critical to the development of a competent physics teacher. However, far too few preservice and beginning teachers struggle with these issues, and fall back into a “teaching as they were taught” mode (Carter & Doyle, 1995; Anderson, et al., 1995). And, given all the evidence from physics education research that exposure to traditional instruction does little to impact conceptual understanding of physics, preservice teachers leave these traditional physics courses with a limited understanding of the content. In addition, many preservice physics teachers are exposed to interactive or inquiry-based teaching techniques in only one or two education methods courses, which does little to ameliorate their years of exposure to traditionally presented physics content. Thus, the role of physics courses in preparing physics teachers should not be underestimated. Beginning with A Nation at Risk (National Commission on Excellence in Education, 1983) through Shaping the Future (National Science Foundation, 1996), and recently with To Touch the Future: Transforming the Way Teachers are Taught (American Council on Education, 1999), reports published in the USA have decried the inadequate preparation and lack of competency of new science teachers at all levels, and called for the reform of ineffective and antiquated teacher preparation programs. The reports cite inadequate understanding of science content (physics, in particular) and the lack of student-centered, inquiry-based approaches in science classrooms. Further, these reports provide “clear and convincing evidence that the single most powerful factor in student achievement gain is the quality of the teacher” (American Council on Education, 1999).

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It is clear then, that the “reform of ineffective and antiquated teacher preparation programs” must include reform of the physics content courses in which prospective teachers enroll. Answering the Call As John Layman more fully describes in his contribution to Round Table 2 (University, Schools, Teachers: Cooperative Relationships), in response to this call for improvement in teacher preparation in the USA, three professional societies have joined together to support and promote reform at selected institutions throughout the country. The Physics Teacher Education Coalition (PhysTEC) is a joint project of the American Physical Society, the American Association of Physics Teachers, and the American Institute of Physics. Funded by the National Science Foundation, the US Department of Education, and corporate donations, PhysTEC supports reform at six primary program institutions (PPIs) that have all agreed to implement a set of core reforms designed to improve the physics preparation of future science teachers. The key aspect of PhysTEC-supported reform that addresses the issues presented here is the redesign of content and pedagogy for targeted physics courses, based on results from physics education research and utilizing appropriate interactive technologies. This reform is intended to improve students’ conceptual understanding of physics and make it more likely that they will “teach as they were taught” in their future classrooms. In addition, faculty members at the PPIs are involved in the redesign of content and pedagogy for elementary and secondary science methods courses with an emphasis on inquiry-based, hands-on approaches to teaching and learning. Changes at the PhysTEC PPIs There are currently six institutions from throughout the USA who are primary program institutions of PhysTEC—Ball State University (Muncie, Indiana), Oregon State University (Corvallis, Oregon), University of Arizona (Tucson, Arizona), University of Arkansas (Fayetteville, Arkansas), Western Michigan University (Kalamazoo, Michigan), and Xavier University (New Orleans, Louisiana). Over the past two years, faculty at these institutions, in collaboration with secondaryschool physics “Teachers in Residence” have begun reform of both physics and science methods courses. A key aspect of the reform of courses at several of the PPIs that have large-enrollment classes is the use of electronic response systems that allow students to signal their answers to multiple-choice questions posed during the lectures (Burnstein & Lederman, 2003). Faculty members at these PPIs are developing libraries of conceptual questions designed to be used with these systems. These questions require students to discuss their ideas with each other, and allow the instructors to gauge students’ understanding of the material just presented. The peer interaction also helps address students’ misconceptions. Another aspect of course reform is the re-design of physics laboratories, moving away from “cookbook-style” confirmatory labs and toward more inquiry-based labs. Students are guided in posing their own questions, designing their own procedures, and analyzing their data, but are not told ahead of time what results they should obtain. In addition, these reformed labs are designed so that students experience “thinking like a physicist.” It is important to note that these reforms in both lecture and laboratory benefit all students in the courses, not just the prospective teachers. Some of the PPIs are developing specialized physics courses for prospective elementary teachers. These courses are based on research-based curricula such as Powerful Ideas in Physical Science (American Association of Physics Teachers, 2002), which are designed to engage students in meaningful science activities that they can eventually use with their own students. Several of the PPIs have specialized physics methods courses for prospective secondary school physics teachers. These courses focus on the implementation of inquiry-based teaching methods in the physics classroom, use of lab equipment and technology, examination of existing curricular materials, and practical issues such as lab safety, classroom management, and grading student work. Many of these courses are team-taught by faculty members from physics and education, along with

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the Physics Teachers in Residence. All of these course modifications are continually evaluated and adjusted at each of the PPIs. In addition, all of the PPIs are tracking students’ conceptual understanding with the use of Force Concept Inventory (Hestenes, Wells, & Swackhamer, 1992) and the Conceptual Survey of Electricity and Magnetism (Maloney, O’Kuma, Hieggelke, & Van Heuvelen, 2001). Early results from these instruments indicate that the course reforms are leading to gains in conceptual understanding. Preservice teachers’ are also completing the Attitudes and Beliefs about the Nature of and Teaching of Mathematics and Science Instrument (McGinnis, et.al., 2002) to track the evolution of their beliefs about teaching and learning. At this point, only a small number of students have completed their teacher preparation programs at any of the PPIs, and so it is too early to be able to determine if the reform of these courses has had an impact on their teaching. However, if teachers “teach as they were taught,” we cannot expect them to use interactive and inquiry-based methods if they have never experienced them as students. Thus, these reforms should result in better physics teaching for future generations of precollege students. References American Association of Physics Teachers (2002). Powerful Ideas in Physical Science. College Park, MD: AAPT. American Council on Education (1999). To Touch the Future:Transforming the Way Teachers are Taught.An Action Agenda for College and University Presidents. Washington, D.C.: ACE. Anderson, L.M., Blumenfeld, P., Pintrich, P.R., Clark, C.M., Marx, R.W., Peterson, P. (1995). Educational psychology for teachers: Reforming our courses, rethinking our roles. Educational Psychologist, 30, 143-157. Burnstein, R.A., Lederman, L.M. (2003). Comparison of Different Commercial Wireless Keypad Systems, The Physics Teacher, 41, 272-275. Carter, K. & Doyle, W. (1995). Preconceptions in learning to teach. The Educational Forum, 59, 186-195. Hestenes, D., Wells, M. and Swackhamer, G. (1992). Force concept inventory. The Physics Teacher, 30, 141-158. Maloney, D.P., O’Kuma, T.L., Hieggelke, C.J., & Van Heuvelen, A. (2001). Surveying students’ conceptual knowledge of electricity and magnetism, American Journal of Physics, 69, S12-S23. McGinnis, J.R., Kramer, S., Shama, G., Graeber, A.O., Parker, C.A., & Watanabe, T. (2002). Undergraduates’ attitudes and beliefs about subject matter and pedagogy measured periodically in a reform-based mathematics and science teacher preparation program. Journal of Research in Science Teaching, 39, 713-737. National Commission on Excellence in Education (1983). A Nation at Risk: the Imperative for Educational Reform. Washington D.C.: U.S. Department of Education. National Science Foundation (1996). Shaping the Future: New Expectations for Undergraduate Education in Science, Mathematics, Engineering, and Technology. Arlington, VA: NSF.

THE IMPROVEMENT OF SCIENCE TEACHING AND THE ROLE OF THE INSTITUTIONS TO IMPROVE THE QUALITY OF PRE-SERVICE AND IN SERVICE TEACHING EDUCATION Salvatore Serio, Italian Astronomical Association, Sait, Italy The second half of the twentieth century has witnessed deep social transformations in the whole of Europe. These transformations have been characterized by an ever-increasing dependence on technologies and by global cultural integration. The challenge for educators is to offer a basic education with ample scientific contents, but nonetheless with vast and valid cultural horizons. The availability of science teachers able to develop in their pupils a strong interest in science is an essential condition toward this goal. The effectiveness of a lecture is obviously related to the ability of the lecturer to provide a network of connections with the real world and with the cultural background of the audience. Here I wish to share with you some experience in this direction, using Astronomy to provide connections

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between various scientific disciplines and the cultural background, in a way to act as a stimulus to learning. Let me first start by recalling the fact that modern Astronomy is a part of Physics. This is certainly evident from the contribution of Astronomy to Newton’s synthesis, the cross-contributions between Physics and Astronomy coming from Spectroscopy, the role of Nuclear Physics in our understanding of the stellar structure and evolution, the role of solar physics in the current debate on neutrino mass. This relationship appears even more fascinating in Cosmology, where microphysics determines the large-scale distribution of material in a Universe dominated by exotic dark material. On the other hand, phenomena such as the cycle of day and night, the diurnal rotation, the phases of the Moon and of the tides, the cycle of the Sun and the seasons, can be observed at various levels of sophistication and conscience, according to different ages. These are simple observations, which stimulate the interest of students since they produce immediate and very evident results. A gnomon, a simple broomstick, has infinite potentiality. Taking it as an example, a teacher can talk of Astronomy, of relative and absolute motion, of Euclidean geometry, of trigonometry and of much more. Moreover, Astronomy has a strong potential in the whole educational process, as a tool for connecting different disciplines. The invention of the constellations and the myths related to them has probably been among the first educational instruments, invented to teach a practical discipline. Through the tales of Perseus and Cassiopea, Orion, the Septem Triones, our ancestors learned to distinguish the stars, to track in the sky the motion of the Sun, the Moon and the planets, in order to orient themselves in space and time. The use of the stars for such fundamental functions was reflected in all human cultural activities. From Gilgamesh to Homerus to modern times, literature is full of astronomical references and suggestions: approaching Dante or Chaucer could perhaps become more interesting if students were exposed to the cultural foundations of medieval science and astronomy. History of Art gives more examples of this approach: from classical and renaissance art, to Giotto, depicting the Halley Comet, to Van Gogh and Pollock. Artists have always been fascinated by the sky, its myths, its mysteries, its beauty. This capability of Astronomy to relate science and humanistic culture can easily be exploited toward an integrated approach to education. The Italian Astronomic Society is exploiting this approach in a number of ways. A series of summer schools has joined together high school teachers of scientific as well as humanistic disciplines, to design Astronomy-centred curricula that were then experimented in the classroom. In addition, we have organized lectures on Astronomy and Art, and on other interdisciplinary topics. Finally, Il Giornale di Astronomia, expecially designed for teachers and their classes, publishes articles on History, Art, Literature, as well as on Astronomy.

2.2 The co-operation between schools and universities in order to improve teacher education THE ROLE OF THE CO-OPERATION BETWEEN SCHOOLS AND UNIVERSITIES IN ORDER TO IMPROVE TEACHER EDUCATION - OUTCOME OF THE ROUND TABLE DISCUSSION John W. Layman, University of Maryland, USA Recommendations • Issues involving preservice and inservice teacher training should be dealt with through collaboration of universities, schools of education, the schools for which the teachers are prepared, school leaders, professional associations interested in education, researchers in teacher education, innovative teachers. • There is a wide consensus that physics should be for all students, not only for the academically inclined. Physics education research has provided new views of learning and teaching. In order to enhance conceptual understanding physics must be taught in real-life contexts. This requires the development of new teaching resources designed and tested in collaboration between universities and schools. • These views call for new approaches both in the preservice education of teachers and in inservice updating, and development activities to change the skills and attitudes of the university professors involved in teacher education (see WS_E report, GT_2 and GT_5) • The mechanisms for quality assurance of preservice teacher education must ensure that these insights are taken into account in the evaluation of teacher training curricula. • In the initial education of teachers, strong collaboration must occur between schools where the students do their practical work and the universities that prepare them. The collaboration must involve expert teachers working in the universities with formal staff appointments. Universities and schools must share the responsibility for preservice programs and for support programs for teachers who have begun their teaching careers. • Universities should involve experienced teachers in advisory roles in designing or adapting new curricula or new programs for preservice physics teachers. • School authorities should support and give recognition to school teachers engaged in teacher training activities in the universities, as tutors in school based practical work, as partners in educational research or in developing new teaching resources. • School authorities must recognize the professional validity of time spent by teachers in strengthening their conceptual understanding within their disciplines and improving their pedagogical knowledge and skills. This implies providing teachers with adequate time and resources to pursue these professional activities • To ensure that teachers’ needs are taken into account, schools should be consulted when universities plan inservice training courses. Such courses would benefit from a mixed universityschool teaching group. • Peer-organised school-university projects based on the teachers’ needs, for the outcomes of which both partners bear equal responsibilities, are also an important part of inservice updating. • A special attention must be reserved to the subject knowledge needs of teachers who are required to teach out of their subject. School authorities should provide the opportunities for these teachers to follow courses that allow them to start teaching, and to receive adequate support for their subsequent needs. Other aspects of the school-university collaboration concern • The involvement of schools and universities in outreach programs promoting the public understanding of science. • The universities offering graduate degree programs especially designed for school teachers (see Udine and Ljubljana Universities)

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• The universities opening their facilities to students of secondary schools in order to enable them to view physics research first-hand and use modern “professional” equipment with the active involvement of their teachers. • Encouraging university students to go into the schools and to talk about their science and their experiences.

UNIVERSITY, SCHOOLS, TEACHERS: COOPERATIVE RELATIONSHIPS John W.Layman, University of Maryland, USA Introduction The Physics Education Research Community (PER) has made unusual strides in studying the learning and teaching of physics. Its studies encompass the full range of levels of physics learning, but the focus of this paper will be on college level students. There is a strong interest in the US in improving the science understanding of all students, and a growing recognition that progress in this area depends on physics departments as well as schools of education and many other factors. From the US National Science Education Standards comes the phrase “what students need to know, understand, and be able do”1 and a commitment to science for “All” students. Both require major changes in the preparation of teachers, and in the professional understandings and skills of those proffering the teacher preparation programs. Student Understanding There is growing improvement in our understanding of enhancing student understanding of physics and physical science. The shift is away from statements such as “how to teach student teachers to teach physics in schools” to “modeling learning and teaching strategies which enable students to understand physics in such a way that should they choose to become teachers, they become enablers of others learning physics in the same manner.” The student’s initial college learning experience will occur in introductory physics courses taught by persons who may not recognize the crucial role they are playing when a few of the students in their introductory course choose to become teachers. In the US, the solutions to improving teacher preparation are couched in terms of improving undergraduate education for all students, based on knowledge provided by those who study learners and the learning community. The most recent National Research Council (NRC) report Improving Undergraduate Instruction2 included the following statements. “What students learn and how they are taught in college science, technology, engineering, and mathematics (STEM) courses are issues that have occupied educators for many years and have been the focus of previous NRC studies. These studies point to the growing body of empirical research showing that learning can be enhanced when college instructors incorporate teaching strategies that are student-centered, interactive, and structured around clearly stated measurable learning outcomes. A crucial question, then, is why introductory science courses in many colleges and universities still rely primarily on lectures and recipe-based laboratory sessions where students memorize facts and concepts, but have little opportunity for reflection, discussion, or testing of ideas?”3 The GIREP International Seminar on Teacher Education will undoubtedly include sessions that will address this issue.

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NRC (1996a). National Science Education Standards. Washington, D.C., National Academy Press. (pp, 2). NRC (2003). ImprovingUndergraduate Instruction in Science, Technology, Engineering, and Mathematics. Washington, D.C., National Academy Press. 3 Ibid., p. 1. 2

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Collaboration Across Departments and Institutions Students preparing to teach will have courses in physics departments, in schools of education, and in local schools where they will have their first opportunity to practice their profession. Students should encounter common expectations in each of these venues informed by our modern knowledge of learning, the learner, and the craft of teaching. To achieve this there must be active communication and planning across all three venues. Professional Society Statement A major step in encouraging cooperation between schools and universities occurred in the US in 1999, when seven member societies within the American Institute of Physics (AIP) supported the following Statement on the Education of Future Teachers4. Statement on the Education of Future Teachers (Dec. 1999) The scientific societies listed below urge the physics community, specifically physical science and engineering departments and their faculty members, to take an active role in improving the preservice training of K-12 physics/science teachers. Improving teacher training involves building cooperative working relationships between physicists in universities and colleges and the individuals and groups involved in teaching physics to K-12 students. Strengthening the science education of future teachers addresses the pressing national need for improving K-12 physics education and recognizes that these teachers play a critical education role as the first and oftentime last physics teacher for most students. While this responsibility can be manifested in many ways, research indicates that effective preservice education involves hands-on, laboratory-based learning. Good science and mathematics education will help create a scientifically literate public, capable of making informed decisions on public policy involving scientific matters. A strong K-12 physics education is also the first step in producing the next generation of researchers, innovators, and technical workers. Signators: American Institute of Physics, American Physical Society, American Association of Physics Teachers, American Astronomical Society, Acoustical Society of America, American Association of Physicists in Medicine, and the American Vacuum Society This statement while directed to faculty members of physical science and engineering departments, must ultimately result in physics faculty collaborating with faculty colleagues in education and in the K-12 schools where the earliest physics teaching occurs. An example of a major program launched to answer this call is the joint project of the APS, the AIP, and the AAPT called PhysTEC. A Collaborative Response The Physics Teacher Education Coalition (PhysTEC)5, a joint venture of the American Physical Society (APS), the AAPT, and the AIP, is a collaborative three-society answer to the entreaties in the Future Teachers Statement: “for departments and their faculty to take an active role in improving the preservice training of K–12 physics/science teachers.” This project, supported with funding from the National Science Foundation (NSF), the Fund for the Improvement of Postsecondary Education (FIPSE), and the APS, provides a formal mechanism for our professional societies to launch a national effort to improve physics/physical science teaching in the United States by forming a national coalition of physics departments. The first stage involved selecting six Primary Program Institutions (PPIs) as the first members of the Coalition (Ball State University, Western Michigan University, Oregon State University, Xavier University, University of Arkansas, University of Arizona). These were universities whose physics departments in collaboration with their colleagues in education and the local schools agreed to create model programs for improving the science preparation of future K–12 teachers. These programs begin at the preservice level and extend into an induction and mentoring phase in the 4 5

Professional Society Statement on the Education of Future Teachers, http://www.aip.org/education/futeach.htm See http://www.phystec.org.

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first few years of the new teachers’ careers. The ultimate goal is to have at least 17 model programs, some supported by private and corporate funds raised by the APS. Program Components associated with Primary Program Institutions are: (1) A long-term, active collaboration among the physics department, the department of education, and the local school community; (2) A Teacher-in-Residence (TIR) program that provides for a local K–12 master teacher to become a full-time participant in assisting university faculty in course revisions and teamteaching, and to act as a “reality check” for both preservice teachers and university faculty; (3) The redesign of content and pedagogy for targeted physics courses based on results from physics education research and utilizing appropriate interactive technologies; (4) The redesign of content and pedagogy for elementary and secondary science methods courses with an emphasis on inquiry-based, hands-on approaches to teaching and learning; (5) The participation of physics faculty in the improvement and expansion of school experiences for their students; and (6) The establishment of a mentoring program conducted by TIRs and other master teachers to provide a valuable induction experience for novice science teachers. PhysTEC is unique because, as the lead society within the project, it builds on the APS reputation as the primary professional society serving the broadest group of physicists in education and industry. The other two collaborators are the AAPT which serves the K-12 teaching community, two-year college community, as well as colleges and universities, and the AIP which is the umbrella organization for nine member societies, including the APS and the AAPT. PhysTEC will also be described by Ingrid Novodvorsky and in her GT2 on Thursday morning in Round Table 1. Two Worlds or Three? In the Seminar Workshop theme, Contribution of research into teacher training, there is a statement calling for “the co-operation of two worlds.” I do not wish to pursue the research theme, but rather the identity of the “worlds” that should be cooperating in improving teacher preparation. In the US there has been a chasm between faculty in the physics departments and their colleagues in education. Physics faculty members have often expressed pride in their not recommending school teaching to their students and distrust if not distain for programs in education. A number of the national reports addressing undergraduate education and educating teachers have been rather explicit in addressing the shortcomings of postsecondary education (both physics and education faculty) in preparing teachers. In the NRC (2001) report Educating Teachers of Science and Mathematics and Technology6, the following statements are made: “Most instructors of these new teachers—including postsecondary faculty in science, mathematics, engineering, technology, and education—have not been able to provide the type of education that K-12 teachers need to succeed in their own classrooms. Many faculty in science, mathematics, engineering, and technology (SME&T) at the nation’s colleges and universities may not be sufficiently aware of these changing expectations to provide the appropriate type and level of instruction needed by students who would be teachers. Nor do most of these faculty have the kinds of professional development experiences in teaching that would enable them to model effectively the kinds of pedagogy that are needed for success in grade K-12 classrooms.”7 It is important during this seminar to determine if the conditions described in this paper exist only in the US or if they occur in the countries represented here.

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NRC (2000). Educating Teachers of Science, Mathematics, and Technology: New Practices for the Millennium. Washington, DC: National Academy Press. 7 Ibid., p. 2.

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Roles for Professional Societies Many of the US national reports formally describe a role for professional societies in the teacher reform efforts. One example is presented below. Educating Teachers of Science, Mathematics, and Technology6, a report from the National Research Council of the National Academy of Sciences, offers a series of recommendations for professional and disciplinary organizations based on extensive evidence from research that shows how various stakeholders might contribute individually and collectively — even systemically — to the improvement of teaching in these subject areas. The NRC/NAS recommendations for professional and disciplinary organizations include the following: (1) Organizations that represent institutions of higher education should assist their members in establishing programs to help new teachers; (2) Professional disciplinary societies in science, mathematics, and engineering, higher education organizations, government at all levels, and business and industry should become more engaged as partners (as opposed to advisors or overseers) in efforts to improve teacher education; and (3) Professional disciplinary societies in science, mathematics, and engineering, and higher education organizations also should work together to align their policies and recommendations for improving teacher education in science, mathematics, and technology. Summary The three professional societies that teamed up to carry out the PhysTEC project have become engaged as partners with six Primary Program Institutions (PPI) (and ultimately with 17) who are producing models for improving the preparation of K-12 teachers. They are also forming a broader coalition of physics departments who are acting to improve the preparation of teachers, but not at an advanced level of the six PPIs. We hope to provide evidence that professional societies can indeed provide leadership not simply recommendations that others do the task.

PhysTEC - Major Reference Documents8 John W. Layman, American Association of Physics Teachers In the United States, we have access to a rich array of reports not only recommending the need and urgency for reform in learning and teaching in college science, technology, engineering and, mathematics (STEM) courses, but providing suggestions of mechanisms for enhanced learning based on empirical research. The National Research Council (NRC), an arm of the National Academy of Sciences (NAS), has been a leader in this effort as indicated by a number of reports included in this list. An overall assumption in the USA is that improvement in learning in undergraduate courses will have the crucial characteristics of modeling instruction and learning for students who will become teachers. NRC (2003). Improving Undergraduate Instruction in Science, Technology, Engineering, and Mathematics. Washington, D.C., National Academy Press. NRC (2003). Evaluating and Improving Undergraduate Teaching in Science, Technology, Engineering, and Mathematics. Washington, D.C., National Academy Press. NRC (2000). Educating Teachers of Science, Mathematics, and Technology: New Practices for the Millennium. Washington, DC: National Academy Press. The most recently published series of recommendations, based on extensive evidence from research, about how various stakeholders might contribute individually and collectively—-even systematically—-to the improvement of teaching in these subject areas.

8

The web sites provided for most of these references will allow downloading or copying of text to use in producing your own documents.

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Glenn Report (2000). Before It’s Too Late A Report to the Nation from the National Commission on Mathematics and Science Teaching for the 21st Century. A set of goals and action strategies from the Glenn Commission dealing with ways of improving recruitment, preparation, retention, and professional growth for mathematics and science teachers in K-12 classrooms nationwide. NRC (2000b). Inquiry and the National Science Education Standards: A Guide for Teaching and Learning. Washington DC: National Academy Press. A guide for persons who must understand the expectation of inquiry skills in the National Science Education Standards ACE (1999) (American Council on Education). To Touch the Future: Transforming the Way Teachers are Taught. An Action Agenda for College and University Presidents. Washington, D.C. An action agenda for college presidents that you should recommend to your president. NRC (1999h). Transforming Undergraduate Education in Science, Mathematics, Engineering and Technology. Washington, D.C., National Academy Press. NRC (1997) Science Teaching Reconsidered, Washington D., National Academy Press. A modern look at undergraduate science courses and improved teaching/learning thereof. NSF (1996) (National Science Foundation). Shaping the Future: New Expectations for Undergraduate Education in Science, Mathematics, Engineering, and Technology. Arlington, VA. The major NSF review of undergraduate education, including recommendations for needed reforms in our own undergraduate courses, which would be beneficial for preservice teachers. NRC (1996). From Analysis to Action: Undergraduate Education in Science, Mathematics, Engineering and Technology, Washington, D.C., National Academy Press A report of an NRC convocation dealing with undergraduate SME&T. NRC (1996a). National Science Education Standards. Washington, D.C., National Academy Press. The National Science Education Standards describing Science Education Standards for : Science Teaching; Professional Development; Assessment; Science Content; Programs and Systems. The first formal standards describing the appropriate conditions for the teaching and learning of science in the U. S. A. AAAS (1990) (American Association for the Advancement of Science) Benchmarks for Science Literacy New York: Oxford University Press. A pre-National Science Education Standards work providing a compendium of specific science literacy goals. Available on a CD AAAS (1989). Science for All Americans. Washington, D.C. One of the seminal publications providing our common ground for this whole effort at reform NCEE (1983), (National Commission on Excellence in Education) A Nation at Risk: the Imperative for Educational Reform. Washington D.C.: U.S. Department of Education. One of the original document initiating the call for reform. Issues at the change of national administration which lessened its impact.

HOW CAN SCHOOLS AND UNIVERSITIES COOPERATE TO IMPROVE PHYSICS TEACHING IN HIGH SCHOOLS? Urbaan M. Titulaer, Institute for Theoretical Physics, Johannes Kepler University, Linz, Austria In these remarks I only mention in passing the more obvious forms of collaborations discussed elsewhere in this seminar: 1. Students who intend to become teachers will in most countries receive part of their training in high schools, where they can observe experienced teachers and give trial lessons under their supervision.

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2. Universities in general provide in service training for teachers as a form of continuing education, to keep them informed about new developments in physics and in physics education. I want to concentrate on some other forms of support universities can provide for high schools and high school teachers. I shall first describe some projects at our university and then formulate some more general recommendations. A. Developing material for high schools, in particular on recent developments in physics research. In our university, many students preparing to become physics teachers do their thesis work on projects of this kind, either developing new experiments (e.g., quantized resistance in thin wires), simulation programs (e.g., on a simple model for a catalytic converter, as used for car exhaust), or prepare surveys of new fields (e.g., scanning microscopy and other methods to “see” single molecules, especially in biological systems) in a form suitable for use in high schools, with sets of teaching aids (transparencies). Teaching students writing their thesis on subjects in physics proper are also required to provide a summary understandable for high school teachers and advanced students (for project work), that should contain a set of references to papers accessible to this audience (Scientific American or comparable journals, in particular physics education journals). These summaries are available on the web site of our Physics Education Department, which many high school teachers consult. B. An effective way to interest students in physics is by stimulating contacts between high school pupils and physics students. This concerns not only those studying to become teachers but “regular” physics students as well. One successful initiative in this area in our University is the “Physics Oscar”. From a fund made available by our late colleague Wilhelm Macke, prizes are given each year to the three best diploma (masters) theses in physics. The three winners are then required to give a short talk on their work for a general audience, consisting for a large part of high school pupils and their teachers; the audience (except for university physicists) then determines the overall winner, who has his or her prize money doubled and receives a trophy, the Physics Oscar. The event met with much interest, both from schools and from the media. The talks are also made available to high school teachers, and some of the contestants were invited to give talks on their subject in schools. Recommendations: From these examples some general recommendations can be made. a) Open days and other outreach events by physics departments should be directed in particular also at high schools and high school teachers; follow up material for classroom use should be provided. b) Involving students in a prominent role in outreach events helps significantly in reaching pupils, since it shows physics research is not a preoccupation of elderly (ladies and) gentlemen only, but within reach of the pupils. c) Physics departments should regularly provide high schools with material on new and exiting developments in physics research and, e.g., on web sites designed for high school teachers and pupils. Web sites at different universities, in one country and beyond, may cooperate but a “local” contact person, who is known to the teachers and can answer their questions, is important too. Thesis and other projects aimed at developing materials directly usable in schools can be beneficial both as training for the students involved and for the schools that can try them out and use them.

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THE ROLE OF THE CO-OPERATION BETWEEN SCHOOLS AND UNIVERSITIES IN ORDER TO IMPROVE TEACHER EDUCATION Silvia Pugliese Jona, A.I.F. Association for Physics Teaching, Italy 1. Foreword What I will say reflects not only my personal views but also the views of the AIF, the Association that I represent. I am a schoolteacher with a lifelong experience in teaching to pupils in a technical school: youths in the 14-16 age slot who are oriented towards science and technology but generally are not as well equipped academically as, possibly, their high-school colleagues. I was not originally trained as a teacher but I took up teaching 5 years after graduation. If I look back to my University years I recognise that much of what I studied then, although useful as qualitative personal knowledge (with the years going by I forgot much of the mathematical formalisation) was never used in my professional life. I also recognise that some parts of my university training - for example (but not only) self-organised work in the physics lab - although not finalised to teaching, have been an absolutely invaluable base for my work with these practicaloriented youngsters. I do not want to imply that student teachers should only study what they are expected to transmit to their future pupils. A wider cultural background is absolutely necessary to all teachers, not only to be able to satisfy the extra-curricular curiosities of some youngsters but also in order to understand the rationale underlying certain conceptual priorities and to foresee and prepare the bases for further conceptual developments: in short, to organise ones teaching. Probably many school teachers have similar feelings about their initial education. In order to understand the attitudes of teachers in service, it might be worth while to know what they think about the usefulness of their initial university education. Indications of which courses the physics teachers perceive as useful for teaching in the schools can be found in [1]. 2. School-University co-operation: for what? The end users of school education are the children and the young generation at large: future notspecialists in many fields - in our case, not-specialists in science or physics. Therefore, although our main interest here is for the professional education of teachers, I think that we must also constantly keep in mind the thousands of pupils to whom a teacher might be expected to teach during her/his working life, for whose education s/he is responsible, at least for the part for which s/he is entrusted by the schools and by society. Since the early ‘90s there is a growing (but maybe not yet universal) consent that in the case of school children and pupils science should be taught as “science for all” - in our case as “physics for all”. Many reasons sustain this view, they have been amply illustrated in many publications and I will not dwell on them here [2]. What “physics for all” means in practice, which new methodological approaches in order to allow the students to build useful meanings at their level of understanding, at what age the “physics for all” point of view might be relaxed in favour of a more academically oriented approach for the scientifically minded, are matters that depend on many factors, not last the specific structures of the different national educational systems. They are, however, issues that should interest schools and Universities alike: the schools because of the good service they are expected to offer to the young generations, the universities because of their involvement in the training of young teachers and also because they would need to re-calibrate their own internal teaching practices in order to adapt to the changing attitudes and preparation of their fresh students. In any way, the implementation of the changes is a difficult issue because the inflow of new teachers in the schools is slow and the main influence on the teaching in any single school is likely to stay in the hands of the older teachers for many years. Therefore the process that will eventually produce a generalised renovation of the teaching practice needs to be very well supported by a multilateral

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co-operation in which the actors are the schools, the (regional, national…) school authorities, the expert and innovative teachers wherever they might be found (see frame) and the Universities in the measure in which they are aware of the real educational and societal problem and not only concerned with the quality of the academic preparation of their incoming students. Many practising teachers would probably need to acquire and adopt new attitudes and new conceptions on teaching [3]. This is not easy to achieve: resisting to new ways of thinking, falling back to old comfortable habits, is only human. It might be possible to make leverage on some teachers’ dissatisfaction for the scarce rewards they get in terms of pupils’ understanding. Probably new forms of in-service updating must be conceived, based on the same didactical approaches that we wish to promote: active learning, wider horizons, adoption and integration of a variety of learning experiences etc. New textbooks based on a different philosophy, new approaches to the assessment of pupils, newly conceived examinations might be needed [4]. An important source of interested and dedicated teachers can be found in the teachers’ disciplinary associations. AIF (Association for Physics Teaching, Italy, www.a-i-f.it) is one of such associations. The individual members of AIF are mostly secondary school teachers of physics and of mathematics and physics. A smaller but significant number of individual members work in universities and are strongly involved in research in physics education and in educating future teachers of science and physics for different school levels. Furthermore, many secondary schools are associate members of AIF. AIF has a wide experience in a number of fields that concern teacher education, especially in the secondary school sector. It is directly involved in in-service updating activities of various kinds (local actions, summer schools…). These activities are carried out • most often (but not exclusively) in collaboration with persons who are active in universities and with the support of the local or national school authorities; • by appointment of the Ministry of Education, e.g. in supervising WEB Forums that offer advice and support to young teachers in their first years in the school, or in producing materials for the updating of secondary school teachers [5]. Through the activity of many of its members - university teachers and school teachers who collaborate with the universities as supervisors and as school based tutors of the student teachers - AIF has an indirect experience of initial teacher education as it has been realised in the last few years after its late inception in Italy in 1999. AIF is not an exception. In many countries Teachers’ Associations work pro-actively towards the improvement of learning in schools. In fact one of the main reasons for the existence of a free association of teachers is to promote the professional growth of its members through the circulation and dissemination of relevant information (e.g. on new scientific trends and results), of practical ideas on educational methods and innovative ways of teaching, of significant teaching experiences and class activities. This is usually achieved through their journals, meetings and other activities. The strength and know-how of such organisations derives from the real-life classroom experience of their members and from first-hand knowledge about the burdens and constraints that characterise the different contexts in which teaching takes place. Thus the teachers’ associations can be regarded as organisms that, possibly without indulging in occasional fads, collect year after year the good teaching practices, put them into context according to the typical situations that characterise different kinds of schools, disseminate them to their membership and hopefully, through their members, promote their diffusion towards the educational system at large. But trusting in the spontaneous diffusion of better teaching practices would be, at the best, unwise: there are good reasons, therefore, for including the Teachers’ Associations as partners of the multilateral co-operation that aims to help to improve teaching practices in the sciences and in physics.

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3. A double problem I will separate the discussion about the initial education of teachers from the discussion about inservice updating. 3.1 Initial education In the field of the initial education of teachers AIF insists on the fundamental role of partnerships between Universities and schools, each ones acting according to their particular competencies. Such collaboration is important for the University Departments involved because it allows them to approach a range of different school environments in which their students might eventually be engaged in their working life and to understand the underlying needs and peculiarities. Such collaboration is important for the schools because the teachers who act as tutors and/or receive the student teachers in their classes are stimulated by these interactions to rethink and consolidate their own professional strengths. This is, after all, a common teacher training practice in many European countries [6]. School teachers need: 1. disciplinary knowledge 2. pedagogical knowledge, general and specific to their subject 3. ability to translate the disciplinary knowledge in a form that is understandable by their pupils 4. ability to choose adequate teaching methods, at a level suited to the pupils 5. ability to link, recall, reuse concepts from different fields of the discipline 6. ability to involve pupils in an effort for significant learning, proposing a variety of activities [7] in which their learning can be used in a variety of ways - including references to everyday contexts [8]. All these needs are well served by offering the student teachers the different experiences that the University environment and the school environment can provide, but there must be coherence and an efficient connection and collaboration between the two components. If, for any reason, one of the components of the partnership is not really interested in what happens in the other environment a mismatch is almost certain to appear, the two experiences will be detached or perhaps even in conflict with each other and the educational results can be quite dissatisfactory [9]. It helps the young teacher to have followed a good initial course but, even if the initial formation were of the best quality, it takes time and effort to become professionally proficient in the senses listed above. Usually it also requires a supportive environment, such as the one experienced during the practical teaching exercises in schools when still studying. It is not guaranteed that the particular school environment in which the young teachers start their working life is supportive: the school might be small, the colleagues might be discouraged or too busy etc [10]. But even when the school environment is supportive it might not be oriented in accordance with the educational approaches that the young teacher experienced during the years in university. This is a cause of concern because some important aspects of the earlier studies - especially the research-driven aspects - risk to be gradually forgotten and eventually effaced [11]. 3.2 In-service updating In-service formation, too, should be open to different actors with different and complementary competencies. For example university professors and expert schoolteachers have different contributions to bring: on one side, knowledge acquired through fundamental research in various areas including, foremost in usefulness for teaching, research on learning physics; on the other side the know-how that comes from the everyday teaching experience in the school environment. Both aspects are essential for a balanced in-service formation. But the possibility of actually performing updating actions depends on other factors too. The willingness of the teachers: in-service updating has sense only if the teachers • perceive a personal need to grow professionally • are willing to do so

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• can dedicate time to attend, to reflect on the consequences, to include the innovations in their planning and to try them out in the classroom. The awareness of the school authorities that, in principle, • time spent on updating in the teachers’ disciplinary field is important for the quality of the services offered to the pupils of the school, and • updating should be officially considered an institutional right of the teachers. This implies that a reasonable allowance of time for updating must be recognised to the teachers alongside with their other institutional duties. The EUPEN inquiry [1], besides indicating which inservice courses were perceived by the polled teachers as most useful for teaching physics in the schools, has clearly shown that one important factor that works against in-service updating is the lack of time [12]. But even self-updating or working in a collaborative mode with colleagues requires appreciable efforts by the persons directly involved and concrete actions by the school authorities. No effective collaboration and collective growth of the teaching staff would be possible without providing the necessary logistic facilities and without considering the time spent as working time. A special and delicate case is represented by the teachers who are not experts in the subject they are asked to teach. For physics this happens ever more frequently: in many countries there is a severe shortage of physics teachers and the schools are compelled to entrust classes to unspecialised teachers. In other countries, like Italy, in the secondary schools physics is frequently taught by mathematicians and in the middle schools (ages 11-13) science is mostly taught by biologists. Usually the disciplinary knowledge in physics of these teachers is quite poor; their knowledge of disciplinary didactics is even less; their ability for practical work in the physics lab is almost null. So physics is taught by the textbook, and the textbook might become the main reference not only for the pupils but for the teacher too [13,14]. I lack information on how this serious problem is tackled in other countries. It cannot be faced by the schools alone (the schools cannot spare these persons whose presence is required in the classrooms) nor by the universities alone. The needs of these persons require emergency treatments for what concerns their knowledge of the subject and of the teaching of the subject. They cannot go through a regular course. Helping them to overcome their difficulties requires new methods and techniques and special, sometimes day by day timely support. Here the role of an independent association or of a discussion group on the web might become essential. The teachers’ associations, thanks to the presence of their membership across the country, can offer a pool of expert teachers to which other institutions and subjects can resort for advice and collaboration when it is necessary to fulfill local needs. A completely different issue is the possibility that schoolteachers participate in research with the universities. This could very well be realised on a personal teacher-to-university basis, out of a real inter-institutional school-university collaboration; but it would be strongly advisable that the schools be informed and, in the case of educational research, actively involved [15]. Notes and references [1] [2] [3] [4]

Ferdinande H, Pugliese Jona S and Latal H, 1999, The training needs of physics teachers in five European countries: an inquiry, EUPEN Consortium, Universiteit Gent, Belgium 1994, The Project 2000+ Declaration - The way forward, UNESCO; 1995, Science in schools and the future of scientific culture in Europe, EC; 1995, Science Education, a case for European action? A White Paper on Science Education in Europe, EC and Calouste Gulbenkian Foundation, etc. Furió C, Vilches A, Guisasola J and Romo V, 2001, Finalidades de la enseñanza de las ciencias en la secundaria obligatoria. Alfabetización científica o preparación propedéutica?, Ens. Ciencias, 19, 365-376 It is well known that an important parameter used by the school authorities for distinguishing “good” teachers is the success of their pupils in exams. This is a very strong incentive towards matching ones teaching to the exam requirements. A paradoxical extreme example is reported in Mahmood N, Shinohara F, 2002, Recognizing the Influence of Assessment Pattern in the Formation of Teaching Style, J. Sci. Educ. Japan, 26, 187-196 (English Edition)

126 [5] [6]

[7]

[8]

[9] [10] [11]

[12] [13] [14]

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Dibilio BM, 2003, Producing resources and materials for the in-service training of physics teachers, contributed paper to this same GIREP Seminar. This author had the opportunity to read several STEDE (Science Teacher Education Development in Europe, www.biol.ucl.ac.be/STEDE/) reports in which, with variations, the scheme “study in the University and practical work in schools” is described (e.g. Fischler E, Free University of Berlin; Buck P, Müller M and Schallies M, University of Education, Heidelberg; Méheut M, LDSP-Université Paris 7 and IUFM Créteil; Redfors A and Eskilsson O, Kristianstad University) See, for example: Newton L and Rogers L, 1996, Teaching physics at advanced level: a question of style, Phys. Ed. 31, 265-270: “…We believe that these needs are best served by a variety of teaching methods. A key justification for variety lies in recognizing that no single approach may foster the development of this diverse set of skills and abilities. Also, no two learners will necessarily derive the same learning benefits from a particular approach. Furthermore, variety is stimulating, change enhances attention and learning can be more effective when it is organized in manageable episodes.”; Labudde P, 2001, Chancen für den Physikunterricht in der heutigen Zeit Zehn Thesen zur physikalischen Bildung, Plus Lucis, (2), 2-6: “Summative assessment should be based on testing many forms of learning, in order to offer the students the best conditions for expressing their abilities in the context of the different formative purposes of teaching physics.” Many authors affirm this need. Although it is not fully circumstantiated I will only quote Recommendation 1: Workshop 3A: Physics in Secondary Education: Content (30 participants, mostly schoolteachers, from 11 countries), in “Physics on Stage, Full Proceedings”, 2000, European Space Agency: “Learning should be based on everyday life in contexts highlighting physics, past, present and future. Today’s physics teaching very often is based on university physics transferred to a lower level. These traditional course designs, however, have proved unsuccessful in maintaining the interest and motivation of our students. As personal experience shows, physics lessons should therefore be based on contexts that not only show the importance of physics for students’ everyday life but also include findings in recent physics. By working on topics like “Physics in Medicine”, Environmental Physics” or by including aspects of Astronomy or the History of Science into coursework, students are more likely to find physics a highly interesting subject to choose and study. This especially seems to apply to physics taught by teachers who are fascinated by the topics themselves.” Stumpo P, tutor in an Italian secondary school, personal communication. see, in [1], pages 148-149 for statistical data on the extent to which teachers of physics manage to collaborate with their colleagues in schools. For example the STEDE report by Fischler E, Free University of Berlin, quoted in [6], states that in Germany the young teachers continue their formation in the schools for a couple of years after their University years under the tutorship of older teachers appointed by the State authorities. At this point the connection between school and university is clearly broken. This period is very important because it opens the way to a permanent teaching post. It seems to impact the later teaching practice of the young teachers more than what they learnt in the University. The concern is that the tutors’ vision of the teaching-learning process usually is not consistent with the preceding studies of the young teachers. see, in [1]: Professional usefulness of in-service courses, 139-143. This doesn’t happen only in Italy. See for example Hubisz J, 2003, Middle- School Textbooks Don’t Make the Grade, Physics Today, 56,(5), 50-54. This generates a vicious loop: for marketing reasons many textbooks are written as simplified (and degraded) versions of the academic courses in general physics that the teachers might feel as most authoritative, of which they might have some pale remembrance and with which they might feel comfortable. Thus not only these textbooks are not adjusted to the pupils’ needs but also, without an adequate background, they do not improve the teachers’ conceptual understanding nor do they allow them to grasp the methodological aspects of teaching physics to young pupils. The issue of textbooks, of their connections with teacher education, of how they contribute to the resistance to curricular and methodological change in the schools, might well be worth exploring in the context of joint school-university activities. Taber KS, 2000, Should physics teaching be a research-based activity?, Phys. Educ., 35, 163-167

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INSTITUTIONAL ACTIONS FOR THE SCHOOL-UNIVERSITY CO-OPERATION Furio Honsell, Rector of the University of Udine, Italy Marisa Michelini, Rector’s Delegate for Didactics Innovation of the University of Udine, Italy Introduction The autonomy gained by the Universities with the implementation of the recent reform [1] changed their role and their relations with the business and production world, with the preuniversity schools, with the Ministry of Education and, in general, with the social and economic entourage. The situation was already changing before the reform: the numbers of students and of offered courses were increasing and the universities were expanding, but an explicit reflection on the new mission and modus operandi of the Universities had not initiated. The image of the University as institution was becoming fuzzy and confused. New duties and roles were being assigned to it, latent needs and implicit or explicit requests were emerging, its internal relations and external connections were affected [2]. Schools are institutions with which Universities must interact although the kind of relationship is not well defined and cannot be considered as a real co-operation. The University of Udine, founded in 1978 for the will of the population, has always reserved special attention to its relations with its surrounding territory and educational system. Since 10 years now, it has developed specific actions and procedures for an effective peer collaboration with schools on issues concerning educational processes, counselling for orientation, research and diffusion of culture. In this note we will describe and analyse the most important initiatives and the most significant instruments implemented by the University of Udine. The school-university connection Until now, in the last ten years the Italian Universities have thought about the pre-university schools as the source of their students. Their relations with the schools mostly consisted in promotional actions for enrolment purposes. The importance of orientation is universally recognised. Orientation is mostly actuated through informative conferences for the secondary school students, in which the university presents its organisation and its educational offerings, with more or less detailed descriptions of the cultural characteristics of the existing courses. The University of Udine is particularly active in this respect, and especially attentive towards the issue of continuity in the students’ educational experience [3, 4, 5]. The school system received the university’s proposals with ambivalence, without contributing comments nor expressing needs nor offering co-operation. The failure of the expected collaboration between the two systems can be traced to the co-existence in the schools of two preconceptions about the universities. On one hand, the image of the university as “temple of knowledge” produced a detached reverential pose and the acceptance of the interaction with the university as a thing that, without effort, would give the school a distinguished cultural label. In these cases the relationship was regarded as a kind of external consulting service that later could be judged inadequate and criticised. On the other hand, the preconception that the university was only serving its own interests raised defensive walls against a perceived improper use and underestimation of the schools. We must say that such a dichotomic perception of school and university is shared by some representatives of the academic world, who see the school only as a reservoir from which to draw and in which to spill. The inception of the training of teachers in the universities and the presence in the universities of the school teachers acting as supervisors of practical activities in the schools [6] contributed to the

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improvement of the school-university connection. The entrance of the student teachers in the schools loaded the schools with an additional, unrecognised burden: but it started the dialogue between the schools and the universities. A 1997 law that simplified the bureaucratic procedures produced a new way of conceiving the schools and the universities and promoted changes in the institutional relations between the two. A recent inquiry [7] provides interesting information on how the conception of the university is evolving in the schools of our region. However, if common actions are not realised and if a peer collaboration with the schools is not promoted the two systems will stay separate, the small number of correlated actions will not help to improve the overall effectiveness of the formative process and the mutual conceptions will not substantially change. An agreement for a multiple institutional school-university connection The University of Udine was one of the first in Italy to implement the reform and was the first to elaborate the issue posed in art. 6 of the law on the prerequisites for entrance in the universities [1]: not only an adequate course of prior studies but also “having acquired an adequate initial preparation”, where the definition of “the knowledge required and the procedures for testing that knowledge, possibly in co-operation with the secondary schools” are assigned to the universities. The law affirms the joint school-university responsibility for the success of the formative process and for the important roles of orienting and tutoring. The interpretation and more still the enforcement of art. 6 present notable difficulties: so the University of Udine, in accord with the indications of the Conference of Rectors of the Italian Universities [8], is now in a phase of trial of a number of initiatives [9, 10]. The scheme of agreement for putting the collaboration with the schools on a base of equality, approved by the Administrative Board in December 2000, foresees the following activities: a) introduction to the university courses for the enrolled students (in their schools); b) orientation of the school leavers; c) design of joint didactic experimentation projects; d) joint organisation of cultural events in the region; e) joint organisation of in-service teacher up-dating; f) giving support to the teachers involved in projects on orienting and on didactic research; g) defining subject standards and collecting and monitoring data on the quality of service. This was the first step towards comparing needs and implementing common actions. The University structures that until now have proposed most of the agreements are the Centre for Orienting and Tutoring (CORT), the Interdepartmental Centre for Didactical Research (CIRD) [11], the Course for Primary School Teachers (SPF), the Specialisation School for Secondary Teaching (SISS). The two latter structures have mostly made agreements for the practical activities of the student teachers in the schools; CIRD realised collaborative projects for educational research [12, 13], cultural events [14-16], innovative experimentation [17, 18] and in-service updating [1921]; CORT has often collaborated with CIRD in student-orienting actions and in research on orienting [22-26]. The most significant activities in this context have been: - Practical activities of university students in the schools mainly involving the student teachers of SPF [27] and SSIS [11], but not only them. Students in Public Relations helped in preparing school websites; students in Computer Science helped to organise a number of school labs. - Orienting was done through five main kinds of actions: 1) a general informative service, adapted to the needs of the individual schools, starting in the third grade of the secondary schools; 2) cycles of informative and cultural seminars organised by the university departments; 3) individualised activities in support of the secondary school students’ choices; 4) elective supplementary courses for secondary school students; 5) development of self-evaluation materials for orienting the students. - Didactic experimentation gave rise to two very significant experiences: (a) promotion of school

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consortiums in the context of the national SeT (Science & Technology) project: two projects comprising about 20 schools each were approved and realised with the collaboration of the University of Udine (http://www.dimi.uniud.it/cicloinf/didattica/accesso/presentazione.html, http://www5.indire.it:8080/set/luce3/index.htm); (b) a call for joint school-university projects that we will further describe in the following. The joint organisation of cultural events in the territory produced a major involvement of the schools, as shown by the data (18). The activities were planned with and for the schools: segments of educational activities, presentation of original contributions by students involved in didactic innovation projects, student meetings were some of the happenings of the ten editions from 1994 to 2003. The updating activities for teachers, conceived as a service to the schools [24], assumed the characters of research on teacher education [17, 23, 25, 26]. The University of Udine and the Ministry of Education jointly undertook the first pilot project in Italy for planning updating as a reflective practice of action-research that builds and increases the teachers’ professional competencies [28]. Furthermore a SeT project, finalised to teaching teachers how to use ICT technologies in the scientific lab of the first two years of secondary school and for constructing multimedia, was entrusted by the Ministry to the University of Udine. These experiences are at the base of our knowledge of and familiarity with the processes and subjects of teacher in-service education. They outline the need for a more diffuse practice of joint school-university analyses, discussion and planning. In fact the past activities were too limited: the University had to create a general institutional structure to this end [29]. CRUS - a committee for bridging school and university The CRUS was established by the University of Udine in January 2002 with the purpose of defining and sharing the actions foreseen in the agreement described above. About 20 members, school headmasters and university staff, belonged to the committee. CRUS depends from the Interdepartmental Centre for Didactical Research (CIRD). Its main duties are: (1) to collect and document the most significant activities performed in the context of the agreement, for the purpose of exemplifying ways and actions for the future; (2) to indicate ways for carrying out the school-university connection as foreseen by the agreement. The committee was created because the school-university connection requires coherence between needs and possibilities. If the university offerings are given first place, they might be unsuited to the needs; vice versa, giving the priority to any kind of need expressed by the schools might generate expectations that cannot be fulfilled. As the partners are acceptors and donors in a mutual exchange it’s difficult to say which - the request or the offer - should come first. Therefore a number of ways for implementing the inter-institutional partnership must be found. For example, the CRUS discussed a number of critical issues in the collaboration, among which those that concerned the student teachers’ practical activities in the schools and the orienting of secondary school students. Other CRUS instruments are a WEB Forum reserved to the committee members and a questionnaire aimed at investigating what image of the university is held by school teachers and students [10]. The CRUS activities were at the base of two initiatives - the first of their kind in Italy: 1) a call for jointly driven school-university projects; 2) a Masters course for teachers on Didactic Innovation, Orienting and Documentation. The Regional School Authority of Friuli Venezia Giulia has acknowledged the school-university connection, has taken part in the activities and has drawn an agreement with the University of Udine aimed at direct collaboration on a number of issues [30]. Joint school-university projects Since 1986, on request of the university researchers in didactics of the disciplines (mainly in physics and mathematics), the CNR (National Research Council) and the Ministries of Education and University have given financial support to mixed school-university groups of researchers [17].

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In 1999 the Ministry of Education also decided to support joint disciplinary projects in which (a) the teachers working with the Universities would receive research grants; (b) other grants would be available to teachers who enrolled in Specialisation or Masters Courses. Following in these footsteps, in November 2002 the University of Udine made a call for joint school-university projects, to be run during the years 2003-04. The call (consultable on the web at http://web.uniud.it/cird), is especially innovative in what concerns the composition of the research groups, where it requires the balance between the university and the school components. The choice between applicants is entrusted to the CRUS and is lead by the following criteria: • Importance of the school-university connection • Relevant and up to date theoretical and methodological references • Presence of innovative aspects with respect to the current practice • Expected fall-out in the institutions involved • Transferability of the experience • Role of research • Degree of definition and development of the project • Sustainability of the project in terms of concrete feasibility • Presence of qualitative and quantitative indicators • Number of school institutions involved. All the approved projects are about problems posed by the schools. Seven projects are coordinated by a school teacher, four by a member of the university. In average, 20 persons are involved in each project, with a maximum of 53 and a minimum of 5. The schools involved in the projects must participate for 20% in financing them. Further to the initial evaluation the CRUS will evaluate the projects in progress and at the end. Courses: Master in Didactic Innovation, Orienting; School of Specialisation. The University of Udine has organised for the academic years 2002/2003 and 2003/2004 - a Masters Course in Didactic Innovation and Orienting worth 60 CFU, that aims at improving the professional qualifications of teachers in the fields of: 1) didactic innovation tied to ICT, 2) orienting and reform of the university, 3) documenting school activities (see http://web.uniud.it/cird/Master/master.htm). - three Specialisation Courses in “ICT for Didactical Innovation” (10 CFU), “Formative Orienting” (15 CFU) and “Documentation in the School” (12 CFU). These four courses revolve around the themes that made the major impact on the way of teaching and learning in recent years. They were designed by the CRUS with the contribution of the School of Specialisation for Secondary Teaching, the Faculty of Educational Sciences, the Interdepartmental Centre for Didactic Research and the University Commission for Orienting and Tutoring. Intermediate examinations and a tried-out project on a topic that interests the school in which the student works are required for gaining the final degree. The Masters thesis will be presented and discussed with a commission designated by the Council of the Masters Course. More than 70 applications to the Masters Course were received in the first 15 days after the publication of the call course. The admitted teachers are 60. Conclusions The examination of our experiences in the context of the school-university connection allows us to make the following comments. The first comment is a warning: the school-university connection is a process in the making, not a final aim. Such a connection cannot be based only on specific (albeit excellent) projects. Official instruments are needed, such as balanced commissions, agreements, calls for co-operation, for strengthening the relationship and building the foundation for a shared permanent planning. The official instruments must start and consolidate processes that change the partners’ preconceptions and mutual perceptions.

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The second comment concerns the new management problems related to such activities. These problems touch both the University and the schools. For example, the members of the CRUS had to be increased to 50 and the schools had to devise and explore new administrative procedures for managing the projects. Notes and references [1] Regulations on the didactical autonomy of the Universities, MIUR - DM 3.11.99 n.509, GU 4.1.2000, n.2 [2] Agusta Brettoni, Andrea Messeri, L’idea di università, Magellano, VII, ottobre 2001 [3] M Michelini, Un’esperienza di raccordo scuola-università per un progetto organico di orientamento alla scelta all’Università di Udine, in L’Orientamento Universitario in Italia, MURST Ed., care of CRUI, Fondazione RUI 1995, 215 [4] M.Michelini, L’impegno per l’orientamento dell’Università di Udine nel periodo 1994-1997, Orientamento Scolastico e Professionale, XXXVIII, 1-2, 1998, 79-89 [5] M Michelini, Le preiscrizioni: uno strumento di continuità e di raccordo tra la scuola e l’università per realizzare processi di orientamento, UeS, III, 1/R, 1998, 2 [6] G Bonetta, G Luzzatto, M Michelini, M T Pieri, Università e formazione degli insegnanti: non si parte da zero, Concured, Forum, Udine 2002 [7] N Batic, G Burba, L Cibin, E Iannis, M Michelini, Un’indagine sull’immagine di università nella scuola del Friuli Venezia Giulia: i risultati quantitativi, Magellano, ITER, IV, 16, 2003, 48-53 [8] L’aspetto qualitativo dell’accesso ai corsi di laurea, Document of the Assembly of Rectors CRUI, 13.07.00. [9] Since academic year 1999-00 an anonymous questionnaire has been administrated In the Faculty of Veterinary Medicine. Three levels of area competences were individuated and support activities were organised during the first year of the course for the first two, with good results. [10] The University developed a General Plan for Orienting (PGO_2000, PGO_2001-2003), in which schools and university were expected to carry out joint activities. [11] M Michelini, C Sartori, Esperienze di laboratorio didattico in una struttura di raccordo scuola-università, UeS, III, 1/R, 1998, p.18-29 [12] In the context of physics the research projects realised with the schools have been 9 with the Ministry, 4 with CNR, 1 regionale L.R. 3/98. [13] M Michelini, Supporting scientific knowledge by structures and curricula which integrate research into teaching, in Physics Teacher Education Beyond 2000 (Phyteb2000), R.Pinto, S. Surinach Eds., Girep book - Selected contributions of the Phyteb2000 International Conference, Elsevier, Paris 2001, p. 77 [14] Projects aimed at the diffusion of culture have been also actuated, e.g.: 1) MURST-Law 113/91_1998, GEIWEB 2) MIUR-Law 113/91_2002-2003, Giocare e Pensare; 3) MIUR-Law 113/91_2002-2003, IRDIS in co-operation with AIF, Bologna, Padova, Udine. [15] An event devoted to the diffusion of scientific culture. It lasts 2-3 weeks in March. It is jointly organised with the schools. The participants were 250 in 1994 and 4500 in 2003. The 2003 edition included multilinguistic topics. It offered conferences, seminars, cognitive laboratories and 18 exhibits of didactic resources, only two of which were prepared by the University of Udine. [16] The exhibit GEI – Giochi Esperimenti Idee, started in 1994 with 60 experiments, now has 180 experiments, realised with low-cost materials and with sensors connected to a computer to allow a formative exploration of the scientific knowledge processes. In 1998 GEI was awarded the Prize for Didactics of the Italian Physical Society. [17] In the context of physics the research projects realised with the schools have been 9 with the Ministry, 4 with CNR, 1 regionale L.R. 3/98. [18] M Michelini, Supporting scientific knowledge by structures and curricula which integrate research into teaching, in Physics Teacher Education Beyond 2000 (Phyteb2000), R.Pinto, S. Surinach Eds., Girep book - Selected contributions of the Phyteb2000 International Conference, Elsevier, Paris 2001, p. 77 [19] 32 Courses for teachers in service were organised, together with pilot projects for studying models for in-service updating. [20] National Project LabTec: Laboratorio scientifico con le nuove tecnologie, MPI, 1999, Convenzione MPIUniversità di Udine. G Marucci, M Michelini, L Santi, The Italian Pilot Project LabTec of the Ministry of Education, in Physics Teacher Education Beyond 2000 (Phyteb2000), R.Pinto, S. Surinach Eds., Girep book Selected contributions of the Phyteb2000 International Conference, Elsevier, Paris 2001, p.607 [21] National Project MPI - 2000, Borse di ricerca per insegnanti: Agreement between MPI and University of Udine. Research context: Didactics of the discipline. 15 University Professors involved. [22] M Michelini, Orientamento e trasversalità per l’innovazione formativa: una sfida ai docenti, UeS, II, 1, 1997 [23] S Bosio, V Capocchiani, M Michelini, F Vogric, Orientare alla scienza attraverso il problem solving, La Fisica nella Scuola, XXXI, 1 Sup, 1998, p.122 [24] S Bosio, V Capocchiani, M Michelini, F Vogric, F Corni, Problem solving activities with hands on experiments for orienting in science, Girep Book on Hands on experiments in physics education, G. Born, H Harries, H Litschke, N Treitz Eds. for ICPE-GIREP, Duisburg University, Duisburg, 1998

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[25] S. Bosio, V. Capocchiani, M. Michelini, F Vogrig, Orientare alla scienza attraverso il problem solving, Orientamento Scolastico e Professionale, XXXIX, 1-2, 1999 [26] S Bosio, M Michelini, T Schiavone, F Vogric, Problem solving per l’orientamento in ambito disciplinare: metodica, esempi, formazione degli insegnanti, Modelli e Strumenti per l’Orientamento Universitario, in una struttura territoriale di orientamento, CRUI - Università di Udine, Forum, Udine 1999, p. 346 [27] M Michelini, G Michelutti, Verso un sistema integrato laboratorio-tirocinio, in Il tirocinio nell’ambito di scienze della formazione primaria, Forum, 2001, p.71-86 [28] M Michelini, S Schiavi, La ricerca degli insegnanti: le prime esperienze di borse di ricerca per insegnanti, in Q6 - La formazione dei docenti/1, Treccani, Iter , 9-suppl., 2001, p.106-125; M Michelini, C Moschetta, Borse di Ricerca per Insegnanti: coniugare pratica didattica e ricerca, NUSU, 2, 2001, p.36 [29] With consideration of art.5 DDL1306, concerning school reform, the question arises if it is exactly the structure prescribed by the reform that has already been experimented in the actions carried out. [30] The convention, signed by Furio Honsell, Rector of the University of Udine and Bruno Forte, General Director of the Regional School Office in Friuli Venezia – Giulia in 2002, provided for the following themes of collaboration: a) research-action on themes relevant for the growth of the authonomy of schools and didactic innovation; b) researches concernine the development of teachers and headmasters professionality in school; c) themes relating to self-evaluation and the evaluation of the regional school system; d) initial teacher training for teachers with particular attention to apprenticeship; e) orientation; f) training and tutoring of teachers employed in projects for orientation and didactic research; g) projects for didactic innovation; h) organization of several training activities for in-service teachers, as prescribed by Italian legislation, art.6 L.341/90; i) teacher training related to regional and UE languages; j) joined organization of activities for the cultural diffusion on the territory; k) training of the school administrative staff; l) co-ordination committees for the connection and collaboration of school and university.

LABORATORY EXPERIMENTS OF MODERN PHYSICS IN PERMANENT EDUCATION OF PHYSICS TEACHERS Luka Mandic, Department of Physics and Ecology, Technical faculty, Rijeka, Croatia Dubravka Kotnik-Karuza, Mariza Sarta-Dekovic, Physics department, Faculty of philosophy, Rijeka, Croatia We live in atomic era, the era of atomic physics and nano technologies. They are in cyclic relation: new knowledge give arise to new technologies which makes possible new researches and discoveries. The cycle period is getting shorter and shorter. People are exposed to so many informations about new technologies. These technologies are based on the branches of science which are not naturally exposed to human eye or other senses. The outcome of that is a new challenge for physics teachers: to maintain the consciousness about the world in which we live and and to follow the way leading us into the future. Here arises one significant problem. One could easily imagine a situation in which a pupil demands from his teacher some explanation on thematics that he read yesterday on internet, and the teacher isn’t able to give correct answer because his knowledge is restricted to what he learned 10 years ago. The only way to solve this problem is an organized and permanent education of all present physics teachers, no matter to which generation they belong. This responsible job must be carried out by universities or institutes of physics. It must become an ethic obligation for universtiy teachers. Here comes our team story. Many physics teachers have graduated in our institution, the Faculty of Philosophy (University of Rijeka, Croatia), during the last 40 years. Because of the financial deficits, our state couldn’t always support educational programs of modern physics with adequate but expensive equipment for laboratory exercises. “Blackboard and chalk” was a catchword (motto) for a very long time in this area of physics. We had to put an end to this . According to constructivistic theory one of the most efficient methods of active acquirement of knowledge is experiment, and we have to keep that agreement. Thanks to a big effort and enthusiasm of our team members, we managed to supply our laboratory with new equipment, and as a result, we have today six laboratory experiments of

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modern physics. Beside the education of our students, we intend to organize permanent education for present teachers who have had until now no practical experience regarding the phenomena on microscopic scale. We have started this work by analyzing the contents of physics textbooks intended for the fourth year of learning physics in the secondary grammar schools in Croatia which cover practically all subjects of modern physics. We have found them extremely rich in subjects covering different fields of modern physics and divided in obligatory, extended and facultative parts. However, the subject matter is given in a very concise, mostly descriptive way. Such books are useless to the pupils without a skilled teacher as a mediator able to choose from offered, to reduce or to give a detailed explanation . Such high level skills may be gained only by use of a methodical experiment which should become unavoidable component of teachers’ education. Interviews with high-school graduates have led us to the following conclusions: in spite of extensive school books, teaching about this issue is very poor. The concepts are not clear. The pupils neither see nor feel anything but statements on the blackboard which is pretty far from real understanding. In order to pass exams, the pupils have to learn by heart to acquire knowledge of the lowest degree, without any systematic concept. It is not their fault, but teacher’s. He is not able to present these subjects in appropriate way because of their own misconceptions. Anyway, our criticism should not be too severe. It is not easy for a school teacher to keep “top fit” after many years of work in primary or secondary schools. The lectures on modern physics are mainly presented in the fourth year of the secondary grammar school. Hence the time given is fairly short. This can and should be improved by permanent education of the teachers. We hope for good will of croatian school teachers to visit our laboratory and participate in laboratory demonstrations and educational researches which should become a usual practice. Beside the professional and scientific development of physics teachers, there is also another possibility of cooperation between school and university. The talented pupils of secondary school could do their final or competition work related to these experiments which are available now. On this example one could see how important is to have adequate equipment, not only for scientific research but also for education. Unfortunately, many schools and universities are not able to equip themselves at high or even mediocre quality level.

2.3 Journals and teacher training

JOURNALS AND TEACHER TRAINING - OUTCOME OF THE ROUND TABLE DISCUSSION Helmut Kuehnelt, University of Vienna, Austria RT3 touched upon essentially 3 topics, each of which could have filled easily the whole discussion time. First, Kerry Parker described her philosophy and work as editor of the IOP journal Physics Education, a journal aimed at teachers in schools for age 11-18. IOP gives Physics Education professional support, for instance it provides a fully searchable online data base. Journals of teacher associations run most often on smaller budgets depending on the financial strength of the association. Journals for school teachers usually combine short contributions on teaching ideas, proposals for practical work, which have been tried successfully, book reviews, etc. with longer papers on a wide range of topics. The latter include reflections on problems in physics education, reports on scientific progress written be experts for non-experts (e.g. similar in style and level to the press releases of the Nobel committee), discussions of educational reform measures – just to name a few. In a written contribution to the roundtable it has been suggested by Z. Golab-Maier that critical reviews of text books and of popular science books are urgently needed to make the readership aware of severe errors and to improve the quality of text books. Silvia Pugliese stressed in the discussion that teachers’ journals in national languages are needed, and that the exchange of excellent contributions among journals would be highly welcome and would serve the readership. This exchange is impeded by the necessity of translation which is a severe cost factor. Lillian C. McDermott introduced the second topic: journals reporting about physics education research at the academic level. Two issues have to be distinguished: a) Possibilities to publish quality Physics Education Research papers in refereed journals of high standing should be adequate. It is not clear whether this is possible within established journals which are devoted to educational aspects of physics (e.g. American Journal of Physics, European Journal of Physics) or if a dedicated journal with qualified editor and referees is necessary. b) It is necessary to bring the results of Physics Education Research to those physicists who teach physics. Apparently there is still not full agreement that Physics Education Research is a legitimate branch of research activities within physics departments, and also that the results have bearing to physics teaching at the academic level. Short versions of research papers with indications of their practical relevance will be read if published in Physics Today, Europhysics News etc. Full recognition of Physics Education Research will be reached, when Physics Education Research papers will be published in the Physical Review. Publications in educational journals like the International Journal of Science Education do not reach physicists. An important point has been raised by Marisa Michelini: How will teachers, especially mentors and trainers active in teacher pre- and in-service training learn about results in Physics Education Research? Can the usual ways of transmission by mouth and handouts at workshops be improved? Since this will have to address problems very near to the country specific educational system, a solution might be the establishing of a network either in electronic or in printed form. Loriano Bonora from SISSA (Trieste) reminded the audience of the modern ways of publishing online. He called attention to the highly successful Journal of High Energy Physics (published jointly by IOP and the German Physical Society) and the ArXiv, the electronic archive which replace the preprint system of the 70’s and 80’s. Online journals are useful within scientific communities but they are not expected to reach other groups.

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Manuel Velarde (Madrid) suggested that a service like Science Contents of Physics Abstracts might be valuable for Physics Education Research, esp. since many contributions are not easily accessible due to language barriers. In an email message Giovanni Biondi, director of INDIRE, offered to host an online journal. There has been no time at the round table to discuss this offer in depth. Recommendations: 1. Despite the many open problems – responsibility, editor, referees, long term financing – the reporter considers an European Journal of Physics Education Research and Practice (online) an important step to build a community of Physics Education Research in Europe and to demonstrate the maturity of Physics Education Research. Of course such a journal has to serve the whole international community. 2. To reach the practitioners in teacher training and in teacher development the establishment of support systems mainly on an electronic basis is recommended at a national level and should become part of the educational system. 3. Teacher students should become familiar with research literature and with journals devoted to their future profession to improve the information flow between teachers and between research and practice.

JOURNALS AND TEACHER TRAINING Kerry Parker, Editor, Physics Education, UK What makes a journal worth reading? Physics Education is an international, peer-reviewed journal published by the Institute of Physics. It publishes a wide variety of papers from physics educators, physics education researchers, physicists and engineers. In recent years the purpose of the journal has been clearly defined such that it is targeted at supporting teaching in pre-university schools and colleges. The publishers and the Editorial Board of the journal agreed that the journal should be aimed at the teachers themselves, not just academics and researchers. At the international meeting on science education held in Gaeta, Italy, August 1993, Clifford Swartz described the role of journals in science education as “Fostering change”, and this has very much been the focus in developing Physics Education over the last four years. It is commonly agreed that much of research could enlighten and enrich teachers’ practice. But, what would be a proper medium for dissemination? Can the journals bring research work to the attention of practising teachers? • Incorporate more support to prospective authors about relevance and readability • encourage educators and teachers to share their experiences and discoveries Luisa Viglietta, 1993 The traditional journal system operates as follows: 1. Authors write papers and send them a journal 2. Journal administrators send papers to peer referees 3. Based on referee reports the paper is accepted or rejected by Editor 4. Editor and Production staff design and layout each issue of the journal 5. Journal sent for printing and distribution to subscribers There have been many experiments with by-passing stages 2-4 using the internet for immediate distribution of information. However, the quality of the material published in an uncensored, freefor-all is often very dubious. E-publications by academics who offer a peer-review service depend on the availability of time, energy, a network of reviewers and a host site from which to launch the journal. Whilst some parts of the physics community, that depend on publication and on reading

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certain papers, might be sustained by what, in publication terms, is a poor product, physics education does not fit in this category. There are current numerous journals involved with Physics Teacher Training. For example: • Journals for school physics teachers - English language: The Physics Teacher, Physics Education - national journals e.g. La Fisica nella Scuola • Journals for school science teachers - School Science Review (UK ASE), The Science Teacher (NSTA), Science for Children (NSTA) • Journals for University level physics teachers: Am J Phys, European J. Phys Internatial Journal of Science Education, Scie: Physics Education A journal for teachers: To fulfil its mission to support pre-university level teaching (i.e. up to the introductory university level), the Editorial Board of Physics Education is composed of teachers and physics educators. The main group of teachers on the board are based in the UK, whilst there is a panel of International Advisors which spans the globe. We see the main hurdle in making an input into day-to-day physics teaching in schools and colleges as the lack of time and motivation teachers have to read about their subject. The first goal has to be that teachers access a copy and look at it! To this end the journal has been given a magazine-like appearance, and the main papers have been ‘wrapped’ with shorter, more accessible and obviously useful articles. In January 2004 the journal moved to being produced in full colour. The wants and needs of teachers – the target audience – have been paramount in the development of the journal. Articles are chosen with the following aims: • Aim to give student teachers resources and a feeling of being a member of a community • Aim to inform practising teachers in all 11-18 institutions (News section, People, job adverts…) • Include material that is useful and will be read by busy teachers - attractive and magazine-like The Editorial Board has also pressed the owners (Institute of Physics Publishing, and the Institute of Physics) to make the journal as accessible as possible to teachers and educators • Fully searchable archive • special discounts for school teachers • world-wide audience Moving away from the traditional researcher-publisher pattern has meant that the Editorial Board has had to be more proactive in seeking suitable authors. Most teachers get few rewards for writing papers and they need lots of encouragement to write! The Physics Education’s Authors come from a variety of backgrounds: • Teachers - tend to write shorter, ‘good idea’ articles • University educationalists - tend to write longer, more reflective and less accessible articles • Invited specialists -e.g. Physics of flight (“How wings work- Holger Babinsky, Cambridge University Engineering Dept) The production is not cheap. There is a small commissioning budget available for invited authors, but the main costs are in publishing (paying for professional Publishing Administrator, Publisher, Editor), in production (Production Editors, Studio, Web support) and in printing the paper copies. It is worth noting here that by ceasing paper production, the publishing costs are still large, despite the fact that many people in education expect web-based resources to be free! Over the past four years Physics Education has moved from being a research journal to being a magazine-like, glossy, attractive publication directed at teachers.

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LA FISICA NELLA SCUOLA, A JOURNAL FOR TEACHERS OF PHYSICS Silvia Pugliese Jona, A.I.F., member of the editorial board of LFnS, Italy La Fisica nella Scuola (LFnS) is the quarterly journal of AIF (Association for Physics Teaching, Italy) Other publications of AIF are a News Bulletin (Notiziario) twice a year and the so-called “Quaderni”, monographic issues of a varying number of pages, issued “as ready”, usually two each year. General information Number of pages: from about 50 to about 60 each number Editor: Rita Serafini, Secondary School teacher Editorial Board: 12 members, 6 working in Universities, 6 in schools Meetings: 4 times a year Remuneration: None Publication policy - Articles are not solicited. - No remuneration is foreseen for the contributors. - Submissions are blind-refereed by three persons, chosen among the editorial board members and external experts. - The referees’ reports are discussed during the board meetings. The editor informs the authors about the decisions. If necessary, the authors are requested to modify their writings according to the suggestions of the referees. - Significant articles from foreign journals are translated and published with permission of the author and of the original journal (an average of one per number). Structure LFnS is loosely organised in sections or departments, e.g. Didactics, Cultural topics, Laboratory and Experiments etc. The sections appear or not depending on the availability of suitable materials. Authors’ affiliations University, schools (mostly secondary, occasionally middle school). Diffusion The journal is received by the individual members of AIF and by a significant number of secondary schools (associate members). The actual number of readers is difficult to estimate. LFnS stands out among most Science Teachers’ Associations’ journals because its subject contents is only physics or physics-related and mostly limited to the highschool level of education, rarely to middle school and still more rarely to primary school. This reflects the specific nature of the AIF membership. Most other science teachers’ associations have a wider scope and this is reflected in their journals. They might span two or more subjects - from physics + chemistry or physics + mathematics up to physics + chemistry + life sciences + maths - serving a larger range of readers not only for variety of topics but also for school levels. One might argue that each issue of a more specialised journal carries more information tailored to the needs of the majority of its readers, while a wider coverage of subjects has the disadvantage that each reader would find a smaller amount of useful information. Editorial problems The two main problems are: 1) The inflow of contributions is irregular. 2) Almost no feedback – especially no constructive feedback – is received from the readers. The second problem appears to be common to a number of journals of other European Teachers’ Associations. It might be due to the fact that the teachers who read the journals do not find the time to write well-thought out letters to the Editor or, maybe, do not wish to commit themselves. In fact, critical observations are occasionally spoken out in meetings, for example about the “scarce

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usefulness” of the printed materials: but what turns an article into “useful material” is not very clear or clearly stated. What one reader might find useful might be useless for others and, last but not least, the editorial policy of waiting for contributions to flow in instead of soliciting them can sometimes put heavy constraints on what the journal is able to publish. Publishing papers written by teachers Any teachers’ association journal is happy to publish contributions written by school teachers. In fact, we think that many interesting and innovative experiences carried out by school teachers remain unknown because the authors – maybe through modesty – do not care to write them out with the purpose of making them available to fellow teachers. Actually the teachers’ submissions are scarce and sometimes they are unpublishable because the form or the illustrations or the textual organisation are inadequate. How to help the occasional writer to improve her or his communication skills is an old problem, as demonstrated by the following Appendix, that was written in 1993. The editorial board of LFnS does as much as possible in this sense and this task takes a substantial amount of time from the board members. It also takes tactful action by the Editor, not to offend the author, to avoid her or his feeling unjustly criticised, to convince her or him that writing an acceptable article is something that must be learnt. APPENDIX ENCOURAGING TEACHERS TO COOPERATE ACTIVELY WITH THE EDITORIAL BOARDS OF SCIENCE TEACHING JOURNALS Vittorio Zanetti, Department of Physics, University of Trento (Reprinted from: AIF-LFnS, International Meeting Science Education Journals Pre-Conference Book, August 1993, p. 117 [1]) Let’s start with two questions: (i) what kind of teachers – for instance which physics teachers – could possibly be motivated to write articles, notes, letters, etc. for a journal – like La Fisica nella Scuola – that is concerned with science teaching? (ii) Under which circumstances would these persons actually decide to write an article on the didactics of science? In Italy, where publishing an article would have no effect on an ordinary teacher’s working career (advancement through publications only exists in the Universities), the answer to the first question is that probably the following two preliminary conditions must exist for teachers to wish to contribute to a journal: 1. the teacher authors must have ideas that they wish to communicate because – at least according to their opinion – they are worthwhile and new; 2. they must not be intimidated by the difficulties of writing. Furthermore, any author obviously must be competent in his/her discipline and must possess a positive outlook towards his/her work. So making a good author is still more difficult than making a good teacher. A partial answer to the second question could be that the main, crucial difficulty with writing is getting started. Once started, it is more likely that the first article will be followed by others. So different aspects must be considered: first, how to get people started, second, how to encourage them to write more and possibly better articles and, finally, how to avoid their sending their production to other journals. Here are some loose thoughts on the issue. - The scientific level of the journal should not be too high, in order not to discourage the potential teacher author. - The journal presentation should be attractive. - The journal should be felt useful by its readers among whom we hope the potential authors would be found. - The potential authors would be helped in deciding the format of their contribution if every section (or department) of a journal openly declares what kinds of contribution it would publish. - As a matter of policy, the editorial board should limit rejecting contributions as much as possible. Instead, it should give suggestions to the authors on how to improve their articles in an interesting way, even substantially if necessary. Authors find it demoralizing to see their contribution rejected and it is also demoralizing to have to wait a long time before it is published. - Cooperation between teachers could play a major motivational role in starting and then continuing their collaboration with the journal. After all, good teachers already do cooperate with colleagues who work in the same school or in schools of the same district or who belong to the same local section of a teachers’ association.

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- The occasion for starting could possibly be found during in-service courses. - The journal or the association could explicitly ask its readers for contributions, for example through the Editor’s column, or through “policy statements” expressly made by the editorial board or by the teachers’ association, or through presentations at association meetings etc. - During annual and/or local meetings of the association, members of the editorial board could get in touch with teachers who present papers, discussing the ideas and suggesting new explorations either of a theoretical or of a practical classroom nature, from which new articles could possibly spring. - The level and the number of articles on science teaching in a certain country is surely connected to the levels of teaching and research in that country. If these levels are not very high, let’s at least try to avoid having the best authors send their works to other, national or international journals. [1] The Intl. Meeting of Science Education Journals was held in Gaeta, Italy, 25-27 August 1993. One of its aims was the promotion of stronger links and cooperation between Education Journals in the participating countries (European and USA).

A VIRTUAL LEARNING ENVIROMENT LIKE A SOCIAL SPACE ADDRESSED TO INSERVICE ITALIAN TEACHER FORMATION Giovanni Biondi, General Director of National Institute of Documentation for Innovation and Educational Research (INDIRE), Italy Scenario Today’s use of ICT is a main issue for all teachers either for classroom activities with students and for teachers’ training and learning. Basically, ICT are one of the modern expression of human needs: communication activity. This is particularly true in scientific subjects (such as mathematics, physics and chemistry) where ICT can speed the interaction process of knowledge/ information communication through the use of web based solution.

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Italian teachers are eager to share the experiences and difficulties in using tools and software specifically addressed to scientific subjects they meet everyday in classroom: “Hi, I feel alone in teaching maths and science in a Secondary Low School. I tried to teach science using school laboratory but school structures are not always in good condition to be used in the everyday school activities for showing students interactive programmes and simulation to motivate them. ....I found a software, Archimede, that I wish to suggest to all of you since it is easy to use and it has been created by a teacher of Secondary Low School. It deals with the hydrostatic pressure. Go to the website www.web.tiscali./muscolino where you can download a freeware version” To share perplexities on how to proceed in didactical activities subject-centred or student-centred? “Hi, I wish to submit to you some perplexities I have in didactical procedure: How many time a month should I use the school lab with students, to let them experience what they have designed? Should they do execises to understand theory or should I teach theory in a rigorous way? They do not know how to process exsperimental data...” Or to sumbit comments to other collegues on students difficulties: “Dear collegue, students thinking and cognitive skills give me the opportunity to question me as a teacher. Students don’t recognise that maths is present in our everyday life, so I try to bring them very basic examples taken from everyday life: going to buy vegetables means also having to do with mathematical functions. Students’ lack of motivation in learning science is because they consider school subjects detached from reality, a duty and nothing more! School structures don’t help us to improve this situation....So I think that we can only collaborate and work together, although coming from different school contexts. Italian teachers after University studies are very skilled in pedagogical and subject matters but they feel not ready to face students’ difficulties and other problems that may arise from students learning styles and from school organization. What Italian teachers lack is a place to live in! Puntoedu: the Italian solution To address the needs described above Indire, after the input of the Italian Ministry of education which issued the training general guidlines, since 2000 is being set up web based trainings for teachers of all subjects via a Virtual Learning Environment, Puntoedu. Initially, this VLE was based on a commercial platform but a lot of technical problems arisen when the program was launched. Because of this reason, Indire’s data elaboration centre (CED) planned and implemented a new platform. It is based on a Learning Content Management System including an authoring tool, to create and reuse learning objects; a dynamic delivery interface and an administrative application to manage trainee records and track their activities. The goals of this operation are: • Enhhancing interaction between teachers to create a community • Introducing a new solution of training specific for teachers, who can freely choose the learning time and place • Build personalised learning path, according to teachers interests and needs The Web Based Training offered was structured according to a blended solution, mixing and integrating different learning delivery approaches, basically trough the interaction of on line activities, monitored and supported by a mentor, and face-to-face meeting. The blended model in fact seems to guarantee uniform content and levels all over the country and gives the opportunity to share experience and collaborate among teachers of different regions and school context.

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The features of the model Puntoedu has been designed like a social space, based on interaction between people. The key issue is what the students/trainees actually do with the activity available in the virtual learning environment. Learning activities range from simulation to case study, from webquest to role play and project activities. In other words, the notion of a learning activity in this virtual learning environment refers to something richer than in individual courseware, closer to the notion of project and so student-centred. The difference between other constructivist environments and what this virtual environments potentially offer can be described as making students/trainees not only active but also actors, members and contributors of the social and information space, which enables the student/teacher to acquire skills and competences in a particular domain. In this way contents and learning objects are not strictly linked to each other but the key is the activity. The activities are supported by courses, resources, formal and informal communication. In this way the technical integration supports the pedagogical integration. Hence, the pedagogical challange is not to imitate face-to-face interactions, but to explore different communication functionalities that are effective in virtual learning environments. This means integration of syncronous, asyncronous and face-toface interaction which makes the learning environment an open space, self-regulated and in progress. All these elements are part of the learning path offered in Puntoedu that can be included in a skill-driven model, even though it does not perfectly correspond to it. To fulfill this goal a basic role is palyed by the tutor-facilitator. He/she supports, manage and activate the face-to-face meetings. He/she stimulates the debates and discussions, the critic approach to contents and activities so as to garatee a link beteween on site and on line training. He/she follows the trainee activities and training through class register, which tracks trainee’s progress, thanks to a tracking system available in the platform. The model includes also a variety of forums: general forum, moderated by Indire’s e-tutor and dedicated to the debate on the training model and the technical difficulties, trainee may have. There are also subject area discussions moderated teacher professional associations. Forums give to the trainee/teachers the opportunities to exchange experiences and difficulties they meet; the positive effects they obtain setting up project using ICT etc. The tutor activity is also essential in the virtual classroom, such as the above referred examples. This virtual space is dedicated to the interaction in between on site meetings of the group of trainees. It allows users to build up communities of practices.

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Using and working in the virtual environment The activities start from the first on site meeting. It represents, for those teachers involved in the training, a moment to interact with the e-tutor and the other colleagues mainly coming from different cities of the regions. During the face-to-face moments the tutor organises the learning path of each teachers and describes the lab topics. Teachers are required to analyse examples and decide whether they could be applied in their teaching context, as well as writing down their own ideas on the matter. Labs for science matter and for physic particularly follow the model of simulation and interactive demonstration of software. So as teacher learn to know and to use software and similar teaching resources that can be reused in classroom with students. Information of this kind are usually delivered in the subject forums. In this way teachers became acquainted either with ICT and with the specific subject matter they teach. The personal activities, they are required to do, are delivered in the subject area forum moderated by an expert. Although the forum cannot substitute the study the discipline which usually should follow the traditional ways, it represents for teachers a living place where innovation really happen! Official data and evaluation Until this year about 175.000 teachers get in the virtual environment Puntoedu. They experienced labs activities, shared experiences with other colleagues coming from different part of Italy and exchanged information and didactical resources. Two Italian Universities (Cattolica of Milan and Ca’Foscari of Venice) conducted the formal evaluation of the different training edition that INDIRE has set up until now. The criteria followed measured the degree of satisfaction regarding both the training model, its supporting learning environment and the value of the resources offered. What the data and figures show is that the online model of learning is appealing and motivate teachers, since it lets them be independent learners but in contact with other teacher in similar situation. References Dillenbourg, P. (2001) Virtual Learning Environments, University of Geneva Gardner, H. (1985) Educare al comprendere, Feltrinelli, Milano Ligorio, B. Le communities of learners, dalla bottega alla comunità scientifica. In, Costruire de costruire significati A. Calvani – BM Varisco (a cura di), Cleup, Padova 1995 Troha, F.J. (2002) A proven model for the disign of blended learning. Online: www.blendlearn.com Valiathan, P. Blended leanring models, American Society for Training&Development (ASTD) Online: www.learningcircuits.org/2002/aug2002/valiathan.html

3. Topical aspects 3.1 Initial teacher training INITIAL TEACHER TRAINING (ITT) - OUTCOME OF THE WORKSHOP DISCUSSION Gunnar Tibell, Uppsala University, Sweden Brenda Jennison, Churchill College, Cambridge, England A new group, meeting together for the first time, needs to achieve a common understanding fairly quickly and after introducing ourselves and the jobs that we do we then turned to achieving a consensus on the words which we would use such as, primary schools (age about 5-12 years), secondary schools (age about 12-18 years) and university or higher education (18+). Many other words were discussed too and the discussion was very revealing about the way in which teacher training is carried out in many countries. Amazingly, at the end of this, we concluded that we had much more in common with each other than we had differences. The group who met to discuss this topic consisted of (19-25) participants, from ten different countries1. Most were present throughout in spite of many other groups which they could join and whose topic demanded their attention. After initial introductions the group decided what they wanted to discuss and topics were written up, by the participants and leaders, on the board each morning as they entered the room. At the end of the day participants were asked to write down comments on what they said, or would have liked to have said if there had been more time, and these comments were handed to the rapporteur each morning. This report is drawn from the rapporteur’s written record made at the time and all the written comments made by the participants. A. The teacher training system The system of training teachers which has evolved can vary considerably from country to country, and even within one country , due to different factors, like: 1. the educational culture of the country; 2. the historical development of teacher training; 3. the school system; 4. financial resources; 5. the supply and demand for teachers; 6. or other factors not listed. We are limiting our comments to those countries represented in the workshop.. However the spectrum of systems had two ends which were recognisable by most of the group. 1. Concurrent degrees in which physics, teacher education and classroom practice were integrated into a single degree. As the degree progresses then the balance between physics and physics education studies normally changes. Students may choose to become a trainee teacher before the course commences or at some point along the way. 2. Consecutive degrees in which a physics degree is first obtained and then a masters degree or a diploma course follows, either immediately after the degree or after a break of many years. It should be said that there are many variations between these two extremes.

1

HEI Higher Education Institution. A university, college or a teacher training institution at the tertiary level of education.

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B. The ideal teacher In order to clarify the teacher training process we collected together some ideas of how we would recognise an ideal teacher Teachers should be aware of: 1. their own concepts and understanding of physics and the effects of these teaching; 2. their understanding of the philosophies of science and their effects on their methods of teaching; 3. the variety of teaching methods and be flexible in using them; 4. their students’ conceptual understanding of physics; 5. their student’s interests; 6. the ‘world view’ as seen by young people; 7. and be positive and respectful towards their students; 8. and be sensitive to the classroom situation. C. ‘Mind the gap’ 1. There are many ‘gaps’ between different aspects of teacher training and closer communication should be encouraged so that every partner understands what the other is doing. For example the senior professor of physics needs to understand what is happening in physics education across a wide field such as in the primary schools. Some of the gaps identified exist between primary schools, secondary schools, HEIs2, initial teacher training institutions, in-service education institutions, education research, and the policy makers. These links between different communities flow in many directions and are extremely complex; policy makers and higher education are not there just to dictate to the schools otherwise messages may not be passed along the way. Even the simple words and concepts which we use such as model, research, aim and tool may have different meanings in the school and HEI environment. If there is no common language then there is no communication. This language problem pales into insignificance when considering the ‘world languages’; few teachers are able to read education research journals which are frequently written in English. 2. The gap between Teaching and Learning. One of the major definitions of teaching is that teaching should bring about learning. If the student is not learning then the teacher is not teaching however much the teacher is talking, nothing is being absorbed by the student. 3. The gap between the theory drawn from research in education)and the practice of education acquired by the ‘reality shock’ on entering a school. Researchers in Education should be encouraged to write for the practising teacher and not just for themselves. Education journals contain too much jargon which cannot be penetrated by the practising school teacher. Trainee teachers should be taught how to access and apply the results of educational research in the same way as PhD physics students are taught how to do literature searches. Final assessments of trainee teachers, such as in written projects, should assume a knowledge of research related to their project. By learning how to access the research literature the new teacher would have access to continuing self education which could build into in-service training and further accreditation. Some thought about the idea of assigning a week to the discussion of the same topic in both the HEI and the schools made a lot of sense. For example the topic of Language could be discussed from the point of view of research on language use in general and language use in science education which could be discussed in the HEI. In school, trainee teachers could discuss the use of text books and written work for different aged pupils. In this integrated way the research topics would make more sense in the school environment. Trainee teachers need to be exposed to schools early in their training so that what they learn in the HEI has relevance to the 2

Austria, Croatia, England, Faroe Islands, Greece, Italy, Norway, Romania, Sweden, USA were represented in the workshop.

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practical situation in the classroom. Trainee teachers also need a lot of time to reflect on their experiences both alone and with the several groups to which they belong in the HEI and in schools. Filling every minute of the trainee teacher’s day with timetabled activities is counter productive. 4. The gap between Academic Physics and Physics Education (didactics, pedagogy, school practice). The didactics of physics education need to have more impact on the way in which the physics courses themselves are taught in the HEI. 5. The gap between teaching in physics departments and physics education departments. This gap is frequently created because trainee teachers must move amongst many departments in the HEI many of which may have little idea of what the other is teaching and how they are teaching it. There was also concern about the relative amount of time which a trainee teacher spends on different aspects of their course. This could be a real problem for European accreditation of teachers. A related issue is the number of academic subjects which a trainee teacher must take such a physics, other sciences, mathematics, and whether they are relevant for their future career. 6. The gap between those who are professional physicists and the rest of society in which they live and work. This is a major problem which needs to be addressed at many levels. The Science in Society movement has done a lot of good work but there is much still to be done. The wider community has a very important influence on the careers of young people and so the image of the physicist and the physics teacher within the community is a very important influence on pupils. The relationship between teachers and policy makers of all kinds may also have weak links. 7. The gap between physics societies and teaching societies. Both of these types of society need to talk together at the highest levels. Too many Scientific/Physical Societies tend to be exclusive institutions and school teachers are not welcomed as members. Sadly it is often the shortage of teachers or changes to the school curriculum which causes Science/Physics Societies ‘to sit up and take notice’. Support for the teacher trainee is essential as in many cases they may have no representation in either an academic or professional society. It was discovered that commitment to teachers from the Academic Societies varies from country to country and many of them have no contacts with schools. Indeed many Societies have either a passive or even a negative attitude towards the training of physics teachers. It was suggested that all national societies affiliated to European Physical Society (EPS) could do a survey of the percentage of their members who were school teachers. The services which the Societies provide for schools could also be surveyed. 8. The gap between the ‘conditions of service’ between physicists, physics teachers and physics teacher trainers is very real and it is felt most by those, such as mentors, who have to work in both institutions. 9. The gap between physics teachers and other science teachers, mathematics teachers and the rest of the teachers in school needs to be considered if only because a pupil may work with up to eight teachers in a day and the message about common topics, such as energy, could be very different from each teacher and perhaps counterproductive to the learning process 10. The gap between graduates from different countries and the international job market has consequences for all, particularly across the rapidly expanding European Union. Validation of qualifications, so that trained teachers can teach across the European Union, still need more attention. 11. Gender issues were discussed as a Gap because of the greater number of male physicists than female physicists in most countries though some countries reported that it was not a problem. There was little time to discuss the efforts which are being made to encourage more girls to take up the physical sciences and engineering. An example of research using video tapes of a lesson in which male teachers taught boys and girls separately and then together caused some teachers who took part to be ashamed of how they ignored girls in mixed classes. Some participants

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thought that gender issues were culturally based and that they may even be an Anglo-Saxon construct. (More research here!). The IUPAP conference on Women in Physics in Paris in 2002 was referred to. The Physics Olympiad appears to attract a disproportionate number of boys while the International Young Physicists’ Tournament attracts a higher proportion of girls. 12. Multicultural issues were also mentioned but the topic was too big for us to discuss in detail. Like gender issues it was more relevant to some countries than others but all felt that gender, multicultural and social issues should be part of the education of all trainee teachers. We discussed no further than declaring that there should be fairness in considering the culture and preferred learning styles of all; being fair to an accurate account of the history of science; being sensitive to considerations of subject content and religion. In addition other areas were mentioned which included, the gap between education and parental understanding and the whole issue that knowledge plays within the cultural context. Reducing the gaps We did begin to discuss how some of the above problems could be alleviated. 1. We need to ensure that there is public awareness of what teachers and teacher trainers do. 2. Physics education articles need to be written for physics research journals. The articles need to be integrated into regular issues of the journal because academic physicists have a habit of putting special teaching issues of a journal into the waste bin! More information on international comparisons such as TIMMS and PISA should provide interest to academics about the relative effectiveness of their own school system. 3. Teacher training for all HEI professors and lecturers needs to be developed. Some countries are beginning to experiment with this training and accreditation for HEI professors. 4. All those involved in training teachers need to talk together and arrange conferences together rather than crying out in despair. Web sites need to be set up in local areas to link all those with a professional interest in physics education. These web sites could be used, for example, to convey information rapidly on changes within one sector of the education system to another sector. 5. Maybe the only way to reduce the gaps in the education and training of physics teachers is to create a discipline of Physics/Science Education and Teacher Training. If some of these gaps are reduced then maybe the transformation from a trainee teacher into a teaching professional will be improved and made more coherent. D. Mentoring The trainee teacher is caught between two aspects of his/her training; the classroom practice aspect and the HEI learning. In integrated courses the trainee teacher has to behave as a professional teacher for part of a week and as a student in higher education for the rest of the week. The trainee teacher is caught between the demands of those who teach him/her in the school and the HEI. Mentors/tutors appear in many guises. They may be: 1. school teachers who receive trainee teachers into their school in addition to doing their own teaching in the same school. Some of the mentors will either be paid extra for doing this work, be allowed a lighter teaching load in school or receive nothing at all. Others will spend 50% of their time in school and the other 50% in the teacher training institution. 2. school teachers who are invited to spend a year in an HEI and then return to their school; 3. employees of the HEI. What is clear is that the role of the mentor needs to be more clearly defined. The first priority of most mentors is to the school students that they teach. If trainee teachers are to teach the mentor’s classes then the responsibilities of the student teacher, the HEI teachers and the mentors need to be carefully worked out. For some mentors their status within the school increases and promotion ensues; others just feel over worked with the authorities taking little notice of their problems. Some of those involved in mentoring suffered from a lack of time for thinking and doing research because

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of living in two worlds, but at the same time seeing the importance of this interface between the HEI and schools.. Mentors have a variety of duties in school: 1. Introducing trainee teachers to the school. 2. Linking what is learnt in the HEI to the knowledge needed in schools. Mentors should be part of the course design team in the HEI. 3. Helping the student teacher to come to terms with the complex demands within schools from designing the curriculum, setting and marking tests and examinations, and looking after school students and their problems. 4. Some may have to assist the trainee teacher to plan, teach and evaluate their lessons. This is normally the role of the mentor when the mentor shares the same subject specialism as the student teacher. This role normally requires helping the student teacher to evolve from a role of observing lessons, through team teaching with the normal classroom teacher to teaching complete lessons on their own. This may have followed a period of simulated lessons in the HEI for which the mentor might also be responsible. Trainee teachers take an enormous amount of time to plan their early lessons fully and so call on the mentor’s time for continuous help. Trainee teachers also need to practise self evaluation and critical reflection on their lessons with their mentor. Some mentors may video the student trainee teaching and then analyse their lessons according to some evaluation grid. 5. Mentors spend a great deal of time encouraging weaker trainee teachers and in the end they may have to recommend that the trainee should fail to qualify as a teacher. The Code of Practice for this will need to be clear and unambiguous as in some countries this can lead to litigation as well as a feeling of having failed the student. 6. There are also the training needs of the mentor to consider and their training of other school colleagues who will not have the advantage of close links with the HEI. 7. Many mentors in school deal not only with trainee teachers but also newly qualified teachers at the beginning of their teaching career. ‘Probationary’ periods may last one or more years and links back to the HEI should be made so that evaluations of the training process, in the light of early teaching careers, can be made. 8. Mentors should also have a strong commitment for the creation of a community in school and the HEI which is interested in life long learning and educational research. 9. At the end of this long list thoughts must be given to what should be done with weak mentors. When a trainee teacher teaches a class then the school students may not be taught as well as they would have been if their normal class teacher had taught them (sometimes they may be better taught!). School student results might be impaired and parents and school authorities complain. Everyone agrees that professionals have to take their first professional steps be they surgeons, lawyers or teachers and that they need to practise on someone but few wish the practice to be on them! Student teachers have the problem of being on ‘both sides of the desk’. One day they may be demanding work from their school students in school and the next their teachers in the HEI may be demanding work from them. This can lead to problems for the student teacher of an identity crisis nature. Another problem was identified for some, that of language. The word ‘mentor or tutor’ was reserved by us for the school teacher who takes on the role of looking after student teachers in school but what of the person who is employed by the HEI and who looks after trainee teachers in the HEI and in school. This person may be called ‘supervisor’, ‘subject lecturer/tutor’, ‘methods lecturer’ and so on. The problem here may be caused by the way in which the teacher training is carried out in the HEI. It may be the responsibility of one department, such as an Education Department to being the responsibility of many departments such as the Physics Department, Didactics Department and the Pedagogy. Department The supervisor is seen by us as someone in

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the HEI who prepares a trainee teacher for work in school. It was extremely difficult to assign a name to all the roles played in schools and HEIs which would reflect accurately what was done in different countries but this is the best we could do. Recommendations 1. The mentor should be fully affiliated both with the school and the HEI so that the experiences of the trainee teacher are coherent. 2. The consequences of this would be improved communication between the school and the HEI and the mentor would be able to participate in the design of the trainee teacher’s curriculum. 3. The mentor’s status would increase and they would be seen as the central person concerned with the learning and welfare of the trainee teacher. 4. Mentoring requires resources of time, money and materials. The job of a mentor is too important to be left to the ‘goodwill’ of those doing it. Mentoring can also be a lonely job and mentoring teams need to be set up. E. Examples of skills for physics teachers It is not enough just to list all the skills which a teacher needs to have but it is also important to find ways to teach these skills. It is also no longer enough, if it ever was, to say that teachers are born as teachers and that they know instinctively what to do. We must also remember that a physics teacher is a physicist as well as a teacher and these two ‘poles’ may not be equally balanced in the consciousness of any one teacher. 1. Subject knowledge (physics knowledge) is learnt in many ways in the HEI. In some cases physics trainee teachers are taught alongside future physicists and engineers and there is no differentiation of their courses. Others are taught their physics in an integrated physics and education course. Yet others will do a physics, or cognate science, degree with no intentions of becoming a teacher at the beginning of their course. It would be helpful to future teachers if physics professors had some understanding of pedagogic, didactic and physics education research knowledge so that trainee teachers were taught their physics in a way which would relate to the methods of teaching they were to use in school. Teachers need to have their physics knowledge firmly rooted in the Science in Society issues of the day and so will need to generate their own relevant information. Teachers also need knowledge from related subject areas such as biology, chemistry, earth sciences, astronomy and mathematics to list but a few. Trainee teachers need to work on their own knowledge searches as part of the assessment of their course. 2. Methodological skills are needed so that teachers are able to translate their physics knowledge into lesson plans. Lesson planning need pedagogical knowledge drawn from educational research as well as subject knowledge. 3. Practical skills need to be developed by trainee teachers so that they can design and set up experiments and investigations in school using standard equipment but they also need to be able to design low-cost demonstrations using everyday materials found around the home and the home workshop. Practical work in primary schools is based on using everyday materials both for reasons of cost and also relevance to the pupils. 4. In today’s world no physics teacher can be without computer skills. Pupils expect physics lessons to use up to date equipment for the normal ‘office skills’ of writing a report using word processing, producing charts and graphs using spreadsheets, using databases and the internet to search for scientific information, and communicating using e-mail. Experiments can now be attached to data loggers and the results analysed in more detail than ever before with great ease. However ICT workshops at this Seminar were dealing with this topic and so it only required a mention here. 5. Trainee teachers must be able to translate curriculum statements into teaching routes. National teaching schemes govern the curriculum structure and examination syllabuses are often the real teaching guidelines for use in the classroom. Each school needs to be able to develop their own

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teaching curriculum which relates to their school and then each teacher needs to develop his/her own lesson plans which take into account the needs of all the pupils they have to teach. It is at the classroom interface that teachers can use their imagination and enthusiasm for the subject which will motivate their pupils. It is also here that considerations of the social, cultural, multicultural, and ability of the students can be taken into account. 6. Teachers need to be able to construct a variety of educational tools for monitoring their pupils and evaluating their work. Testing materials need to be designed and the answers marked with the results being conveyed to their pupils in ways which will improve pupil progress. Examinations need to be coherent with the teaching scheme. Pupils taught by modern day methods, such as teaching for understanding or using techniques developed using constructivist theories, will not do well on examinations which assume rote learning and memorisation. Many courses today stress the phenomenological side of physics more than the mathematical, problem solving side and so examinations stressing equation manipulation and mathematical processes would not reflect the teaching process. 7. Self evaluation: Evaluating one’s progress and success or failure as a physics teacher is a skill which has to be taught. Check lists are frequently produced so that an observer in a lesson can make objective judgements using defined criteria. Trainee teachers are encouraged to evaluate their own progress using the same grids. ‘Every action has a consequence’ to quote freely from Newton and the trainee teacher needs to be able to connect what s/he has planned and carried out with the effects on his/her pupils. Knowing the epistemology and history of physics as well as the aims and methods of teaching physics aid the trainee in evaluating his/her progress. Trainee teachers are full of idealism for their new career and they should try to keep it; the jaded ‘old timer’ may have more knowledge of the practicalities of the classroom but they can dampen the enthusiasm of the trainee teacher. Trainee teachers evaluating the best and worst teachers they have met may help trainee teachers to understand what the pupil expects from a teacher. 8. Communication skills: Without communication then nothing would pass between teacher and taught. There are many aspects to this huge topic which requires a seminar of its own. Obviously the language used needs to be understood by the pupil. The teacher’s talk needs to be planned and questions need to be developed; worksheets may have to be written for the differing ability levels in the classroom; posters can be used by teachers and pupils in order to convey the results of the teaching process to everyone. 9. Consciousness of school complexity: Schools are very complex institutions and those who look after trainee teachers in school need to realise how daunting a school can be. The mentor has an important role in introducing the trainee teacher to the school. 10. The teacher is an individual but s/he is also involved in team work belonging to many different teams. The pupil belongs to a complex home-school environment. The pupil also belongs to a class (many classes) and to the school as a whole. The teacher belongs to these too, as well as belonging to the school staff and all the educational support services. A teacher who cannot work as a member of these interacting teams will be a trial to his/her colleagues. Trainee teachers need to learn team working skills by working in groups during their training . 11. Recent educational research has shown that there are a variety of teaching and learning styles and so teachers need to have many teaching styles which can be matched to individual learning styles of pupils. Unless a school employs individualised teaching schemes then this means that teachers should ‘play fair’ in using different teaching and learning styles in their lessons. There needs to be coherence between the aims, evaluation and teaching style in their classrooms. Teaching strategies for a lesson may include one or more of the following styles: • chalk and talk • teaching for understanding • discussion

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• kinetic activities • investigations • discussions • study groups • workshops • co-operative learning • games and simulations • information searches to find their own material • informal learning: field trips to museums, amusement parks, industry • collecting information from the science news • and many, many more. The total list is probably only limited by the imagination of the teacher. Trainee teachers in particular need to be encouraged to try out new ideas and to follow them to their logical conclusion, submitting their work not only to the critical evaluation of others but also to the trainers who must learn to use the variety of teaching and learning styles too. Trainee teachers need to learn in their own way, to work autonomously and to learn to ask the right question. To begin with they will probably copy their mentor and other teachers, they may teach as they were taught, but eventually they will develop their own methods. 12. Coherence: Trainee teachers need to synthesise their knowledge gained from physics, pedogogics and didactics so that they can relate to their specific situation in their school in a coherent way.. 13. Pastoral skills and knowledge: Teachers have to care about their pupils and their backgrounds otherwise learning does not take place. The level of pastoral care varies from country to country but most teachers would recognise the role they play as a ‘home room’ tutor. Interaction with parents, counsellors, careers guidance counsellors, social services and the medical profession may be part of the teacher’s role and the skills required for this extended role need to be taught. 14. Some saw that there were different levels in teacher training. First a base level in which students are taught their subject knowledge followed by a first level when they are taught some models of teaching physics and finally a second level when they are taught how to teach. Others saw the process in a more integrated way. How do you teach all these cognitive and affective skills? A teacher who had them all would clearly be super human! The EUPEN investigation on teacher training is a valuable resource for the discussion of teaching skills. F. Other aspects Many other topics were mentioned and some of them need much more discussion than we could give them. 1. Screening applicants for teacher training and throughout their training is a particular problem for concurrent degrees where the assessment is sometimes made on academic grounds and not fitness for classroom practice. 2. A question was asked about who screens the trainers for suitability to train teachers. Who indeed and on what criteria? 3. Careers advice in schools and HEIs must be fitted to the student needs.. 4. Many times we tried to discuss teaching packages for use internationally in a variety of training situations but we failed to get started on it because so much of the above discussion was a prerequisite before we could begin. However in the written suggestions handed in the following recommendations were made: • examples of good practice for use with trainee teachers were made many times such as those developed by some of the Italian members of the group. One experience described the discussion following the teaching of a first lesson with a class of pupils in which there was a video camera. The trainee teacher’s need was to give a good lesson as though that was a simple

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matter of handing over information. However concerns of interaction with pupils and discipline issues were not noticed until the video was played back. Both the mentor and the class teacher needed to discuss at length with the trainee teacher so that s/he was able to interpret the problems for him/herself; • the establishment of a web site where work on such packages could be done across many countries and education cultures; • video examples of good teaching; • examples of establishing good learning environments Maybe we have just decided that this topic should be the main item at another conference. 5. There was a call for more systematic research on what is effective in teacher training beyond the reformation of physics courses. This research should measure the impact of the training on trainee teachers, understanding of what it means to be a teacher. This research should then lead to defining effectiveness in teacher training and its connection with teaching in school. 6. Behind much of the discussion was the decreasing interest of pupils in following physics courses in higher education and this in its turn leading to a shortage of physics teachers in some countries. Is this just a failure in teaching methods and a failure of the curriculum content to engage today’s pupils? Does anyone have any good practice which significantly reverses the trend? The consequence for many countries is that physics in the lower secondary school and increasingly in the upper secondary school will not be taught by physics specialists. The prestige of other professions such as medicine and law is a powerful attraction for able school leavers. 7. There is a drop-out from amongst those who begin teacher training in physics and those who complete, say, 5 years of classroom teaching. This can be as high as 40% of the entry. Thus the teaching profession as a whole is getting older. Drop-out rates vary by subject and by country. In many cases the student has not left the HEI but merely changed subjects in concurrent degrees and so dropping-out should not be seen as a catastrophe in all cases. Better mentoring may aid retention. 8. Recognition of good teaching should be acknowledged wherever it occurs with the setting up of prizes. Teachers who are able to transmit knowledge in an up to date and relevant way so as to motivate pupils with a love of physics should score highly on any criteria drawn up for the award of the prize. The workshop group worked well together and we had many lively debates. We thank you all for making our job a privilege and a pleasure.

INTERACTIVE SEMINARS FOR INITIAL PHYSICS TEACHER TRAINING Laura-Iulia Aniţţa, Faculty of Physics, University ``Al.I. Cuza’’, Iași 6600, Romania, [email protected] Introduction The Romanian School Reform calls for substantive changes throughout the school system. It emphasizes the new methods on teaching, learning and assessment. Teachers play an important role in improving physics education and the main responsibility for the initial teacher training rests with the university. In order to obtain the “teacher certificate”, the students of Faculty of Physics had to take a faculty package of courses: – Psychology (1 semester) – Pedagogy (2 semesters) – Didactics of Physics (1 semester) – Pedagogical Practice in schools (2 semesters) – 2 optional psychopedagogical courses (1 semester).

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Over 90 per cent of the students of the Faculty of Physics generally choose to take it. In the academic year 2002-2003, from the students who had chosen to study Didactics of Physics only 21.15% declared that they wanted to be teachers of physics; 34.62% said that being teacher was their second option; 44.23% said that being a teacher was “one of the posibilities” and 26.93 % said that it was their “last” option ( the low salary and the stress of the teaching activity were their most frequent objections). The main purpose of the Didactics of Physics Course is to empower students with new teaching methodologies and to create an intelligent balance between tradition and innovation, switching the focus from learning to teaching. In order to provide our students with a high quality education, we implemented “non-traditional” interactive Seminars. Methodology The seminars are designed to bridge the gap between educational theory and practice and to provide students with a chance to apply their knowledge of physics, psychology and pedagogical theory to school physics teaching. The majority of the seminar activities are student-centered. Classes consist of student participation in modelling various teaching practices, analyzing curriculum materials and school textbooks, organizing experiments and laboratory activities, making lesson plans and organizing effective instructional units. Each student had to perform 20 minutes of teaching, presenting a 6-th- 8-th grade physics lesson in front of her/ his colleagues. It was to enable students to gain some experience in teaching, to facilitate the effective teaching in front of pupils, which comes the following semester, during the pedagogical practice in schools. The prospective teacher had to make the lesson plan, to make effective decisions about the content and activities, to select the operational objectives of the lesson and to use various means of assessment to evaluate knowledge.What students do as they present their lessons is based on their theoretical knowledge of physics, pedagogy and physics didactics but also on their attitudes. After each lesson is taught, the teacher-student assessed her/his own performance honestly and critically, but not too critically. Then the “pupils” analyzed the lesson very critically: the methods used, the selection and adaptation of the given curriculum to the knowledge, understanding and experiences of the pupils; errors in teaching situations; language; seriousness; good knowledge of the content to be taught; creativeness; what they liked and what they didn’t like; suggestions. All the students agreed that it is more difficult to teach lessons for the lower secondary school than to upper secondary school. They also found easier to criticize their colleagues than to self-evaluate and, sometimes, they made the same mistakes they criticized their colleagues for making: they didn’t speak loud enough, didn’t use an adequate language, presumed pupils had knowledge they didn’t have, didn’t establish eye contact with the class, etc. In general, they managed well, better as time passed , observing and learning from their colleagues. A few students couldn’t teach the lesson, even though they had prepared it ( the lesson project was completed). The students also found that it isn’t easy to control the class: some “pupils” were noisy, others weren’t attentive , some were late. And they had to struggle with real situations that occur in the classroom and to manage them. Although there is only one hour per week allocated for the seminar of Didactics of Physics, during the fifth semester, the new method of interactive seminars is a success. The students were actively involved, more motivated and became aware of psychological and pedagogical factors being developed in the classroom. As the students began their pedagogical practice in schools in the sixth semester, the mentorteachers commented positively on some aspects of the student-teachers: they were better prepared for keeping lessons, better prepared for doing the school documents, and they made conscious efforts to include learners in their own learning. Conclusions To teach physics, as portrayed by the new documents, teachers must have theoretical and practical knowledge about Physics, Pedagogy, and Didactics of Physics. The interactive seminars main purpose is to empower students with the physics teaching methodology, developing abilities needed

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to face the accelerating changes in curriculum materials and methods, driven on the one hand by advances in educational research and by new computer technology and software on the other. The students experience the realities of their first Physics lesson and learn from their own efforts and those of their colleagues. Participating in guided activities help prospective teachers to realize that effective teaching is more than knowing the physics content and some teaching strategies; it is integrating knowledge of physics, pedagogy, psychology , demonstrating an attitude, showing enthusiasm.The interactive seminars create opportunities for students to participate in the demonstration of new and different ways of teaching, to discuss, argue and confront new and different ways of thinking. We see the interactive seminar as a promising possibility in the reorganization and improvment the physics teacher initial training. References Ministerul Educaţiei și Cercetării (2002) Standarde profesionale pentru profesia didactică. București Ciascai, L. (2001) Didactica Fizicii. Ed. Corint București Pelpel, P. (2002) Se former pour enseigner. Dunod Paris

SCIENCE TEACHERS TRAINING ACROSS EUROPE: ESTABLISHING A PATHWAY FOR A COMMON SCIENCE TEACHERS TRAINING FRAMEWORK Cecile Van der Borght, Louvain Catholic University Elena Sassi, University of Naples Rosa Maria Sperandeo Mineo, University of Palermo Franz Bogner, University of Ludwigsburg Pierre Clement, University of Claude Bernard Lyon 1 George Th. Kalkanis, University of Athens Christos Ragiadakos, Pedagogical Institute of the Greek Ministry of Education Adrienne Kozan, Gabor Desco, Musata Bocos, University of Babes-Bolyai Stavros Savvas, Sofoclis Sotiriou, Emmanuil Apostolakis, Athena Tsagogeorga, Nicholas Andrikopoulos, Ellinogermaniki Agogi In European countries, there is an urgent need for high quality initial training, supported by good induction and continuing professional development. European Report on quality of school education: “Sixteen Quality Indicators”, May 2000. Upgrading the initial education and in-service training of teachers and trainers so that their knowledge and skills respond both to the changes and expectations in society, and to the varied groups they teach and train is a major challenge to the education and training systems over the next10 years. Report from the Education Council to the European Council on the Concrete Future Objectives of Education and Training Systems, February 2001 The way to interest children in mathematics and science is through teachers who are not only enthusiastic about their subjects, but who are also steeped in their disciplines and who have the professional training – as teachers – to teach those subjects well. Before It’s too Late. A report to the Nation from the National Commission on Mathematics and Science Teaching for the 21st Century, U.S. Department of Education, September 2000.

Introduction Despite the dramatic transformations throughout our society over the last half-century, teaching methods in science classes have remained unchanged. The basic teaching style in too many science

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classes today remains essentially what it was two generations ago. This is the main outcome of surveys taking place in Europe and in the US [1], [2], [3]. During the last years there is a growing body of research on how teachers of science should develop strategies to ensure that teaching is effective and matched with what is known about effective learning. The national teachers training systems and curricula in Europe are based in traditional standardized models not taking into account, most of the times, the outcomes of the research undergone in the field of science teaching [4]. As a result they are losing the chance to respond to the challenges of the 21st century and they are failing to capture young people’s interest for scientific ideas. In addition, the structure of science teachers training systems is not uniform across Europe and the national educational training curricula targeted to science teachers have significant deviations in their structure and context depending on the country. For instance in Italy teachers for secondary schools must attend, after having obtained their university degree, a two-year course in-school training. In Germany there are specialized University departments to prepare science teachers for secondary education while in Greece there is no initial science teachers’ training. The way to interest children in science is through teachers who are not only enthusiastic about their subjects but who are also steeped in their disciplines and who have the professional training to teach these subjects as well. Better science teaching is therefore grounded, first of all, in improving the quality of teacher preparation and in making continuing professional education available for all teachers. Furthermore International assessments, such as the recent Third International Mathematics and Science Study (TIMSS) [5], which tested students of 41 nations, show a wide range of attainments in science by children across Europe. Students’ achievements are neither related to the amount of time for science in the curriculum nor related to the amount of money spent on science education. Students will need not only to know scientific and technological information and to be able to do scientific experiments, but also to be able to know how to analyze and synthesize scientific and technological information. Factors such as the quality of teaching and learning and teachers’ training and professional development programs should be taken into account in order to meet successfully the challenges that science education faces today. These challenges make obvious the need to focus on and improve the training of science teachers. The need for high-quality teaching demands a vigorous response that unifies the efforts of all stakeholders in science education. The European co-funded project (Socrates programme), SCIENCE TEACHERS TRAINING ACROSS EUROPE: Establishing a pathway for a common science teachers training framework aims at developing a common initial and in service training framework for science teachers across Europe in order to facilitate the implementation of the “Report on the future objectives of education and of training systems” [2] using in particular, the exchange of experience between policy makers, curriculum developers, researchers, teachers’ trainers and teachers from different countries. The partnership does not intend to develop a common science teachers’ training curriculum for all European counties. The partnership - through an extended survey - aims to develop a series of main principles and standards that could be applied to the different national training curricula across Europe, taking into account and respect ling the differences and the diversity of the existing systems and approaches. The partnership aims to develop a framework that will give common answers to common European problems in the field of science education. General Aims, Objectives and Outcomes of the “Pathway” Project The focus of the project will be to observe and evaluate the structure of science teacher education and therefore design and test an innovative and effective training framework. The project aims to contribute to the improvement of the quality of science teaching. The overall contribution of the project will be the determination of the basic principles and standards for science teachers’ training across Europe, that will help teachers a) to increase their ability to monitor student’s work, so they can provide constructive feedback to students and redirect their own teaching, b) deepen their

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knowledge of the subjects they are teaching, c) sharpen their teaching skills, d) keep up with developments in their fields, and in education in general and e) generate and contribute new knowledge to the profession. In this framework, focus will be put on possible contributions by ICT, also in agreement with the EU global recommendations about basic science education of the citizen. In fact, the informatics revolution is producing in the schools a twofold, deep mutation of the boundary conditions within which the scientific formation is taking place: on one side the computer is more and more widely used as a cognitive and operational tool, extremely powerful and versatile as it is; on another side it allows the access in diffused an flexible modes to a network? of explicit, sharable competence supporting a permanent education. The general aims of the project are to: • Contribute to the improvement of the quality of scientific teaching in order to promote its attractiveness and its effectiveness concerning, in particular, the content of the initial and inservice teachers training curricula. This will be achieved by bringing together policy makers, curriculum developers, researchers, teachers’ trainers and teachers from different countries in order to design a common training framework based on the most important parameters of science teaching. Establishing a common European training framework in science teaching is expected to enhance the professional mobility of science teachers across Europe since it will provide the base for the unification of science teachers’ professional skills (one of the main aims of Bologna Declaration [6]). • Perform a correlation survey and analysis on how the different national science teachers’ education programs prepare teachers to teaching science. The work of the partnership will be based on the first results of the STEDE (Science Teachers Education Development in Europe) Thematic Network, which is comparing and contrasting the structure and function of science teacher education across Europe and surveying how distance learning technologies can facilitate the initial and in-service training of science teachers [7]. The aim of the partnership is through this survey is to identify successful approaches and expand the pool of exemplary institutions and well-prepared new teachers. In order to do so rigorous criteria are needed beyond those already used by teacher’s preparation institutions. • Identify and assess a series of case studies to be used as examples of good practice. The partnership aims to identify exemplary models of teachers’ preparation that can be widely replicated. Amongst these, emblematic? research-based guide lines and materials. These case studies will be tested in different environments across Europe during the life cycle of the project. The portfolio assessment method will be adopted through the implementation of these case studies. • Determine the main principles and standards of an effective training framework. The determination of the underlying principles that should govern a science teachers’ training framework will be based on the concepts and the theoretical approaches deriving from recent educational research in the field and the data collected from the application of the exemplary models. The partnership aims at the development of a pathway for a common science teachers training framework that imparts a deep understanding of content, teaches prospective teachers many ways to motivate young minds, especially with the appropriate use of technology, and to guides them in active and extended scientific inquiry, and instills a knowledge of – and basic skills in using – effective teaching methods in the discipline. The proposed framework will give more emphasis on continuously assessing student understanding, supporting a classroom community with cooperation, shared responsibility and respect and working with other teachers from other disciplines to enhance the aims of the school curriculum. • Prepare a series of four reports on the teachers’ training framework. The project’s reports will present the conclusions deriving from the observational and comparative research concerning the current situation in science teachers’ training curricula and will propose a science teacher’ training framework based on the parameters that could guarantee a high-quality science teaching. The final report and main outcome of the project “The pathway to high quality science teaching” will be the first step on a journey of educational reform that might take many years. The

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achievement of the high quality science teaching requires the combined and continued support of all involved actors, researchers, policy makers and curriculum developers, science teachers’ educators, teachers, students and parents. Project’s approach and methodology The project, through an extended survey across Europe, which will be mainly based on the work of the STEDE network, plans to identify the kinds of teacher preparation programs that are most effective. Then the partnership will assess these exemplary models in different environments in order to improve them and expand them. Based on this assessment the partnership aims to develop the main principles and standards of an effective science teachers training framework. In order to meet its objectives the project will evolve through the following steps: • Identification of the science teachers’ needs • Correlation survey on the existing training systems • Identification of successful approaches – case studies across Europe • Assessment of the exemplary models in different environments (teachers’ preparation institutions, schools) across Europe • Design and Development of a common training framework • Determination of the science teachers standards • Determination of the science teachers professional standards In order to realise the above-described plan the project will evolve through the steps that are described in Fig. 1. g

Examples of

Training Framework Standards

good

C a s e s tu d ie s

practice

A s se ssm ent in r e a l e n v iro n m e n ts Correlation

STEDE N e tw o rk

Survey – Needs analysis

Fig. 1: The project’s approach: The pathway to high quality science teaching through the development of a common training framework.

Following the clearly defined common goal of the Bologna Declaration, to create a European space for higher education in order to enhance the employability and mobility of citizens and to increase the international competitiveness of European higher education, the project aims to bring together the European science teaching community in establishing the pathway to high quality teaching. References [1] European report on quality of school education (2000) Sixteen quality indicators. European Commission [2] Report on the concrete future objectives of education and training systems adopted by the Education Council on 12 February 2001, ref. 5980/ 01 EDUC 18 [3] Before it’s too late, A report to the Nation from The National Commission on Mathematics and Science Teaching for the 21st Century 2000 Education Publications Center U.S Department of Education

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[4] http://www.biol.ucl.ac.be/STEDE/renewal/renewal_2002.htm [5] Stigler, J. W. Gonzales, P. Kawanaka, T. Knoll, S. and Serano, A. (1999) The TIMSS Videotape Classroom Study: Methods and Findings from an explanatory Research Project on Eighth-Grade Mathematics Instruction in Germany, Japan, and the United States. NCES 99-074, Washington DC: U.S Government Printing Office [6] The Bologna Declaration on the European space for higher education, Joint declaration of the European Ministers of Education convened in Bologna on the 19th of June 1999, http://www.unige.ch/cre/activities/ Bologna%20Forum/Bologna_welcome.htm [7] STEDE (Science Teachers Education Development in Europe). http://www.biol.ucl.ac.be/STEDE

USING SCIENCE EDUCATION RESEARCH IN TRAINING PHYSICS TEACHERS Ugo Besson, L.D.S.P. University of Paris “Denis Diderot” (Paris 7), France 1. Training teachers: didactic research vs. the reality of the classroom In spite of significant developments in research on education and didactics in the past decades, the impact on classroom practice appears insufficient [1]. One of the most important problems today is how to reduce the gap between research and the actual work of teachers. “This situation calls for new ways of encouraging and piloting research, as well as of articulating research and its fields of application… in other words, the question is: how can we make research useful, how can it be put to greater use by teachers, students, decision-makers? As we know, adapting research and practice to one another demands complex and various mechanisms, that ensure reciprocal knowledge.” This statement by Jack Lang, then France’s Education Minister1, shows that the problem has been given political and institutional consideration (at least in France). Studies on the links between science education research and teacher training have chiefly sought to integrate into training projects the results of research (concerning students’ conceptions, pedagogical methods and content analysis), to define curricula and the competences required from teachers, and to study teachers’ conceptions about science or teaching and learning. Research in education has led to recognition that students must build knowledge actively, and new approaches based on these ideas are presented to teachers in training courses. But in their everyday classroom practice, teachers rarely apply these principles. This discrepancy reveals a difficulty and, perhaps, a flaw in the training process, which merit analysis. As Pessoa de Carvalho and Gil-Perez [2] put it: “How is it possible that motivated teachers, who participated voluntarily in seminars and courses with the intent of mastering new methods and renewing their teaching, go on teaching as they have always done, adapting the innovations to the traditional ways? Teachers themselves are frustrated when they have to affirm that things do not work better than formerly, despite the innovations.” Research has shown that student teachers have their own conceptions and beliefs on science and on teaching and learning [3-4], very often based on quite simplistic models, considering teaching as transmission and learning as absorption – ideas which are removed from the proposals of research in education. These conceptions have been formed and reinforced by their own experience as students and, later, as teachers: they are resistant and apparently not easily modified by training, and if a change does occur, it has little effect on teaching practice [5]. For a real conceptual change to take place, adequate training strategies must be adopted, in which the pre-existing ideas and cognitive obstacles of teachers will have to be taken into account, as is already the case in the teaching of pupils [6]. 2. Using research papers on science education in teacher training courses Various proposals have been made to overcome these difficulties. Pessoa de Carvalho and GilPerez [2], for example, propose that teachers be encouraged to question the “natural” character of “what has always been done” and be involved in research and innovation work in science teaching. 1 Passage from a speech on 13/11/2001 to present the programme entitled “Promoting research in education and training” (PIREF)

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The present paper proposes the introduction of a direct use of research publications as documents to analyse and discuss with students teachers and describes one such experiment conducted in 2002 and 2003 at the University of Udine, in the two-years graduate school which constitutes the initial training for teaching in secondary school (SSIS) in Italy. The goal is to accustom student teachers to distance themselves from their work practice and gain a new perspective, to view teaching practice “differently” and to help them to develop a more scientific approach to teaching-learning phenomena (e.g. formulating hypotheses about pedagogical activities and then evaluating their actual results). One could object that it would be more effective to directly present to students teachers the research results, conveniently reorganized and adapted, integrated into discussions of practical teaching issues. That is obviously done the rest of the time in the same courses and in the other courses of the SSIS, whereas here there is a different purpose. The aim is to make the teacher able to find the recent studies on a topic by himself, to correctly interpret them and to use them to solve a problem in his teaching or take part in an innovation project. How can one claim that teachers welcome innovations and even propose them, if they are not accustomed from the beginning of their training to settle in a critical and scientific way the problems of teaching and learning? And for this, I think that it is not enough to supply ready-made suggestions and results, even though they come from the latest successful research, because they can appear as authoritative and non-debatable assertions. In any case, it is important not only to give these findings but also to make teachers understand how similar results can be obtained in a correct methodological procedure and how teachers can search for and interpret them: not only to give information, but also to make able to find and use it. Moreover, the custom of reading and analysing research papers should be an independent objective in teacher training, to promote greater professionalism and autonomy among teachers. In a sense, I think that there are four levels in the relation of the teacher with research: - no relation, that is, teaching only based on practical experience and colleagues examples and suggestions (level zero), - application of results and suggestions presented by a trainer in an adapted way (level one), - autonomy in finding data and research results in literature (level two), - taking part in educational research or innovations and/or in their organization (level three). I think that the aim should be that the future teacher, once in teaching activity, situate at this attitude in level two. It can be, I think, a realistic objective, considering that the course they follow is a two-year course after graduation, corresponding in years to a master’s degree. This practice can also favour a reciprocal rapprochement between didactic research and the reality of schools. Teachers might change their views on research works, which they often (perhaps not always unjustifiably) feel are too abstract, too removed from the problems they have to deal with every day, and restricted to a self-referring research community. Training teachers requires more than an “intuitive” empiricism, or a general theory. Teaching is neither all theory, nor all practice ; it is an increasingly professional activity, and demands a mastery of scientifically valid instruments with which to make interpretations, projections, and decisions in real and complex situations. 3. An experiment conducted in two sessions at the SSIS of the University of Udine In the SSIS, 200 hours are devoted to the pedagogical and psychological subjects (common to all sections), 200 to the teaching discipline, 200 to the “didactical laboratory”, 300 for teaching practice and 100 to prepare a written dissertation. The experiment was conducted in two courses of the “didactical laboratory” area: “Didactical laboratory of mechanics” in 2002 and “Exercises and problems in physics” in 2003. In the first of these (10 hours, 14 student teachers) the theme was fluid mechanics, particularly fluid statics. The course centred on a conceptual and critical analysis of the physical content and on a discussion of the most common conceptions and errors (using answers from a questionnaire as well as the protocols and transcripts of interviews with students); finally, it proposed teaching sequences. The second course (20 hours, 8 student teachers) covered the various types and categories of problems, with numerous examples, as well as the characteristics and the

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difficulties of a physics problem, the steps involved in a “good” problem solving activity and the habitual behaviour of pupils, the assessment of pupils’ solutions, and some didactic proposals on the use of problems in the classroom; a few hours were reserved for the simulation of didactic situations in the classroom. In both courses, a part of the time was devoted to the study of research articles. For this activity, the student teachers were divided into four groups, and chose articles on research in didactics from a selection I had made. In the first course, these articles bore on the design and the experimentation of teaching sequences on fluids [7-10]; in the second, they dealt with experiments and theories concerning the didactic use of physics problems [11-16]. The articles of the first course are taken from publications mainly intended for researchers (e.g. IJSE, Didaskalia, GIREP and ESERA congress proceedings), the others are published on reviews directly addressing the teachers (BUP, Physics Education, The Physics Teacher). All articles deal with issues and experimentations strictly linked to practical teaching. Each group studied the articles, partly independently and partly with my help, in class and at home. When they were working in groups, my role was one of mediation of research for students teachers, helping them, discussing the subjects with them and giving other relevant information. Each group then gave an in-class presentation of the research article studied; this report was followed by questions from myself and the other student teachers, and by a discussion. In the second course, the longer session made it possible to devote more class time to the study of the articles, as well as to the presentations and final discussions. Some groups chose two short articles on related themes, rather than one longer article ([12-13] and [15-16]). The marks the student teachers were given took into account the quality of these presentations, but were mostly based on an individual work they handed in shortly after the end of the course, in which they had to propose a teaching sequence on the themes that had been discussed. In this work, they could refer to the articles examined, to other activities developed in the course, or to their personal experiences and ideas. 4. Some characteristics of the student teachers’ reading and interpretation of research articles Some student teachers found it difficult to focus on the nucleus of the research work, getting a lost amidst unessential details. Others, I found, had a perspective that differed from the researchers’; I define this as a “reversal of emphasis on the particular and the general”. For the researcher, the particular experimentation that was conducted often serves as an example to back up a more general didactic hypothesis, which is presented at the beginning of the article, and discussed at the end. The interest centres on the thesis that the researcher is defining and on the more general implications of the results observed. On the contrary, the student teachers often seemed to concentrate on the particular cases described, and had difficulty stepping back from the specifics and details of these cases to arrive at the more general meaning of the proposal. This is, perhaps, an instance of the opposition typical of many training situations, i.e. the objectives and interests of the educator differ from the learners’. The educator chooses a problem or a situation in order to produce general knowledge and abilities, to activate a meta-cognitive reasoning or to help the learner acquire control and mastery of some didactic phenomena. But the learner often sets himself the limited objectives of solving the specific problem given, of arriving at immediate and definite answers on the specific situation under consideration. That is part of the pedagogical “trick” or “paradox”: to arouse interest in something which the educator sees as merely instrumental, to reach ends which are not stated outright or that the learner cannot see clearly, before gaining access to more comprehensive knowledge through the learning process. In a sense, a learner understands what he is learning only after he has learnt it. One characteristic way of “reading” a research article shows up in the comments of one of the groups. Article [11] begins with a long presentation of the theoretical and epistemological background, and the global significance, of the work; then it gives an example of classroom applications of the method it proposes (the problem situation). In their presentations, the student teachers briefly mentioned a few ideas the article was based on, then described the classroom

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experiment; only afterwards did they bring up the theoretical background and the general significance of the study. When I asked him about this, one student teacher answered that “We think it is more useful to start with the concrete example, the experiment, and then look into the theoretical and methodological reasoning. We noticed this, and our direct experience has convinced us of it. When I first read the article, I didn’t really understand what the author meant until the very end, after the classroom experiment is described – then I began to understand the beginning a bit better. Then, when I had read all of it, I started to study it with my partner; she read it, but she didn’t understand it well, and didn’t understand my remarks. It was only later, at the end, that we were able understand each other well.” There seems to be a difference with the researcher. When presenting his work, the researcher follows the outline that the research community is accustomed to (giving the context and references to previous research, to “situate” his own work, the objectives and scope, the main ideas he wants to defend, then the organisation of the experiment, a description of it, the results, and finally the conclusions and implications). However, if the reader is a teacher, he may have different needs: an immediate reference to a real classroom situation, for example, may be necessary to give a concrete basis to the theoretical or methodological considerations, which the researcher takes as a starting point, and builds on. The references to other research works are not generally taken into consideration by the student teachers, and in their conclusions they seemed to concentrate on concrete situations that might come up in class, rather than on more general aspects of learning or teaching. 5. Evaluation of the experiment The student teachers showed a great deal of interest in reading and discussing the articles on didactic research. Their presentations showed considerable personal involvement and it was often necessary to remind them of the time limit, because they wanted to give further details or personal reflections. Many used transparencies that they had prepared to illustrate their presentations, and these sometimes showed an effort towards synthesis and a personal reworking of the theme. In a questionnaire given at the end of the 2002 session, 70% of student teachers said that the analysis and discussion of articles had been one of most interesting aspects of the course, and/or that they would have liked to spend more time on this. Of the 17 final papers that were handed in, 8 took up the main lines of the experimental intervention described in an article, adapting it to a specific didactic situation, and 7 proposed something different but they explicitly referred to at least one article (two mentioned two articles). The discussions were lively and interesting, especially in the second course, in which we had more time (3 hours and 50 minutes in all for the four presentations and discussions). I counted 30 comments from the student teachers and 11 debate “episodes”, bearing on several topics, such as the problem of the time in didactic activities, the role of laboratory experiments and their methodology, pupils’ conceptions, inductive and deductive methods, the role of graphics and the use of implicit codes and schematisations, how to conduct “open” activities in the classroom, the link between mathematics and physics courses, and deciding what quantities or phenomena to neglect. Some remarks suggested discovery and interest, as this dialogue shows: “One thing struck me, I found it interesting that at one point the article says that in a student’s mind two parallel conceptions or models can be created, one of which concerns ordinary, everyday life, while the other is to be applied at school.” “Perhaps that is why it’s not possible, or extremely difficult, to change these conceptions.” Or, again, the following observation: “It would be interesting to read the pupils’ interventions, those mentioned in the article, to understand how the activity unfolds and the stages in the learning process.” In general, the student teachers developed an “affection” for their article and defended the ideas it put forth; yet there was much criticism, too, and some objections were strong and well justified. Very often, the practicability of the proposal was questioned: “It’s interesting from the point of view of didactic research, but for the pupils, in their curriculum, where does it fit in? I can’t see it.”

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Or, again, “The proposed method requires a great deal of time, while it takes just 10 minutes to formulate Avogadro’s law! And time is very important, at school.” But some criticism was more thought out, for example: “The teacher’s intervention in the final stage of the experiment does not seem prompted by any real need of the pupils”, “The best thing about this is the originality of it, but that abates after a while. It’s better to use many different methods, in order to keep the pupil interested”, or: “Perhaps some guidance is necessary, such as questions, or problems to solve.” 6. Conclusions The elements I worked from indicate that the proposed activity was viewed positively, and that the interaction with didactic research works was productive. The many positive reactions and the opening provided on a wide range of topics for debate and reflection are an encouragement to continue the experiment, developing and perfecting it. Some specific characteristics of student teachers’ reading and interpretation of didactic research works were identified, and will be useful in promoting a more effective relationship between research and teachers and to perfect experiments of this type in the future. Direct experience with research works may favour greater objectivity as regards teaching practice and classroom interactions, and help teachers to better understand their practice and to think about their own conceptions on teaching and learning. Research can, indeed, provide more accurate instruments for analysis and interpretation than can ordinary observation or everyday “commonsensical” experience. References [1] [2]

[3] [4] [5] [6] [7] [8] [9] [10] [11] [12] [13] [14] [15] [16]

Millar, R. Leach, J. and Osborne, J. (eds) (2000) Improving Science Education. Open University Press Buckingham Pessoa de Carvalho, A. M. and Gil-Perez, D. (1998) Physics Teacher Training: Analysis and Proposals. In, Connecting Research in Physics Education with Teacher Education. A. Tiberghien, E. L. Jossem, and J. Barojas (eds). IUPAP - ICPE Publications: Ohio. http://www.physics.ohio-state.edu/~jossem/ICPE/BOOKS.html. (Chap. D4) Abell, S. K. and Smith, D. C. (1994) What is science? Preservice elementary teachers’ conceptions of the nature of science. International Journal of Science Education. 16 (4) 475-87 Prawat, R. S. (1992) Teacher’ beliefs about teaching and learning: A constructivist perspective. American Journal of Education. 100 (3) 354-95 Fang, Z. (1996) A review of research on teacher beliefs and practices. Educational Research. 38 (1) 47-65 Ferguson, N. (2002) Une approche misant sur un changement conceptuel de l’enseignement. In Changement conceptuel et apprentissage des sciences. Toussaint R (ed). Les Editions Logiques Québec (Chap.4) Kariotoglou, P. Koumaras, P. and Psillos, D. (1995) Didaskalia, n°7, p.63-90. Psillos, D. and Kariotoglou, P. (1999) International Journal of Science Education. 21 17-38 Séré, M. G. (1990). In Relating macroscopic phenomena to microscopic particles. Lijnse, P. L. et al. (eds). Utrecht CD press 50-66 Andersson, B. and Bach, F. (1996). In Research in Science Education in Europe, Current Issues and Themes. Welford Osborne Scott (eds). The Falmer Press London 7-21 Besson, U. Viennot, L. and Lega, J. (2001). In Proceedings of the Third International Conference of ESERA. Psillos, D. et al. (eds) Thessaloniki 304-06 and in Physics Teacher Education Beyond 2000, International Conference of GIREP, Selected Contributions. R. Pinto, and S. Surinach (eds). Elsevier Paris 281-84. Robardet, G. (1990) Bulletin de l’Union des Physiciens 720 17-28 Reigosa, C. and Jimenez-Aleixandre, M. P. (2001) Physics Education 36 129-34 Tao, P-K. (2001) Physics Education 36 135-139 Bolton, J. and Ross, S. (1997) Physics Education 32 176-85 Campanario, J. M. (1998) The Physics Teacher 36 439-41 Merhar, V. K. (2001) The Physics Teacher 29 338-40

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IS THE “TEACHER-AS-RESEARCHER” MODEL WORTHWHILE FOR PRE-SERVICE TEACHER EDUCATION? Nella Grimellini Tomasini, Olivia Levrini, Physics Department, University of Bologna, Italy Introduction The contradiction between the dominant role of Science in society and the growing disaffection of young people towards science subjects is nowadays evident and serious. Many studies, among which the European investigations published by UNESCO (Sjøberg 2002), show that disaffection towards Science, in particular Maths and Physics, is strictly interwoven to the following phenomena: - The crisis of the public image of Science; - The failure of the traditional teaching of Science at various school levels (from primary to upper secondary school). One of the consequences of disaffection is the decline in students’ enrolment in university courses in Maths and Physics (the so called “vocational crisis”) that in a few years may cause a decrease of qualified teachers, also in Italy. The crisis is worrying and requires a radical re-thinking about all the overlapping and interdependent aspects involved in the teaching/learning Science processes: what idea of Culture school intends to promote; what re-construction of content knowledge must be operated for promoting that idea of Culture (Grimellini Tomasini 2003); what effective teaching/learning model looks like and last, but not least, what teachers are needed. The research work The research is based on the assumption that initial teacher education is a crucial point for entering the complex process of renewing Physics teaching. In the last four years an experiment carried out at the University of Bologna seems to have started a virtuous circulation of ideas among university researchers and school teachers. The experiment consists in the implementation of a model designed for pre-service Physics teacher education within the new Italian institutional context for pre-service teacher education (Frabboni et al 1994): the Post-graduate School for Secondary School Teachers (SSIS). Since 1999 SSIS is the unique channel in Italy for certifying a secondary school teacher: it is a twoyear closed-number university school divided into different branches, one of which is the “Physics, Computer-Science, Maths” branch. SSIS is managed at regional level as a consortium of Universities. In Emilia/Romagna (our region), Bologna University is one of four associated Universities but SSIS of Bologna is attended by almost the 50% out of the total number of studentteachers (STs) of the Region. In order to get the certificate for teaching Physics, both Maths and Physics, or Maths, after the graduation in Physics, Maths, Astronomy, Computer Science or Engineering, one must enter SSIS (about 100 STs per year at Bologna University), attend the activities briefly indicated in table 1 (the attendance at the courses is compulsory) and pass a final examination. The “teacher-as-researcher” model Within the “Physics, Computer-Science, Maths” branch, we assumed a teacher model shaped on the professional profile of “teacher as researcher”. The model is based both on a constructivist view of teacher education and students’ learning in Science (Grimellini Tomasini and Pecori 1998) and on the conceptual change model (Posner et al 1982). More precisely we think pre-service teachers should look at: - teaching as a project activity to be planned and realised with in mind both an aware image of Physics and Maths and a peculiar model of teaching/learning; - classroom dynamics as a complex phenomenon to be analysed and understood in order to find a good fitting among the different components of the teaching/learning processes and the subject matter structure;

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Table 1 – Curriculum at SSIS of Bologna University for certifying Physics, Maths & Physics, Maths teachers

Physics Certificate

Maths & Physics Certificate

Maths Certificate

“Common area” courses (24 ECTS)

General Education & Teaching Methodology Psychology Pedagogy Socio-Anthropology

“Branch area” courses (48 ECTS)

Epistemology/History of Epistemology/History of Epistemology/History of Maths Maths I Physics I Epistemology/History of Epistemology/History of Epistemology/History of Physics Physics II Maths II Maths Education Physics Education I Maths Education I Physics Education Maths Education II Physics Education II Lab of Physics Education I Lab Maths Education Lab Maths Education I Lab of Physics Education I Lab Physics Education Lab Maths Education II

Supervised teaching practice period in school (30 ECTS)

Seminars-workshops about school as institution (laws, curricula…) Observation of school life and classroom activities (about 50 hours) Writing a personal report about the observation period Designing a teaching project to be accepted by a special board Implementing the teaching project in a real classroom setting (20-24 school-periods)

Dissertation Thesis (18 ECTS)

Reflection on the work done Discussions with tutor and supervisor teachers Elaboration of the Dissertation Thesis

Final examination

Written task (design of a teaching path) Oral discussion about both the written task and the dissertation thesis

- classroom activities as “reflection in action” activity and as source of educational content knowledge to be shared and discussed within a community. The paper will focus on the specific competences SSIS aims to provide to Physics teachers in the frame of a radical re-thinking of teaching/learning Physics. The competences should allow a teacher to look at his/her professional role as curriculum-maker, cultural mediator and socio-cultural operator, at the same time. Teacher as curriculum-maker A prospective teacher should be strongly encouraged to live his/her future profession job as a creative work. This means to analyse Physics content knowledge from an educational perspective, design and perform teaching paths that should be at the same time: - “longitudinal” – the product of a overall re-construction of content knowledge (from classical Physics to modern Physics) carried out so as to respect and to foster cognitive and cultural students’ growing up; - “transversal” – paths able to open and encourage connections with other subject matters or other parts of Physics; - “culturally founded” – the product of an inquiring process aimed at situating a physical theory within a problematic context (at disciplinary, historical, epistemological, methodological, conceptual and experimental/theoretical level) as well as aimed at highlighting how the theory influenced the general world-view and, vice versa, how physicists’ world-views influenced the research programmes. Teacher as cultural mediator As intellectual, a teacher is a specialist in cultural mediation, i.e. in the process of: - shaping Physics content knowledge so as to trigger a “resonant approach for a cultural transmission” (Guidoni 2003); - fostering and supporting a teaching/learning environment where each student is guided toward the construction of a personal critical world-view, in which Physics has an integrated and meaningful position.

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Teacher as socio-cultural operator A Physics teacher should also be able to manage professionally the responsibility in the renewal of Physics public image and to provide students with cultural tools to reflect on the complex relationship between Science-Technology-Society (in its practical, ethical, political implications). The implementation of the model In order to implement the model, all the “branch area” courses have been designed as “laboratories of ideas and experiences”, in which STs are guided through a variety of activities, languages and situations so as to enter both the difficulty of the subject matter to be taught and the complexity/specificity of the teaching/learning processes. In particular, for Physics and Maths&Physics Certificates, STs are supposed to: - reflect on the historical development of ideas, on the comparison among different interpretations of the same theory, on the role of models, lab activities and formalization processes in content knowledge construction, …, in order to develop a personal way of looking at Physics; - analyse different texts (papers from research on Physics Education, original memories and papers from research on History, Epistemology and Foundation of Physics, popular books, and so on), in order to grasp what there is behind a physical concept and a net of concepts and what is hidden among the lines of textbooks; - analyse “research” materials (for example transcripts of students interviews, answers to questionnaires, video-tapes), in order to gain the habit of trying to interpret students’ reasoning and to think about possible strategies of intervention; - analyse conceptual paths as examples of Physics re-construction from an educational perspective in which lab activities, problems, historical-epistemological aspects are chosen and situated on the basis of specific cultural and cognitive aims; - write papers (reports about the activities carried out, short essays about selected Physics topics and related teaching strategies, and so on) in order to develop a personal way of looking at Physics teaching; - design/discuss teaching projects. All the courses are performed on the basis of some common presuppositions: - “interactivity” in leading the different activities; - “agreement of mutual assumption of responsibility” among teachers and STs for reaching the common goal of improving Physics teaching/learning; - “coherence” between the teaching model proposed for secondary school contexts and the teaching activities realised in the contexts of pre-service teacher education. The courses find their main legitimacy in the common aim of providing the STs with tools for living the teaching practice period as a real research experience. The period is scheduled in the fourth (and last) semester of SSIS and aims at supporting processes of “conceptual change” in terms of transition from “teacher as content knowledge dispenser” to “teacher as researcher”. The practice period is carried out through a cooperative work among STs, experienced teachers and university researchers in Physics Education, along the phases listed in table 1. The Dissertation Thesis is based on the description/analysis/discussion of the results obtained during the classroom activities and on the reflection about the whole work from different perspectives (cognitive, disciplinary, educational, personal and so on). First results The discussion will focus on some qualitative results concerning the effectiveness and the level of feasibility of the model. The number of certified Physics or Maths&Physics STs is about 120 and the data sources are: essays about ST images of Physics and Physics teaching, presentation/discussion of analyses carried out on research papers and teaching materials, open questionnaires, portfolios, teaching projects and, above all, the Dissertation Theses of each ST. The first result concerns the most frequent STs’ reaction of “satisfaction” in discovering the

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creative dimension of the teacher profession. Evidence of crisis is also frequent at the beginning of the transition phase from traditional images of Physics and Physics teaching toward new perspectives: The problem is monitoring and holding back as much as possible forms of regression toward traditional teaching practices that too often appear at the first clash with the class reality. The “regression phenomenon” is well-known in literature and it is, maybe, one of the main openended problems in teacher education (Abd-El-Khalick et al 1998). Since the first cycle, some elements preventing STs’ transition have been evident. The main evidence is: - lack of self-confidence in the subject matter preparation and the consequent defensive attitude toward new and demanding models (more frequent among STs graduated in Maths); - exaggerated self-confidence in the subject matter preparation and the consequent idea that one’s own learning path is the best possible one for everyone (more frequent among STs graduated in Physics); - rigid, stereotypical and a-critical images of Physics delivered by the Degree Course (Grimellini Tomasini and Levrini 2001); - high level of the demand and the consequence reaction of considering it “idealistic”, not respectful of the school constraints; - difficulties in finding supporting materials. The roots of the first three points are deep and it is unrealistic to think that SSIS or any form of pre-service teacher education can completely remove them. The last two points, instead, represent challenges for research on Physics Education and are the main commitments of our current research work. In the cases where the regression phenomenon did not occur, SSIS was able to support interesting practice periods, some of them characterised by the originality and the quality of typical research work (Grimellini Tomasini and Levrini 2004). A positive effect of the successful experiences is the interest shown by the host teachers who found the opportunity to come into contact with research results in Physics Education and to re-think their own Physics content knowledge and teaching. Such an effect is of great relevance for the success of the model since it is fostering the creation of a community composed by prospective and in service secondary school teachers and university teachers and researchers (in Physics, Physics Education but also in other disciplines such as Maths, Maths Education, General Education and so on): community which could represent a context in which teachers can realise a self-life-longeducation and researchers can check the feasibility of their proposals. Concluding remarks and open questions An estimation of the preliminary results shows that about 50% of prospective Physics teachers attending SSIS (average value over the three cycles) has been resonant with the proposed model. We consider such a percentage an important and encouraging result that however must be checked as far as the stability of the result is concerned. A deep reflection must be made about the other 50% of STs falling short our expectations and the questions we are wondering at: Did we “loose” them or is their transition phase simply longer? Can something sown sprout up or is the model completely unfruitful in these cases? At the moment these are open questions, whose answers should be searched in a tangle of circumstances, among which the features of the school context in which STs will teach. However, some factors encourage us to go on. The first one is the coherence of the model with the current educational trends of most European school reforms (Sjøberg 2002) and with international research results concerning pre-service teacher education. Another factor is the positive trend of the number of successful STs passing from the first to the third cycle as well as of the number of interested and involved host teachers. In our opinion, such a trend seems to indicate that the model implementation can still get better.

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References Abd-El-Khalick, F. Bell, R. L. and Lederman, N. G. (1998) The Nature of Science and Instructional Practice: Making the Unnatural Natural. Science Education. 82 417-36 Frabboni, F. Grimellini Tomasini, N. Manini, M. and Pellandra, C. (1994) Scuola di Specializzazione all’Insegnamento Secondario. Bologna CLUEB Grimellini Tomasini, N. (2003) Teaching Physics from a cultural perspective: Examples from Research on Physics Education. Invited seminar at CLVI Summer Course International School of Physics Enrico Fermi Varenna Grimellini Tomasini, N. and Levrini, O. (2001) Images of physics and pre-service teacher education. Physics Teacher Education Beyond 2000 (eds). R. Pinto and S. Surinach. Paris Elsevier Edition Grimellini Tomasini, N. and Levrini, O. (2003) History and philosophy of physics as tools for pre-service teacher education. In, Proceedings of 2nd Int. Girep Seminar Grimellini Tomasini, N. and Pecori, B. (1998) Investigación sobre la formación inicial de los profesores de física. In, Investigacion e Innovacion en la Enseñanza de las Ciencias. II 131-9 Guidoni, P. (2003) Re-thinking physics for teaching: some research problems. Invited lectures at CLVI Summer Course International School of Physics “Enrico Fermi” Varenna Posner, G. J. Strike, K. A. Hewson, P. W. and Gerzog, W. A. (1982) Accommodation of a Scientific Conception: Toward a Theory of Conceptual Change. Science Education. 66 211-27 Schön, D. (1983) The reflective practitioner. New York Basic Books Sjøberg, S. (2002) Science and Technology Education - Current Challenges and Possible Solutions. In, Innovations in Science and Technology Education. (ed). E. Jenkins Paris UNESCO

THE CONTRIBUTION OF RESEARCH IN THE INITIAL TEACHER FORMATION Marisa Michelini, Pier Giuseppe Rossi, Alberto Stefanel, Interdepartmental Centre for Research in Didactics of the University of Udine Introduction With more than eight years delay from the law that established it, initial teacher formation has been set off in many italian universities [1]. Its realization has been possible thanks to the contribution of legislative initiatives aiming at the semplification of administrative procedures and the introduction of autonomy [2] and thanks to a document [3] produced by the Commission acting as a connection between the Ministry of University and that of Education [4]. The main reasons of this lateness and of the difficulties encountered [5] are due to old and deeplyrooted convictions, which think of universities as a source of generic and non-targeted knowledge and of teaching as a form of art. The competence of teachers has always been considered as the expression of a talent which should be enriched and matured in a spontaneous way through didactic experience, starting from a strictly disciplinary knowledge, rather than a professionality to be reached through a specific formation. This is the most common conviction within the many people who are inexperienced in the subject of teacher formation, which gives universities academic tasks, not professional ones. The four main areas [6] in which initial teacher formation is organized [7] qualify the formative level. The apprenticeship and the joining of school and university are an integral part of the teachers’ university formation and teachers, recruited through a public examination, are foreseen to take care of the apprenticeship and to act as supervisors at the universities [8]. Other elements which characterize the formative level of secondary teachers are the following: the focalizing of the teaching profession on transversal, didactic, historycal and epistemological competences of the various disciplines, starting from the disciplinary formation (disciplinary degree), the obligation to carry out didactic laboratory activity and the attention towards a link-up between the formative areas. These elements allow integration in the initial teacher formation of didactic and educative researches and of studies on the innovative processes in didactics, and they qualify the formative process for a high level profile. It is a formative model which is vanguard and of high quality, very distant

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from the previous one, which sees teacher formation as a reproduction of praxis through the experience of the same actors. In this context, within the field of Physics, Information Technologies and Maths (FIM) of the University of Udine, the character of research in the formative process has found its carrying out also in apprenticeship experiences, producing requests for in-service formation for the innovation of disciplinary didactics. The telematic web which supports the apprentices’ projects has created a learning environment and has built a further professional contribution for didactic innovation. The formative plan for secondary physics teachers The formative plan carried out in Udine foresees the same formative credits (24 cts) for each of the university formative areas [6] and 30cts for the apprenticeship. It aims at the building of the teaching profession in physics, through the involvement of the post-graduates in activities of critical analysis of didactic research materials (cognitive, curricular, of development), the planning of didactic paths and materials, the organization of the research in preparation, the management and evaluation of the apprenticeship. The formative modules of disciplinary didactics (A2) contribute to a basic teaching professionality, for the most part centred on the following aspects: - problems, instruments and methods of planning, programming and management of general physics didactics, - critical disciplinary discussion on modern physics topics and on routes for a didactic innovation on these topics, - role, carrying out and discussion of didactic experiments and modelling activities. The didactic laboratory modules (A3) operate a sinthesis of the formative contributions through proposals of didactic routes and the request for planning commitment. Most of the laboratories have been divided in 2 parts. The first part completes and studies in depth the discussion of tematic proposals and routes. The second part discusses the planning of didactic sequences from the post-graduates, using an ample research bibliography on the subject, some of it already given, some of it the outcome of a research on internet and on journals carried out by the post-graduates themselves. Each post-graduate elaborates at least two didactic sequences of basic physics and two of advanced physics (statistical, relativistic, atomic, quantistic) and produces at least one didactic instrument of a formative kind (guide papers for students, learning objects for the web, multimedia examples, …) and one of an applicative kind (exercises). The planning of the didactic sequences refers to criterias elaborated in researches on the experimentation protocol of didactic innovations [9]. The instruments and didactic sequences elaborated are the object of a first evaluation carried out through an individual discussion with the laboratory responsible. They then become the object of discussion of the formation group, to be completed and selected for the apprenticeship, as part of a didactic class experimentation. The dimension of research in formation The critical disciplinary and didactic discussion of the research materials, aimed at planning micropaths and instruments for class work, characterizes the formation of physics teachers at the FIM in Udine. Main attention is given to didactic innovation, the strategies of which are linked to types of informal education [10-15] and to the contribution for the learning of new information technologies [16-34]. During the whole academic period, curricular routes are studied, based on a wide spectrum of basic physics’ topics, to accomplish a conceptual change respect to common ideas, through operativity [35,36]. The apprentices are offered the outcomes of national [31,37] and local [10-15, 38] researches, as a support for the building of the microroutes to present to the teachers. The materials, which form object of research, are the following: the microroutes themselves, the didactic strategies and the

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didactic instruments, which favour the learning of physics, availing themselves of experimental activity and/or of the use of the computer, all the types of didactic instruments offered as examples: grids for the preparation of entrance/final tests, examples of entrance/final tests, diagrams for the survey of the classes’ starting situation, diagrams and grids for a quick annotation of the daily state of activity, grids structured for the survey of the methodological abilities and of the modalities of formalization, protocols for the report on the experimentation. Every time it is possible, the apprenticeship proposes itself as a chance to experiment and research, articulating itself in the following phases: 1. bibliographical research in international literature, starting from the proposed problem [39] 2. Familiarisation with the relevant didactic instruments [40] for the research problem in question and for the didactic sequence to experiment, 3. preliminary (if possibile) testing of such instruments in the school context [41], 4. specification of the aspects that need to be studied in depth in the research dimension [42], 5. drafting of an operative plan for the intervention and modulation of the project, so it can be adapted to the programm of the class following the apprenticeship, in accordance with the teacher, 6. preparing of a didactic instrument [43] and choice of the others to use in the sequences to be experimented in class, 7. discussion in the classroom and at a distance of the project sto take in the schools [44], 8. carrying out of the apprenticeship activities in class, 9. evaluation of the work carried out and its discussion in the didactic laboratory. It is not only a question of acquiring planning abilities starting from the research literature, but also of setting some specific studies to be deepened. The dinamics which is activated for the realization of the apprenticeship projects in class foresees various actions. In the first one, the post-graduates chose among the elaborated projects the one to take in the apprenticeship and the topics of research to integrate it with. Afterwards, the schools which are available to undertake the apprenticeship work meet, in order to carry out a mapping of their disponibility to: 1) receive the apprentices, 2) face the problems on which the post-graduates are working, 3) propose research problems for other post-graduates. The projects foresee interventions which last between 8 and 10 hours, many of which are dedicated to experiments to carry out with the students. The main topics which were object of the apprenticeship were: a) for middle school: thermal phenomena, forces as interaction and mechanical equilibrium, equilibrium of extended objects and concept of moment, optical phenomena, friction, principle of Pascal and the staticity of fluids; b) for high school: conceptual knots of dinamics with traditional experiments and on-line sensors, quantum physics, phenomenology of physical optics and its intepretation, electromagnetic processes, staticity and dinamics of fluids. During the phase of testing the experiments and providing the equipment to the schools, the structures of CLDF and CIRD played a fundamental role [45]. Learning on the telematic web Research has shown that the characteristics and the role of the virtual environment are central to web formation, as a work space [46]. The structure of the environment visualizes the didactic and epistemological basics, relative to the planning of the route and to the role given to communication in didactics. As a support for the planning and the efforts put in the research, a module for the learning on the telematic web has been activated (modulo di Apprendimento in Rete telematica AR). It contributes to the planning of the didactic activities, to the discussion of didactic-disciplinary problems and to the building of the operative plan for the didactic intervention of the apprenceship, operating only on the web. In this case, the web is used to make available the materials of the project, including the discussions and the brainstorming activities, more than for overcoming time and space difficulties. It offers a

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chance to make things easier and a further occasion for comparison, and it allows to explore how learning environments on the web can be used: a) in research, b) in the formation supporting the planning and the coordinated experimentation of didactic routes, c) in the experimentation activities, which are carried out in the decentralized sites. The formative model implemented in the first experimentation (2002) of the AR module gives the community on the web the task of elaborating knowledge [47]. Therefore, it acts not only on the contents, but also on the structures of knowledge [48]. It activates routes of on-line research and action [49], in which the teachers build their projects, products and thoughts on the web. It is articulated in two phases. For the first phase the following instructions were given: 1. insert in the web forum interventions which indicate a problem encountered or supposed in the didactic practice or in the apprenticeship. The problem can be related to the modalities with which a subject or a topic should be faced. 2. intervene on questions started by other post-graduates to indicate possibile solutions, experimental routes or to share the difficulties, to understand the cause of the difficulties (in the experiments, in the models, in the theory, in the exercises, etc). 34 subjects and 136 sent messages were dealt with. Each message was read an average of 16 times: each of the 20 post-graduates involved therefore read nearly all the documents. If one analyses the interventions, it turns out that 40% is related to psychological and pedagogical problems, and not to topics more similar to disciplinary aspects, as initially suggested. From an analysis of the debate, it is possibile to detect a strong interest of the students in discussing topics of a didactic character. It seems that from a teaching experience, even occasional (most of the post-graduates in fact limited themselves to a couple of months supply teaching) the main problem that arises is that of finding methods and strategies to develop motivation and to articulate a differentiation of routes. The second phase, involving planning, was more difficult. Out of eight groups only 5 actually worked on the web, while the others worked mostly in class and then they introduced the material on the web. The materials produced are of a reasonable level and they make it possible to carry out a monitoring of the planning modalities. It was observed that the web activity, created as a support for didactics, allows to face topics which are difficult to study in depth and makes different functions compatible for the same activity. In fact, for example, there had been a different evaluation of the initial brainstorming, seen by some as an instrument to make topics emerge, and by others as an instrument to discuss topics suggested by the teachers of the course. Discussion and concluding remarks Laboratories and apprenticeship in initial teacher formation offer the possibility to carry out planning activities. Their formative value is measured by the precision with which they are conducted and by the relationship they have with didactic and educative research. To the extent in which they are the place of research or even only of fall back of didactic researches, they accomplish the formation of a teaching profession which is able not only to reproduce the existing styles, but also to develop and improve the school system. They therefore become the linch-pin of the relationship between schools and universities, in a prospect of collaboration, also able to offer innovation and in-service formation to the teachers. The three year experimentation carried out in Udine within the Specialisation School for Secondary Teachers has integrated didactic research in the formative plan within the disciplinary didactics, the didactic laboratories and the apprenticeship. It has already produced outcomes resulting in positive evaluations of the experience from both the apprentices, and the academic world, which got to know them. The research also became an element of the planning of didactic microroutes for the apprenticeship. The aspects most frequently object of attention from the post-graduates were the following: innovative settings and didactic strategies, interaction between the teacher and the student, role of the computer for the overcoming of conceptual knots, validation of

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the didactic instruments found in literature. The difficulty most commonly encountered concerns the coherence of the pedagogical assumptions and the characteristics of the materials proposed. A unnaware coexistence of different formative models often emerged, and among them the directive model and the model of transmission of knowledge borrowed through imitation from previous formative experiences (in the schools and in universities) often re-emerged. The fact of confronting oneself in the research work often favoured the overcoming of these aspects. In approaching the problems a significant change was encountered in those graduated in biological sciences: they moved from a setting in which the interpretative-assertive aspects were propedeutic and prevalent, to a setting were the importance of distinguishing the exploring, hypothetical / observative, descriptive and interpretative phases was recognised. The critical discussion (both in the tutoring phase, and in the laboratories) on the projects of didactic intervention was also the basis for overcoming many of the disciplinary difficulties emphasized. The bigger security regarding contents which graduates in physics and maths have tends to weaken their critical attitude, to hide possibile disciplinary problems and underestimate learning problems linked to the students’ spontaneous concepts. The research dimension is a breakthrough in these commonplaces and contributes to enriching cultural formation in professional terms. Evaluation and, in general, the object of evaluation, is another delicate aspect of the formative process for all the post-graduates. In fact, the distinction between judging learning and judging a performance, between judging a teaching / learning process and verifying knowledge isn’t always clear to them. Everyone tends to give great importance to the capability of solving quantitative problems, as if this were an indicator of comprehension and conceptual development and also of the effectiveness of teaching. It is therefore particularly important that future teachers face the problems connected to research in disciplinary research, so that university formation can represent a moment for the growing and improvement of secondary didactics, built through the critical analysis of settings, strategies and methods, and doesn’t reduce itself to the mere aknowledgement of materials or to the reproduction of unconscious models. Methodological precision is equally important for the experimentation and research - action in classes phase, with a monitoring in itinere, as well as instruments controlling the entrance and exit as regards the intervention. The periodical checking of the activity’s state implies frequent interactions, mostly on the telematic web, between the apprentice- supervisor and/or the teacher. The telematic web, as a learning and planning environment is therefore an important formation element for teachers. Notes and bibliographical references. [1]

[2] [3] [4] [5] [6] [7] [8] [9]

Law n.341 of 19.11.1990 institutes the university formation of teachers, facing a problem which has been very felt in our country since after the war. The degree in Primary Formation Science (Corso di Laurea in Scienze della Formazione Primaria) was started in 1998 and the Specialization School for Secondary Teaching (Scuola di Specializzazione per l’Insegnamento Secondario – SSIS -) the following year, in 1999. D.P.R. 31.7.1996 n.470 and law 15.5.1997 n.127 DM 6.5.98, General Criteria for the degree courses in Primary Formation Sciences and Specialization School for Secondary Teaching, Ue S, III, 2/N, 1998. The Commission MURST-MPI was established with the law 168/1989, to guarantee the connection between the two ministries in all the matters involving the formation of teachers and formative continuity. The delay in foreseeing initial teacher formation was accompanied by a difficult realization plan, documented from 1996 to tofay by the journal Università e Scuola (UeS), published by ConCURED, in collaboration with the University of Udine A1 – formation for the teaching profession, A2 – formative contents of the courses (disciplinary didactics), A3 – laboratory (didactic), A4 - apprenticeship. DM 6.5.98, Geneal Criteria for the degree courses in Primary Formation Sciences and Specialization School for Secondary Teaching, UeS, III, 2/N, 1998. Law n. 315 of 31.8.98, “Financial Interventions for universities and research” (“Interventi finanziari per l’università e la ricerca”), Criteria transmitted to the universities from the MURST-MPI commission (established with law 198/1989) the 5.6.98 and 7.7.98, UeS, III, 3/N, 1998. M L Aiello Nicosia, E Balzano, N Bergomi, L Borghi, E Giordano, V Capocchiani, F Corni, A De Ambrosis, C Marioni, P Mascheretti, E Mazzega, M Michelini, O Robutti, L Santi, E Sassi, R M Sperandeo Mineo, L

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[10] [11]

[12]

[13] [14] [15] [16] [17] [18] [19] [20] [21] [22] [23] [24] [25] [26] [27] [28] [29] [30] [31] [32] [33] [34]

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Viglietta, G Vegni, P Violino, Teaching mechanical oscillations using an integrate curriculum, International Journal in research on Science Education, 19, 8, 1997, p.981-995. S Bosio, V.Capocchiani, M. Michelini, S. Pugliese Jona, C. Sartori, M.L. Scillia, A. Stefanel, Playing, experimenting, thinking: exploring informal learning within an exhibit of simple experiments, in New Way for Teaching, Girep book, Ljubljana 1997 S Bosio, A Di Pierro, G Meneghin, M Michelini, P Parmeggiani, L Santi, A multimedial proposal for informal education in the scientific field: a contribution to the bridge between everiday life and scientific knowledge, European Multimedia Workshop, Lille, 1998; International Conference on Science Education for the 21st Century - SciEd21 Book, K Papp, Z Varga, I Csiszar, P Sik eds, Szeged University, Hungary 1999 S Bosio, M Michelini, L Santi, C Sartori, A Stefanel, A research on conceptual change processes in the context of an informal educational exhibit, Wirescript (Web Information REpository on Scientific Culture Research Innovation Policy and Technology) Magazine (with refereed papers: C del Papa (editor), A M Kendoff, P Barberio Corsetti (coeditors), editorial board: G Barbiellini, C Boulin, M Hammel, G Franceschetti, G Scalera McClintock, K M Smith), novembre ‘99 (www.wirescript.net) S Bosio, M Michelini, S Pugliese Jona, C Sartori, A Stefanel, A research on conceptual change processes in the context of an informal educational exhibit, in Research in Science Education in Europe: the picture expands, M Bandiera, S Caravita, E Torracca, M Vicentini eds, Roma 2001, p.279 A Stefanel, C. Moschetta, M. Michelini, Cognitive Labs in an informal context to develop formal thinking in children, in Developing Formal Thinking in Physics, Girep Book of selected papers, Forum, Udine, 2002 (ISBN: 888420-148-9) Lucia Cibin, Marisa Michelini, Adriana Odorico, Alberto Stefanel, Formalization processes in learning physics at 6-11 years old, ESERA, Utrecht, 2003 G.Calore, A.Loria, E.Mazzega, M.Michelini, A.Sconza, G.Torzo, An Undergraduate Laboratory Mossbauer Apparatus, Eur. J. Phys. 11(1990) 343-351 F Corni, V Mascellani, E Mazzega, M Michelini, G Ottaviani, A simple on-line system employed in diffraction experiments, in Light and Information, Girep book, L C Pereira, J A Ferreira, H A Lopes Editors, Univ. do Minho, Braga 1993 M Caporaloni, R Ambrosini, M Michelini, A Didactical Impressive Estimation of the Speed of Light, GIREP Book Light and Information, L C Pereira, J A Ferreira, H A Lopes Ed., Univ. do Minho, Braga 1993 F Corni, E Mazzega, M Michelini, G Ottaviani, Understand time resolved reflectivity by simple experiments, GIREP Book Light and Information, L C Pereira, J A Ferreira, H A Lopes, Univ. do Minho, Braga 1993 L Santi, E Mazzega, M Michelini, Understand radiation Interference by means of computer modelling, GIREP Book Light and Information, L C Pereira, J A Ferreira, H A Lopes, Univ. do Minho, Braga 1993 M Michelini, M Tomaz, Optical experiments and computer modeling: workshop report, GIREP Book Light and Information, L C Pereira, J A Ferreira, H A Lopes, Univ. do Minho, Braga 1993 M Caporaloni, M Michelini , Calibration of meteorological sensors to get a conscious use of the instruments in the physics laboratory, ICPE Book A Planet in our Hands, G Marx Ed., Budapest 1995 S Bosio, M Michelini, L Santi, From an incandescent lamp to the electrical properties of tungsten, in Teaching the Science of Condensed Matter and New Materials, GIREP-ICPE Book, Forum, Udine, 1996, p.216 S Bosio, V Capocchiani, M Michelini, L Santi, Computer on-line to explore thermal properties of matter, in Teaching the Science of Condensed Matter and New Materials, GIREP-ICPE Book, Forum 1996, p.351 E Mazzega, M Michelini, Termografo: a computer on-line acquisition system for physics education, in Teaching the Science of Condensed Matter and New Materials, GIREP-ICPE Book, Forum, Udine, 1996, p.239 E Mazzega, M Michelini, On-line measurements of thermal conduction in solids: an experiments for high school and undergraduate students, in Teaching the Science of Condensed Matter and New Materials, GIREP-ICPE Book, Forum, Udine, 1996 A Frisina, M Michelini, Physical optics with on-line measurements of light intensity, in Teaching the Science of Condensed Matter and New Materials, GIREP-ICPE Book, Forum, Udine, 1996, p.162 Marisa Michelini, Silvia Pugliese Jona, Computers for Learning Physics, Malta Science Fundation book, 1997; Wirescript marzo ‘99 (www.wirescript.net) M Michelini, L Santi, A bouncing ball to learn mechanics, in Physics Teacher Education Beyond 2000 (Phyteb2000), R.Pinto, S. Surinach Eds., Girep book - Selected contributions of the Phyteb2000 International Conference, Elsevier, Paris, 2001, p.147 R. Martongelli, M Michelini, L Santi, A Stefanel, Educational Proposals using New Technologies and Telematic Net for Physics, in Physics Teacher Education Beyond 2000 (Phyteb2000), R.Pinto, S. Surinach Eds., Girep book - Selected contributions of the Phyteb2000 International Conference, Elsevier, Paris, 2001, p.615 F Corni, M Michelini, Phase diagrams and metallurgy: a physics learning proposal in a technological context, in Physics in new fields, Girep International Conference proceedings, Lund 2002 M Cobal, F Corni, M Michelini, L Santi, A Stefanel, A resource environment to learn optical polarization, in Physics in new fields, Girep International Conference proceedings, Lund 2002 M Michelini, M Cobal eds, Developing Formal Thinking in Physics, Girep book of selected contributions, Forum, Udine, 2002 (ISBN: 88-8420-148-9) The research conducted by the Research Unit in Physics Didactics (Unità di Ricerca in Didattica della Fisica)

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[35] [36] [37] [38] [39]

[40]

[41] [

42]

[43] [44] [45] [46] [47] [48] [49]

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within national collaborations are documented on the following web pages: www.fisica.uniud.it/URDF/ e www.uniud.it/cird/ Pines L, West L, Conceptual urderstanding and science lerning: an interpretation of research within a sourceof-knowledge framework, Science Education, 5, 1986; Linder C J, A challenge to conceptual change, Science Education, 77, 1993: Vicentini M, Mayer M, Didattica della Fisica, Cap. III, La Nuova Itlai, Firenze, 1996. Griffith J, Morrison P, 1972 Reflections on a decade of grade-school science, Phys. Today, 25 (6) 29-34; Karplus R, 1972, Physics for beginners, Phys. Today, 25 (6) 36-47; Renner J W, Stafford D G, Coffia W J, Kellogg D H, Weber M C, 1973, An evaluation of the Science Curriculum Improvement Study, Sch. Sci. Math., 73 291-318. Marucci G, Michelini M, Santi L, The italian Pilot Project LabTec of the Ministry of Education, in Rinto, Surinach S ed, Physic Teacher Education Beyond 2000, Girep ICPE Conf, Elsevier, Paris, 2001..p. 607. M Michelini, A Mossenta, The EPC Project - Explorating Planning, Communicating, in Physics Teacher Education Beyond 2000 (Phyteb2000), R.Pinto, S. Surinach Eds., Girep book - Selected contributions of the Phyteb2000 International Conference, Elsevier, Paris, 2001, p.457. The problems are ample, as always, but they are defined and can be of different nature. An example is given by the following: conceptual knots and learning difficulties in machanics, role of modelling with a computer in the learning of physics models; relationship between theory and experimentation in physics didactics; reasoning diagrams produced by a historical approach to thermodynamics and difficulties in the analysis of thermodynamic transformations; evidence and measurement of the energy transmitted by light, role of the graphical rappresentation in real time for the formalisation in physics. The instruments are: software, experiments, diagnostical tests, work sheets, interview protocols, multimedial instruments. The familiarization takes place within the courses, but also autonomously, by the post-graduates on their own or with the help of expert teachers, thanks to the presence at Udine of the Laboratory Centre for Physics Didactics (Centro Laboratorio per la Didattica della Fisica – CLDF -) of the CIRD, which is a place where university professors and secondary teachers operate together for didactic research activity and support to secondary didactics. Some post-graduates teach and take the opportunity to explore the validity of the single didactic instruments in their classes, bifore integrating them in a project. Within the problems posed some specific aspect are detected, such as: a) the esplorative capacities of a test on friction; b) differiential learning produced by a didactic sequence; c) adequacy of entry and final tests; d) management of the comparison between pilot classes and controlling classes. The planning starti from the instrument studied in literature and personally tested, changed in view of the micro-problem and set objectives, which can be meant to explore learning problems, didactical ones (strategies, method, management of didactic activity) or curricular. This achieves a cooperative learning environment, which strenghthens with the work of each person the content of the laboratories. The Cird of the University of Udine has documentated on a web site (www.uniud.it/cird/) its main activities, sometimes also described in UeS. Rossi P G, Ambienti di apprendimento, FORM@RE n°4 ottobre 2001, on line journal available on the web at the following address http://formare.erickson.it Calvani A, Rotta M, Comunicazione ed apprendimento in Internet, Erickson, Trento 1999 Rossi P G, Dal testo alla rete, Tecnodid, Napoli, 2000 Calvani A, Rotta M, Fare formazione in Internet, Erickson, Trento 2000

A TRAINING EXPERIENCE CARRIED OUT IN SECONDARY SCHOOLS BY PRE-SERVICE SECONDARY SCHOOL PHYSICS TEACHERS Carina Bianchi, Daniela Lazzaro, Francesco Minosso, S.S.I.S. Veneto, Italy 1. Teacher’s training at S.S.I.S. in Veneto In these last years we have been in charge of the training organization for young teachers of physics, maths and computer science. We have designed and tested a two - year course and a monitoring system. The aim of the training is developing one’s abilities in managing teaching processes and acquiring the awareness of teacher’s role. To reach this aim it is necessary to develop skills of process observation, actions in context and reflection based on collected data. In order to understand the context where the research took place it is necessary to know that the secondary school teacher training was introduced in the Italian postgraduate schools (S.S.I.S.) in 1999. The trainees attend two-year training courses (about 1000 hours: 300 hours in the field). The

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teaching practice takes place at S.S.I.S. under a supervisor’s guide and in the schools under a tutor’s guide: both supervisors and tutors are secondary school teachers. The educational value of the teaching practice is to recognize the educational theories in the field, in order to develop them into professional skills and so enhance awareness in the learning-teaching process management. This is the educational aim of our research project. Observation, reflection, and evaluation are the main activities of the apprenticeship experience. The observation and reflection practice as the core of the training practice implies that the didactic and pedagogical knowledge turns into professional skills. All the other activities (those connected to the teaching practice planning, or to the action implementation, or to the evaluation activities), are linked to them so that they can be oriented. 2. The apprenticeship diary In order to empower the analysis and evaluation of the trainees’ experience, they are asked to make an Apprenticeship Diary, that is the apprenticeship story board, the acquired skills portfolio, the place where the reflection on the class experience occurs, in order to turn the experience into professional skills. The Diary becomes a tool for the apprenticeship research as it guides the data collection, supports the process analysis, helps in comparing different points of view, leads to the trainee’s experience reconstruction. The Diary has also been a useful aid to manage and give unity to the apprenticeship journey. On one hand the Diary was a pre-text (a word which means both opportunity and preceding test) to understand what can be learned during the apprenticeship and define a training plan; on the other hand it was a progressive experience portfolio document [9]. Now we will explain in which way making the Diary corresponds to the apprenticeship implementation. 2.1 An Apprenticeship Diary As an example, here is a trainee’s Apprenticeship Diary Summary. It is similar to many others and is focused on the implemented activities documentation. It is like a structured box where different materials are organized in 7 sections. 1. Apprenticeship Final Report 2. Apprenticeship Plan 3. Section containing Lesson Observation on two Maths and Physics Teachers 4. Module 1 section: Physics didactics 5. Module 2 section: Physics laboratory 6. Module 3 section: Maths didactics 7. Module 4 and 5 section: Maths and Physics written tests Apprenticeship Diaries of different types, even more interesting and structured, have been built up: they are oriented to the acquired skills documentation or to the experience telling. In this paper we will not speak about them. 2.2 Some Diary sections Now we will illustrate some Diary sections. Let us start with the Final Apprenticeship Report (section 1 of the Diary). the Final Apprenticeship Report is a brief report in order to illustrate the work. This is the scheme of the final Apprenticeship report. 1. Training Focus 2. Motivation in focus choice 3. Training Plan modifications 4. While – training Learning achievements Here the trainee shows the Diary structure and the rationale for his apprenticeship as well as his acquired skills. And now the section 3, containing the observation on the tutors; that is the data collected by the trainee on the tutors’ lessons carried out in class and laboratory. The trainee analysed those data and highlighted key words and situations.

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1. Observation tools: observation grids (classroom and laboratory lesson observation) 2. Free observation, key words, meaningful facts In order to make the observation more effective, the trainee used two grids; one of them is shown in the figure 1: it is the one related to the observation in the class. This scheme belongs to the materials which the supervisors gave to the trainees and let the trainees be free in the observation notes. The first column (see fig. 1) contains the teacher’s actions, the second the students’ ones. The word list is useful to orient the observation and not to forget important elements. Schemes like this allow a lot of data to be collected that can be selected and re-read later. That is all about the preliminary observations on the tutors. Now we briefly illustrate how a Diary module section is organised: it is the one related to a Physics lesson. 2.3 A Diary module section The trainee organized the section 4 of his/her diary into 4 parts. In the first one he/she collected all materials he/she produced that could be useful for the action, monitoring and feedback. In the second one he/she collected the tutor’s observation notes on the lesson carried out by the trainee.The third part deals with the feedback session that analysed the previous notes.The fourth contains a final report on this module and the trainee’s reconstruction of his/her work; it also explains the achieved aims. Diary Section 4: Module 1 section – Physics didactics 1. Tools a) Filter Grids for observations and notes re-organization: sk10 (teacher’s behaviour grid) and sk11 (Science teacher’s observation grid) b) Lessons scheme discussed with the tutor and work documents

Sk5. LESSON ACTIVITY OBSERVATION GRID Teacher:

Date:

Argument:

Subject:

Module.n:

Class:

                         

                              

TEACHER

STUDENTS





 

 

  

  

  

  

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! 

 

 

!

!



 



 

   

   









  

  

  

  

  

  

 

 

     

     





  

  







 



 

Fig. 1 - Example of observation grid

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c) Grid for lesson monitoring, grid prepared during the Physics Didactic Laboratory (concept to be taught, learned concept, strategies) d) Reflection Grids: sk13 (in class action synthesis) and sk14 (tutor feedback) 2. Ex-cathedra lessons observation 3. Tutor Feedback and activity evaluation 4. Module Final Report: it re-organizes the module and points out the achieved aims The remaining diary sections are organized in a similar way, even if the activities are different. Below you can see a grid that was used by the trainee in order to filter the observation notes (fig. 2). This filtering activity is useful in the recognition of the didactic models practised by the tutor and used by the trainee in his lesson. In fig. 2 the grid helps the analysis of the teacher-student interactions during a lesson. Each behaviour is described by some items according to the time they occurred. The free observation notes we described above are analysed using the items in the grid as if they were a filter, so that the characteristics that oriented the teacher-student interaction can emerge. Sk11. OBSERVATION GRIDON ONSCIENCE SCIENCETEACHER TEACHER Sk11. OSERVATION GRID Sk11. OBSERVATION GRIDON ONSCIENCE SCIENCETEACHER TEACHER Sk11. OSERVATION GRID

Module n. Module n.

Argument :

Teacher :

Argument :

Teacher :

A. TEACHER’S TALKING A. TEACHER’S TALKING The teacher asks questions

in order to :

Date: Date:

Class: Class: Frequency rate Frequency rate

The teacher asks questions in order to : recall experimental facts and principles recall experimental factsto and principles Apply facts and rules problem solution Apply facts and rules to Plan experience

problem solution

Plan experience Collect , analyse or interpret experimental data Collect , analyse or interpret experimental data The teacher talks about : The teacher talks : Experimental facts about and principles Experimental facts Problems

and principles

Problems Hypothesis Hypothesis Experimental projects Experimental projects The teacher suggests sources to

the students in order to :

The teacher suggests sources to the students in order to : Acquire information on facts and principles or confirm them Acquire information facts and principles or confirm them Formulate or solve onproblems Formulate or solve problems Make inferences , formulate or verify hypothesis Make inferences , formulate or verify hypothesis

B. Students’ talking and/or discussion mantenance B.Students Students’ talking and/or mantenance look for information or discussion consult sources in order to : Students look for information or consult sources in order to : Acquire information on facts and principles or confirm them Acquire information facts and principles or confirm them Formulate or solve onproblems Formulate or solve problems Students ask the teacher in order to : Students teacher and in order : Look for ask help the to formulate solve to problems Look for help to formulate and solve

problems

Fig. 2 – Example of a filter grid

The grid is taken from Galton’s and Eggleton’s works (in Proceeding of ICTP – GIREP Congress, Trieste, 1980, [7]) and has been discussed with the trainees and the tutors. A lot of interesting results emerged and they were useful to understand which elements make the teaching practice more effective. We told the trainees it is important that a feedback section always follows every trainer’s activity in the class and the observation. The aware and shared reflection activity helps to recognize the effectiveness and limits of the activity itself and what is particularly significant; furthermore it also helps to reflect on improvement hypothesis. As to the materials used in the reflection phase, the figure 3 shows the grid used for the feedback between the trainee and the tutor. The grid contains some suggestions that can be useful to guide the discussion with the tutor.

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Sk14. CLASS TEACHER FEEDBACK GRID Module n.

Teacher:

Date:

Observation:

Class:

Action:

1. Gathered data:

2. Data interpretation:

3. Tutor’s suggestions and observations:

4. Synthesis of the evaluations agreed with the tutor

5. Proposals for new observations / actions:

Fig. 3- Class teacher feedback grid

3. Final considerations Our final reflections at the end of the apprenticeship are taken from the trainee’s diary, the discussion at the end of the training course and the final test. The Diary was a pre – text Before training in schools, talking about Diary was useful to: 1) reflect on what can be learned during the apprenticeship; 2) reflect on roles, skills and ways of learning during the apprenticeship; 3) define a specific language and tools to reflect on Didactics The Diary was a portfolio – document During training in schools, talking about Diary was useful to: 1) reflect on apprenticeship and monitor it; 2) reflect on didactics and understand fundamental facts; 3) experiment with languages and tools for the didactic discourse The Diary helped the apprenticeship evaluation During the work in schools and after it, the collected data allowed to reconstruct and evaluate the training experience. We asked the trainees some questions about the training experience. What is the most significant thing in your apprenticeship? This question lets subjective perceptions and evaluations on the training and the trainee’s personal point of view emerge. We classified the answers according to the most frequent ones: 1. Understanding how the teaching - learning interaction occurs, that includes: establishing something, understanding the students’ motivation, managing the class, understanding the students’ feedback, speaking, listening 2. Adapting didactics to the class, that includes: defining time, trying out effective solutions, using laboratory and group work 3. Observing, reflecting, learning, understanding the teacher’s task

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What skills did the trainee acquire? The chart shows the skills acquired during the apprenticeship according to the trainee’s point of view and the skills the tutors noticed analysing the trainee’s Diary.

Planning and organizing Didactics Managing class and Didactics Pay attention to the process: observation, reflection, flexibility Managing a specific subject Improving students’ motivation Overcoming personal uncertainty

Trainee SVT Good Good Good Good Good Good Quite good Quite good Quite good Quite good -

As to each skill, in the second column, there are the ideas the trainees expressed using a frequency measure (good: 80-100% of the teacher students; quite good: 50-80% of the teacher students); the third column contains the supervisors’ evaluation (in the same scale). The chart allows to compare the different points of view. The apprenticeship plan improvement This is one of the most interesting criterion to understand how learning occurred during the apprenticeship and in which way the theories explained during the courses have been developed into didactic skills. At the beginning of the apprenticeship, the trainees paid attention to quite theoretical and abstract problems, such as evaluating by objective grids, and planning lessons in details. During the apprenticeship, their attention was more and more focused on the learning-teaching process management in less general terms, more adequate to the context of the class. For example: question management, time rating, negotiation of the evaluation meanings. The main ideas in the previous analysis are: 1) the training plan simplification and re – organization to make it more concrete; 2) recognition of individual educational needs and planning re – definition according to more focused aims In the meantime, the awareness arose about the idea that the fundamental elements for an effective didactics are: actions monitoring, making students formative evaluation in a systematic way and self-analysis in the didactic interaction. What was the Apprenticeship Diary useful for? These are the trainees’ ideas on their use of the diary: to discuss and evaluate the training, to give unity to the training, to record experiences and documents, to learn (“while writing the Diary you can learn a lot of new things”). Their ideas point out, ex post, the educational value of the Diary that is in line with the research aims we explained before. At the end of the experimentation with the Apprenticeship Diary as a tool for managing it and developing didactic skills in context, we can really conclude that building up the Apprenticeship Diary coincided with the apprenticeship itself. 4. Conclusion During our work we realized that a specific language, adequate to describe, know and understand the Didactics processes on the field, is necessary to develop the skills on the learning-teaching managing. The Languages of the Pedagogical, Psychological , Didactical Theories are not sufficient. Starting from the analysis of the experiences, we tried to negotiate words suitable to find out and describe meaningful actions to know the analysed processes. During our research we made an agreement with the trainees on the most meaningful process action and the most suitable words to express those meanings. The apprenticeship diary was the heart-tool of the construction of this new language. We think that this work opened a research-field, but it needs a network for real research opportunities, in order to become really substantial.

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References [1] Beresford, J. (1998) Collecting Information for School Improvement. David Fulton Publisher London [2] Bianchi, C. Cacciatore, P. Lazzaro, D. and Minosso, F. (2002) Il Diario di Tirocinio. Armando Roma [3] Black, P. and William, D. (1998) Dentro la Scatola Nera: elevare gli standard usando la verifica in classe. Trad. it. di G. Cavaggioni Phi Delta Kappa Iternational [4] Di Nubila, R. Fabbri, D. Margiotta, U. (1999) (a cura di) La formazione oltre l’aula: lo stage. CEDAM Padova [5] Ebbutt, D. (1985) Educational Action Research: Some General Concerns and Specific Squoibbles. In, R. G. Burgess, Issues in Educational Research: Qualitative Methods. London [6] Freiberg, J. (1990) Il clima di classe. Atti del Seminario. Vicenza [7] Galtton and Eggleton (1980) The Science Teaching Observation Schedule. In, Proceeding of the ICTP-GIREP Congress Trieste [8] Hopkins, D. et al. (1989) Evaluation for School Development. Milton Keynes Open University Press [9] Pellerey, M. (2000) Il portfolio progressivo formativo come nuovo strumento di valutazione delle competenze. In, Professionalità 57 maggio/giugno

TEACHING TO TEACH: HOW TO COMMUNICATE TO THE NEW GENERATIONS (FROM 16 TO 23 YEARS OLD) Giulia Savarè, High School and SISS Lombardia, Italy It could be useful, after obtaining a University Degree, to work as an assistant lecturer in a University, then after a few years move on to teach in a secondary primary school and then in a high school. A four-year-experience spent at SILSIS as a supervisor has led me to believe that teaching as a profession is both unique and non-repetitive, two traits that can only be safeguarded provided that all the skills needed for the teaching profession are kept up to date by a constant exchange of ideas and experiences in the four areas that are common to every school level: disciplinary knowledge, communicative skills, relational and educational skills.The four proficiencies are linked to one another and their importance depends on the level of the school in which the teacher intends to work. What needs underlining, however, is that besides being endowed with a talent for teaching, it is absolutely essential to be aware of this talent so that the skills this profession requires might be exploited to the best of one`s ability and constantly renewed. The aim is to equip both adolescent and adult students with a sense of balance and morality experienced with and through one`s teachers. Dogmas and absolute convictions are unnecessary as are ambiguous friend and parent roles. Teaching with ease and pleasure is possible if one has consciously chosen this profession. A waste of invaluable energy is the cause of tiredness for many teachers during their careers, and especially when this energy is wasted in the two primary skills: communicative skills (towards students) and relational skills (above all towards hierarchies and colleagues). Learning to be mediators will result in positive contributions enabling the appreciation of students` and colleagues’ inclinations This attitude will lead to teachers focusing on methods and objectives, avoiding conflicts and problems related to single situations. In this way, teachers should automatically become aware of becoming more and more complete. Refresher courses for the first skill, the disciplinary one, are necessary for the academic in order to carry out his mission of research. However, the professor should also look at secondary and high school teachers in order to seize new styles and strategies of communication. The secondary primary school teachers should instead consolidate their awareness of the disciplinary and didactic roles during their careers by following university refresher courses. When you choose a profession because you like it, you will like it for the rest of your life. Flexibility and curiosity about refresher courses will keep tiredness and boredom away. I think that this true passion transmits an ineffaceable message to young people who are trying to find their way (in the high school) and during their years of specialisation (at University). Students are contemporaneously encouraged by more than one teacher and have therefore more

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than one model to choose from. Often this choice will orientate the disciplinary one, above all during the passage from high school to University. I would like to add a final consideration about the communicative skills that are very important at every teaching level. Nowadays, after a painstaking selection of an efficient code of communication, all disciplinary education must ascertain students` propensity to learn. It is known that the rates of concentration among young people are poor. By encouraging logical courses and by developing critical methods of learning, it is possible nowadays to make more efficient the style of communication, the timing, the pitch of voice, gesticulation and last but not least the alternation between verbal and non-verbal communication by means of examples and experiments It might be useful, at higher levels of teaching too, to use the inductive method and not only the deductive one, which is typical of frontal lessons. A good example in this direction, could be a disciplinary topic, experimented during a SILSIS laboratory class in Art and Drawing. The presentation of the ‘golden section’, and more generally about proportions, allowed for the comparison among Art, Drawing, Mathematics and Natural Science.

CHANGES IN PHYSICS CURRICULUM FOR PROSPECTIVE PHYSICS TEACHERS AS IMPLIED BY THE CULTURAL CHANGE AND THE CRISIS IN PHYSICS EDUCATION Igal Galili, Michael Tseitlin, Department of Science Teaching, The Hebrew University of Jerusalem, Israel 1. Introduction The importance of curriculum in physics education, of its structure and contents, was never denied and remains within the contemporary discourse (Vicentini 2003). Physics educators have invested much effort and a variety of approaches to its construction (e.g. Layman 1997,Viennot 2003, Matthews 1994). Our effort resembles more the approach of Schwab (1978) who advocated a science curriculum explicitly revealing the substantive (fundamental ontological), as well as the syntactic (epistemological, conventional, organizational) knowledge of scientific discipline. We address the “commonplace subject matter” and argue for a holistic approach to the physics curriculum, possessing the features characterizing science itself: that is, the discursive nature incorporating a dialogue of ideas (Tseitlin and Galili 2004). We argue for emphasizing the paradigms in a particular discipline, against the background of alternative ideas and rivaling conceptions. To avoid confusion and not to abandon the regular contents (explanations of natural phenomena, technology, as well as problem solving), we suggest a curriculum organization, which utilizes an important cultural code – a tripartite, cell-similar structure: nucleus, body and periphery. We will define these areas of knowledge and exemplify them by addressing Classical Mechanics and Electromagnetism. We will also consider the validity limits of this approach that deconstructs physics as a single body of knowledge. 2. Common approach Physics is commonly presented as a compendium of knowledge delivered in a linear sequence of disciplines: mechanics, hydrodynamics, thermodynamics, electromagnetism, optics, and atomic physics. Each discipline is presented in the form of rules, laws and principles, mathematically elaborated. Theoretical statements are illustrated with experiments and examples. Well-structured procedures are suggested for problem solving. In many universities, the types of physics instruction are distinguished in accord with the mathematics used: “calculus”, “algebra” and “conceptual”. Prospective physicists and engineers take the same general physics course. Prospective physics teachers of high schools at this level are not distinguished from the rest of the students. The fact of identical subject matter instruction to groups who require different aspects of knowledge testifies for the prevailed inadequate perception of the subject matter criticized already by Poincaré (1903). The linear organization of curricula contents, lacking hierarchy and explicitly stated rationale, in reality, causes students to establish their own hierarchy, as well as a rationale of the contents, which

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are far from the standard views of physicists. Kuhn termed science, which does not discuss or articulate its own paradigm, but applies it,“normal science”. Apparently, this is not the way to endow prospective teachers with the spirit of physics, its values, its nature and commitments. The validity of these aspects of physics knowledge for educators is obvious and, we believe, is equally required by the future researchers. Indeed, many prominent physicists have expressed this view (Heisenberg 1977). Many practitioners, as well as teachers, believe that all physics curricula should include certain “proper knowledge” (a standard term in use by “normal” scientists). In order to suggest another approach to educate prospective researchers, educators, or simply people literate in physics, one first has to clarify the nature of physics knowledge by establishing its structure. 3. Alternative view: discipline as a culture Inspection of physics, as a knowledge construct, shows that it incorporates specific and highly inclusive discursive areas, which are in fact structurally similar to cultures. Physics does not simply describe the world, but interprets it. It imposes particular requirements of form on the texts identified as belonging to it, and it rejects the others, regarded as non-disciplinary ones. In this sense, physics discipline is non-neutral and creates its own virtual world. This feature makes it appropriate to consider physics as some general wholeness – a discipline-culture. What does this culture comprise? Or, in other words, what makes an aggregate of knowledge a discipline? It is in the structure of the physics discourse that one can find the answer to this question. The meaning of the structure (an arrangement of statements in a hierarchical and meaningfully related manner) is constituted by a group of unique elements that can be called center (Derrida 1967/1978). Physics practitioners often uncritically identify some of these elements of knowledge as belonging to the regular disciplinary contents. Such are the principles of symmetry, fundamental laws of axiomatic nature, in- and co-variance features of laws and concepts, the principle of causality, etc. The center includes the core ideas explicitly and tacitly applied by the discipline. Such were, for instance, the ideas of absolute space and time in Newtonian physics. We identify this unique and, in a sense, conventional knowledge as the nucleus of the discipline. For a given nucleus, all those elements of knowledge, which were produced based on the fundamentals of the nucleus, or those which could be shown as reducible to these fundamentals and consistent with them, constitute the body area of the disciplinary knowledge. Furthermore, there are other elements of knowledge, those whose meanings conflict or cannot be explained by the statements of the particular nucleus. These elements are present on the horizon, or periphery of the structure. We thus expand a discipline to a much wider construct, a superdisciplinary world, consistent and ordered in itself (Fig. 1): Any fundamental physical theory arranges all the statements associated with it in a centralized structure, a sort of culture, with its own values, language, conceptions, norms, etc. This structure, like a cell, has a nucleus, body, and periphery.

Fig. 1. The cell structure of discipline-culture.

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4. The meaning of the new view The structure provides a tool for taxonomy of different views constituting physics. Common instruction focuses mainly, if not solely, on the body-knowledge of physics disciplines. The majority of professionals seemingly share the view that this presents the “true” physics, while philosophers of science regard this view as naïve (Bunge 1973). Actually, Thomas Kuhn’s notion of normal science (Kuhn 1956) signifies this school of thought. Einstein, Niels Bohr and his colleagues, among others, considered the nucleus to be the most important part of physics knowledge, the subject for research and investigation. Philosophers of science (e.g. Karl Popper) elaborated this view in details. Other enthusiasts developed approaches marginal with respect to the prevailing paradigm, practiced by the majority of that-day scientific community. Thus, for instance, David Bohm and his followers developed their own interpretation of the quantum theory (e.g. Bohm and Peat 1987). Among the philosophers of science, Paul Feyerabend ascribed great importance to the development of the ideas belonging, in our terms, to the periphery of the physics discipline (Feyerabend 1975). Our approach should not be interpreted as structuralism. Far from so, the periphery encompasses “other views”, facts and events, incoherent and/or not explained by the adopted principles and axioms of the nucleus. Nevertheless, they are included into the culture. The discipline-culture is a result of confrontation between the ideas, opposition of the nucleus with its periphery. No progress is possible without a periphery, a competition, a debate and taking over of one idea over another. No particular ordering stated also within the normal area. The tripartite model pretends solely to represent the relationship between the different elements associated with a certain disciplinary knowledge, otherwise left without global arrangement. 5. Implication to mechanics The new approach to Classical Mechanics suggests that the teaching emphasizes certain contents as the nucleus. Such are the Newtonian concepts of absolute space, absolute time, material points (or absolutely rigid bodies), the ideas of translational and directional symmetry of space, homogeneity of time, and time-space independence. We find there the principle of inertia (Newton’s first law), the concept of inertial mass (as a state preserving factor), the concept of force (interaction at a distance), and the symmetry of interaction (Newton’s third law). It is on this basis that the normal area of “mechanical knowledge” is constructed, accounting for the variety of natural phenomena and numerous applications. As was stated, the periphery of Classical Mechanics incorporates the knowledge at odds with the nucleus. Such are: the relativistic deviations at high speeds, the Michelson-Morley experiment, the Mercury trajectory anomaly, the wave behavior of mass particles (diffraction, tunneling), noncentral interaction (Lorentz force), thermodynamic irreversibility, etc. These phenomena are explained within other physical disciplines. Importantly, Classical Mechanics tried to explain all those and failed. Inclusion of such knowledge into the instruction of mechanics, instead of ignoring it as not related, makes Mechanics a discipline-culture. The peripheral knowledge of Mechanics also includes alternative, now obsolete, mechanical theories from the past, which were surpassed by the Newtonian theory. Such are the Aristotelian theory of motion, the impetus theory of Philoponus and Buridan, and the Cartesian theory of vortices. Thus the discipline-culture includes both historically precedent and subsequent, more advanced knowledge. It remembers its past (what was believed to be true and why, how that knowledge was reconsidered and replaced), and it foresees the future defeat of its nucleus. The changes in the curricula are aimed at a culturally rich image of the discipline, the perception of its major paradigms. Thus, the often neglected concept of inertia and inertial movement (Newton’s first law), is put in the fore to reveal the deep meaning of the ideas previously held in physics regarding motion (Galili and Tseitlin 2003). The fundamental paradigmatic misconception of students with regard to the force-motion relationship becomes an explicit subject.

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6. Implication to electromagnetism Electromagnetism presents a special interest since it implies addressing relativistic ideas. The Cellstructure displays this fact by the nucleus contents, incorporating the postulates of the Special Theory of Relativity as well as the concept of charges, and field. Maxwell equations replace Newtonian axioms; Lorentz force replaces the interaction at a distance by the charge-field interaction. The body knowledge of this structure incorporates the numerous applications of the nucleus usually taught in the traditional courses. The new approach suggests a discussion of the Lorentz force as a gateway into the relativistic picture of the world (Galili and Kaplan 1997). Similarly, Faraday’s law becomes much more than a “flux rule” (Feynman et al. 1965), it becomes a crossroad of physics, as it really was for Albert Einstein at the very start of the era of Relativity (Einstein and Infeld 1938). The periphery area includes, among others, phenomena unexplained by Classical Electromagnetism as the movement of electrons in atoms, blackbody radiation, violation of actionreaction symmetry, etc. These elements challenge classical electrodynamics and indicate the validity limits of its nucleus. As such, they are presented to the students. The periphery includes such elements as Alhazen’s theory of Light (Lindberg 1976), the idea of aether and Ampère’s electrodynamics (Whittaker 1951), from a more recent time. This knowledge presents a contrasting background determining the meaning of the classical electrodynamics for the learner. The curriculum should provide an opportunity to appreciate the discourse regarding such fundamental topics as space-time absoluteness, speed of light, the unification of electromagnetism with optics, creating a valuable conceptual image of the discipline often missed in the instruction focusing on the normal area. 7. Complementary Deconstruction The scientific discourse of physics may create, and usually does so, an image of physics as a unity, a subject of all-embraced fundamentals, history, genealogy, etc. Is it so within the given model? Consider the representations elaborated above of Classical Mechanics and Electromagnetism. We can see that a given element may have different affiliations in each of the considered disciplinecultures. For instance, the Lorentz force presents a foreign idea, which conflicts with interaction at a distance, thus belonging to the peripheral zone of mechanics, and at the same time it belongs to the nucleus of Classical Electrodynamics. Discipline-cultures comprising physics are therefore incompatible. Their relationship is complex and complementary in nature, since they all represent different, equally essential, aspects of nature. One may call them “Pictures of the World”, reflecting their cultural sense. Thus, the science curriculum may present physics as a dialogue between discipline-cultures. This conclusion represents a deconstruction (Derrida 1967/1978) of the idea of physics as a unique view, method, structure, and commonplace in the not so distant past. 8. Conclusion We thus conclude by pointing out curricular changes in physics education that seek to introduce into the physics class a dialogue of ideas, a constructive discourse of fundamentals in its polyphonic nature. The belief that a science course has to be presented as a single truth, even if not accomplished, apparently failed in addressing a wider public, rejecting the major features of contemporary culture (plurality and interest in different perspectives). The new curriculum might inspire students showing physics as an open discourse. Instead of teaching a sequence of isolated physics disciplines, we may teach them in a Kontrapunkt of discipline-cultures. References Bohm, D. and Peat, D. (1987) Science, Order and Creativity. New York Bantam Derrida, J. (1967/1978) Structure, Sign, and Play, in the Discourse of the Human Sciences. In Writing and Difference. Chicago University of Chicago Press Einstein, A. and Infeld, L. (1938) The Evolution of Physics. Cambridge University Press Feyerabend, P. (1975) Against the Method. London Verso Feynman, R. et al. (1965) The Feynman Lectures on Physics. Addison-Wesley Reading MA

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Galili, I. and Kaplan, D. (1997) Changing Approach in Teaching Electromagnetism in a Conceptually Oriented Introductory Physics Course. American Journal of Physics. 65 (7) 657- 68 Galili, I. and Tseitlin, M. (2003) Newtons First Law Text Translations Interpretations and Physics Education. Science and Education. 12 (1) 45-73 Heisenberg, W. (1977) Schritte uber Grenzen. Munchen Reden und Aufsatze Kuhn, T. (1956) The Structure of Scientific Revolution. Chicago University of Chicago Press Layman, J. W. (1997) Powerful Ideas in Physical Science: A Model Course. In The Changing Role of Physics Departments in Modern Universities. E. F. Redish and J. S. Rigden (eds). Proceedings of ICUPE Woodbury NY The American Institute of Physics Lindberg, D. C. (1976) Theories of Vision From Al-Kindi to Kepler. Chicago The University of Chicago Press Matthews, M. (1994) Science Teaching. The Role of History and Philosophy of Science. New York Routledge Poincaré, H. (1903) Science and Method. New York Dover Schwab, J. J. (1978) Education and the Structure of the Disciplines. In Science Curriculum and Liberal Education. I. Westbury and N. J. Wilkof (eds). Chicago Rand McNally Tseitlin, M. and Galili, I. (2004) Physics Teaching in the Search for Its Self From Physics as a Discipline to Physics as a Discipline-Culture. Science and Education. [in press] Vicentini, M. (2003) Thinking Physics for Teaching. Proceedings of the Summer Course in Varenna Enrico Fermi School of Physics. [in press] Viennot, L. (2003) Teaching Physics. Dordrecht the Netherlands Kluwer Whittaker, E. (1951) The History of the Theories of Aether and Electricity. New York: Harper

THE QUALITY OF A PHYSICS TEACHER IN THE OPINION OF STUDENTS Loredana Sabaz, Gimnazija-Ginnasio, “G.R. Carli” , Koper-Capodistria, Slovenia Introduction The young physics-teacher when she /he starts his /her career in this profession thinks that teaching physics means: - deep knowledge in physics, - interesting laboratory experiments, - be objective in grading, - know many methods of teaching. Usually this very ambitious and well prepared young physics-teacher will very soon have a serious problem in the classroom; most of the students will not like her/him and they will not have success in studying physics. The desperate young-teacher will think that something is wrong with him/her. After many mistakes he/she will finally understand that: for teaching physics to the teenagers, the students of the secondary school, it is fundamental to know their wishes, their opinions, their problems and to know their basic needs [1]: - to communicate: to exchange thoughts, to share experiences with others, to establish relationships, - to construct : to realize ideas by doing, to build things, to create and to develop a work, - to inquiry : to discover and to analyze things, to carry out experiments, to satisfy curiosity, - to express: to present and to discuss their own opinion, to transmit feelings The results of the investigation: For a better argumentation of the above considerations, I have prepared a questionnaire with a few questions with open-type answers and I distributed it to the 60 students of my school. The questions were very simple, the students were invited to complete the follow sentences: 1. I wish to study physics because…….. 2. I prefer a teacher who… 3. A physics teacher must be…… 4. With a physics teacher I want…..

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5. I learn physics because….. 6. I pay more attention if….. Summarizing the results of the investigation, an interesting description of the students’ opinions comes out: - a physics-teacher at first must be lively, good in explanation, nice, patient and during his/her explanation must bring many examples from everyday life. - students want to collaborate with the teacher and the teacher must teach them to think and to be critic; - in the classroom students pay more attention if the teacher introduces many examples from the everyday life and explains with enthusiasm; - students like to study physics because it is necessary to understand the everyday life and because it is interesting; - students think that learning physics is useful and important. I have also asked my students to consider, putting a percentage near to the sentences, how important is for them the meaning of the following sentences and the average percentages were: I prefer a teacher who: a)knows very well physics and explains it using different methods b) understands my problems and helps me to solve them c) is exact and correct in the marks and strict in the judgement d) organizes many interesting activities in the school

72% 55% 52% 44%

I prefer a teacher who understands my problems and helps me to solve them The period of age between 14-18 is the difficult period of adolescence. The little-big problems of an adolescent could affect his/her learning process. It is very easy for the teacher to consider a student bad: no homework, no interest for the subject, bad marks…These criteria for classifying students could be very unfortunate. In the classroom during a lesson teachers could observe many situations which, if used in an adequate way, could solve many unsatisfactory problems. For being more clear I will report an example from my experience. During a lesson where the argument was The torque, with my students I tried to explain the scientific concept of the torque making a laboratory experiment: the rotating disc with different masses. I have noticed that during the lesson a girl was concentrated to draw something in her notebook. I walked around the laboratory and I had the opportunity to see the drawing (fig. 1). At the end of the lesson I called the girl and I proposed to her to transform the drawing into a model, in order to see whether it would stay in equilibrium. The girl was surprised, but she made the model (fig. 2) and during the next physics lesson she showed very proudly to everybody that the model stayed in equilibrium. Her motivation for study physics increased and in the end she also had a better mark in physics.

Fig. 1

Fig. 2

Physics explains everyday life Students give many interpretations to this sentence. One of the meaning could be: physics could help me to understand why the cylinders of

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the engine of my motorcycle have holes! How to use this practical situation in teaching physics? Surely not with rigidity or ignoring it! I will give an example for a better understanding. In the study of thermodynamics one of the last lesson is about the Carnot cycle and the work of the heat engine. Normally I prepare in the laboratory the heat engine models and the theoretical explanation on some slides. All my plan changed when, the day I planned this lesson, I entered in the laboratory and I Fig. 3 saw on my table three motorcycle cylinders with three holes (fig. 3). What to do? I have noticed that four students paid much attention to my reaction. I took the three cylinders in my hands and I said: Very interesting holes, what do you want to know about them? It was clear that they wanted to understand what happened in their motorcycles. A very lively discussion started. At first we tried to explain and to understand how a motorcycle engine functions. My theoretical explanation was very often complemented by the students’ experiences. At the end the students took the conclusion: the holes were the results of the strong explosions produced in the cylinders by the mixture of air and fuel where the percentage of fuel was too big! When we solved the problem I could make my lesson, a short version, but in a very constructive atmosphere. The satisfied four students, after this day, considered physics very important for their future. Conclusion When a young physics-teacher starts to teach it is fundamental that she/he is prepared to face the different situations that a growing up adolescent could create in the classroom. The opinions, the needs of the students must be known, taken in consideration and the teacher must be qualified to manage them. It is necessary that the teacher learns to cooperate with the adolescent because only in this way the teaching of physics will be possible and successful. References [1] Buchberger, F. and Berghammer, S. (2001) (eds) Active learning in teacher education. PADB Linz 197-212

SOME OPEN PROBLEMS IN EDUCATION OF PROSPECTIVE PHYSICS TEACHERS Rudolf Krsnik, Maja Planinic, Planinka Pecina, Ana Susac, Physics Department, Faculty of Science, University of Zagreb, Croatia Fast knowledge expansion and rapid changes in society demand significant qualitative changes in the way physics is taught (Kennedy and Loria 1980). Real implementation of new educational ideas in schools is possible only through adequate changes in teacher education. Physics as the most fundamental natural science forms the foundation of modern high technology, and yet its image in society slowly but constantly deteriorates. 1. Significant qualitative changes are necessary Society demands from educational system that the number of highly educated people permanently

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increases. It’s a strategic issue. What is the position of physics and other natural sciences in it? Can physicists answer to those demands? Will the number of new physicists also increase along with the number of new lawyers and managers? The basic problem of physics education lies in the fact that in many countries today high schools do not produce enough students who are interested in physics. There are therefore not enough good candidates who would like to major in physics or technical disciplines at universities. The reason is not physics itself, but the way physics is being presented at schools, and how it is valued in society. A significant increase in the number of new physicists is therefore not likely unless some essential qualitative improvements occur in physics teaching - not only in strategic decisions, but also in implementation of those decisions. The first step is to negotiate the real modernization of the teaching process in schools, according to the modern ideas that include constructivism, active role of students in the learning process, interactive teaching methods etc. as is suggested in many modern studies (see for example Bell and Gilbert 1996). Such an approach could transform physics from a frustrating, boring and incomprehensible school subject in one of the most interesting and easiest subjects. Future teachers should be educated for that kind of teaching. The experience shows that teachers who have already adopted the traditional lecturing routine hardly ever change their basic attitude toward teaching (Karlgren, Hangar and Waage 1994). The permanent in-service education of teachers is very important, but its main goal should not primarily be the content-oriented instruction of teachers, but the change in their attitudes toward teaching (Driver, Newton and Osborne 2000). Much better results can be achieved in pre-service teacher education, while student teachers have not yet adopted the traditional teaching routine. Student-teachers usually accept with enthusiasm interactive teaching methods, which they use in physics education courses (didactics of physics), and during their student-teacher apprenticeship at schools. After graduation many of those students continue to use interactive methods in their teaching practice. Students of such teachers generally show much more interest in physics and appreciation for physics than students of traditional teachers. 2. The need for achieving some consensus on the structure of university physics programme The current situation in different countries (while suggestions from Bologna Declaration are not yet implemented) is rather different. There are still some open problems on which there is no consensus in physics community. Here are some of these problems: 2.1 How to structure physics studies for prospective physics teachers? Many models can be found among the models present at European universities. Two extreme models are: Model A – Prospective teachers attend the same courses as prospective scientists and only differ in the last year of studies (fourth or fifth year, depending on the country), when prospective teachers choose didactics of physics and pedagogical courses. Model B – Students choose to become teachers at the beginning of their studies and attend courses that are all designed specifically for them. It can be said that model A has its roots in the second half of the 19th century (since 1870), when natural sciences became professionalized (Solomon and Aikenhead 1994), and separated from the society and technology, becoming thus self-sufficient. Until the process of socialization of natural sciences began in the middle of the 20th century slightly different versions of that model were in use in almost all European countries. Since then, more and more countries started to introduce model B of teacher education either alone or in parallel with model A. In Croatia, for example, change from model A to model B was introduced in 1974. However, it did not bring enough qualitative changes in the courses designed for prospective teachers. There is still too much emphasis on the mathematical formalism instead on the development of the concepts.

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Here are some arguments in favour of the model B: For quality teacher education student personal motivation to enter teaching profession is very important. In model B, students decide at the beginning of the studies that they want to be teachers. In model A, many candidates possibly become teachers for different reasons. For example, in the course of the studies they start to feel inadequately competent to continue in scientific direction. Their choice of teaching profession is therefore the consequence of their failure in their first choice. It is not uncommon that such students are later not successful as teachers, because they lack motivation or communication skills. Some physicists claim that _physics is physics_, and therefore both prospective physics teachers and prospective physicists need the same courses. That attitude does not take into account the fact that these two groups of students will need different skills in their future jobs. Prospective physicists will need more operational skills, often in a very narrow area, whereas prospective teachers need more insight in historical, philosophical and epistemological aspects of physical concepts, and ability to communicate these concepts to students who are at different stages of cognitive development. For instance, it would be desirable to include teaching about student alternative conceptions, as well as real problem situations from the history of physics, already in general physics courses for prospective physics teachers. 2.2 Which combinations with other disciplines are desirable for prospective physics teachers? In the majority of European countries the combination with the longest tradition is the combination of physics with mathematics. More recently combinations of physics with some other natural science have been introduced. In some countries, like Austria, it is possible to combine physics with any other school subject. In some cases both chosen subjects are treated equally, and in other cases one is taken as the major subject and the other as the minor subject. In Croatia, there are one-discipline studies for prospective physics teachers and interdisciplinary studies in the following combinations: mathematics and physics, physics and chemistry, physics and polytechnics with informatics, physics and informatics. The introduction of the combination of physics with any other school subject is being seriously considered in the light of Bologna process. That combination could bring far reaching positive effects. It would make physics studies for prospective teachers more attractive to candidates with a wide spectrum of interests and abilities. Many of them would like to combine physics with art, social sciences or some other humanistic discipline, which is impossible at the moment. The number of such students would certainly not be very large, but their influence on the image of physics and the process of its socialization could be significant and very positive. 2.3 How large is the relative fraction of physics, mathematics, pedagogical and didactics of physics courses in terms of their respective number of periods? Although in most countries more or less the same basic physics and mathematics topics are studied, the total number of periods varies considerably. Even larger variations are found in the number of periods for pedagogical courses and didactics of physics. In Croatia, physics module in interdisciplinary combinations has 1320 periods. Of that number 240 periods belong to didactics of physics (lectures, seminars, laboratory work), and 60 periods to student teacher apprenticeship at schools. Student teacher apprenticeship at school is very important for the formation of the prospective teacher, but there the quality of the teacher-mentor plays much more important role than the duration of the apprenticeship. (According to our experience, it is better for students to experience constructivist teaching even for a short time than to spend long time with traditionally oriented teachers.) Since the size of the physics module varies considerably in different European countries it would be important that physicists from different countries achieve some consensus on how large that module should be. 2.4 Pedagogical courses: Which is better, concurrent or sequential model? In the past, when prospective teachers separated from prospective scientists in the last year of

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studies (model A from 2.1), the sequential model, in which all pedagogical courses are placed in the last year of the studies, was the only possibility. Sequential model still has its proponents. From purely administrative point of view it is attractive, since it makes the organization of the studies simpler, but not necessarily better. Sequential model is more and more being replaced by the concurrent model. The advantage of the concurrent model is that it enables students to get continuous pedagogical education during their studies, but it can only be implemented if the whole study is organized according to the model B. In Croatia, the concurrent model was introduced in 1974, and pedagogical courses are distributed over the first three years of the teacher studies in the following order: psychology of learning – 1st year, general pedagogy – 2nd year, general didactics – 3rd year. In this way these courses serve as an introduction to the physics education courses that are placed in the 4th year of studies. 3. Implementation of the suggestions from the Bologna Declaration Since all discussions about the changes in teacher education in the last few years are maintained in the light of the Bologna Declaration from 1999, and meetings in Salamanca and Prague from 2001, it would be appropriate to consider their suggestions also when discussing general ideas about physics teacher education. In suggestions of the Bologna process for the higher education system, the pattern 3+2 is recommended. That pattern is already present in physics programmes for prospective physicists in some European countries (Ferdinande, Formesyn and Valcke 2002), but is it applicable to physics studies for prospective physics teachers? On the basis of discussions with colleagues from different countries a conclusion was reached that the model in which the first phase of higher education would last 3 years is not suitable for physics studies for prospective physics teachers. That is especially true for interdisciplinary studies where it would even be technically impossible to implement the 3+2 pattern. The basic problem is the competence of the students after 3 years of studies. Where could they teach? If they were allowed to teach even in elementary schools, it would be a step back with respect to the present situation, and that is not desirable. This seems to be in conflict with the intentions of the Bologna declaration, which specifically mentions that Bachelor degrees should be relevant to the European labour market (Bologna Declaration 1999). Bologna declaration gives good suggestions for graduate studies. Physics teachers could get a ‘Master of education’ degree in 4+2 or 4+1 years. In the last 1 or 2 years of the studies the emphasis would be on students’ work on their Master thesis. What would happen with the structure of prospective physics teacher studies if the pattern 3+2 were imposed? People who think that this pattern can and should be implemented usually offer a simple administrative scheme: In the first 3 years of studies there are only courses with the contents of the studied discipline, while 4th and 5th year contain pedagogical and didactics of physics courses with some more content-oriented courses. That scheme looks simple, but contains some hidden dangers: • After the finished first level (3 years) the candidates could not teach in schools, so no use is actually seen from the finality of the first level. • The scheme directly implies the sequential model for pedagogical courses and resurrects ideas about common studies for prospective physics teachers and prospective physicists in the first 3 years, which would both mean a step back compared to present situation. • The structure of physics programme is such that difficult contents of mathematics and physics are gradually introduced in the first two years, thus forming a foundation for the learning of theoretical physics and special areas of physics in the 3rd and 4th year. That programme cannot be squeezed into only 3 years because it would become too hard for students. Pedagogical courses that are distributed over the first 3 years offer a certain distraction from the difficult and abstract courses in physics and mathematics. • If the model 3+2 is accepted along with the fact that candidates cannot teach after 3 years of studies, but can after 5 years of studies, the overall effect would be that physics studies for

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prospective physics teachers have become a year longer than they are now and that would increase the probability of losing some candidates along the way. As a conclusion it can be said that the preferred model for physics studies for prospective physics teachers would include model B for the structure of the studies, the possibility of combining physics studies with studies of any other discipline, and the duration of 4+2 or 4+1 years for the undergraduate and graduate studies. References: Bell, B. and Gilbert, J. (1996) Teacher Development: A Model from Science Education. London Falmer Press Bologna Declaration (1999) http://www.unige.ch/cre Carlgren, I. Handal, G. and Vaage, S. (eds). (1994) Teachers’ Minds and Actions: Research on Teachers’ Thinking and Practice. London Falmer Press. 165-180 Driver, R. Newton, P. and Osborne, J. (2000) Science Education. 84 (3) 287-312 Ferdinande, H. Formesyn, T. and Valcke, E. (eds) (2002) Inquiries into European Higher Education. In Physics Proceedings of the Fifth EUPEN General Forum EGF-2001 “[A] Scent of/for Physics” Gent Universiteit Gent Kennedy, P. J. and Loria, A. (eds) (1980) Proceedings of the International Conference on Education for Physics Teaching. Edinburgh ICPE 2-6 Solomon, J. and Aikenhead, G. (eds) (1994) STS Education, International Perspectives on Reform N.Y. and London Teachers College Press. 11-20

3.2 In-service teacher training

IN-SERVICE TEACHER TRAINING - OUTCOME OF THE WORKSHOP DISCUSSION Leopold Mathelitsch, University of Graz, Austria Seta Oblak, Ljubljana, Slovenja In-service training is considered to be an important component in the education of a teacher, helping to assure a high quality of performance in the classroom, from kindergarten to university level. With special regard to physics, new developments and research results in different fields, new methods in didactics, new tools, either from the experimental side or with regard to computer facilities, demand a continuous effort to cope with these tasks. Another important aspect of inservice training concerns the exchange of experiences and materials between teachers. Whereas at university level this part of further education lies in the sole responsibility of the individual person, at school level there exist established programs for in-service training courses in many countries. An immense variety of these national or regional programs can be observed with respect to, e.g., content, duration, finances or acceptance by the teachers. And, contrary to the initial education of a physics teacher, where a lot of didactic literature exists on comparisons of different systems, on evaluation and quality assurance, the field of in-service training has been left much more unexploited, both at the national as well as the international level. In this workshop, fifteen colleagues from eight different nations (Austria, Italy, Japan, Poland, Slovenia, South Africa, Spain, USA), located in four continents, presented examples of in-service training systems, discussed various aspects and tried to find consensus on some topics in order to end up with recommendations for a useful and effective in-service training of teachers. In addition to ten presentations at the Panel Session B, the following colleagues were asked to introduce specific examples and topics within the workshop: N. Razpet: “Teaching of heat in lower secondary schools” T. Murata: “An attempt at cooperation between universities and high schools in a class work trial using ‘Advanced Physics’ ” Z. Kos: “Organisation of a seminar for primary school teachers” C. Longhetto: “Master in School Teaching Innovation in the Udine University” S. Oblak: “Credit system in the Slovenian school system” L. Mathelitsch: “EUPEN inquiry” Before the conference, a small survey was sent to selected participants of the seminar. Ten responses contained information on the in-service training systems in eight countries (Austria, Belarus, Germany, Italy, El Salvador, Slovenia, Spain, Sweden). At the beginning of the workshop, a questionnaire was handed to the participants. There they indicated their special interest in specific topics leading to a list of priorities. This list is reflected also in the ordering of the following summary of the outcomes of the workshop. The content of this summary is based on the presentations at the Panel Session and at the workshop, the survey before the seminar and the discussions during the workshop. Attractiveness of in-service training Statistics of in-service training courses in many countries reveal that only a minor percentage of teachers are attending such courses regularly or often, whereas the rest does not participate. This unsatisfactory situation is amplified since the already motivated and creative teachers are usually within this smaller group, while on the contrary teachers who might need motivation and support do not take the offer of in-service training. Therefore the increase in the number of attendees of in-service training courses was seen as a major concern. Several suggestions in this direction were proposed and discussed: Voluntary versus compulsory systems: In some countries teachers have to attend in-service training

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courses, in some countries the participation is completely voluntary. Workshop B favoured strongly a voluntary system, since motivation, e.g., will surely not be created by pressure. Bonus system: Slovenia has a very refined bonus system for teachers: There exist several steps in the career of a teacher which he/she can but need not take. The steps are connected with a raise in salary, but also being given more competencies at school.A system of points is established, and it needs a welldefined number of points to proceed to the next grade. These points can be earned in different ways, in the following just those related to in-service training are mentioned: attendance at in-service training courses in Slovenia or abroad (the amount of points depends on the type of the course), contribution to such a course (e.g., lecturing), organization of an in-service training course. In some countries, new equipment is given only to those schools of which at least one teacher has been attending the course related to this equipment. Quality: There was a long discussion how to assess and, in a next step, to improve the quality of inservice training. With regard to the attractiveness of a course for the participants, quality should be indicated by the participants themselves, either in questionnaires or by recommendation to colleagues. But questionnaires are useful just for short-term evaluations. Long-term evaluations about the benefit of in-service training courses do not exist, but would be very valuable, and therefore should be regarded as a challenge to researchers in the field of physics didactics. Needs: For sure, the attractiveness of in-service training is increased when it meets the needs of the teachers. These needs are discussed in the chapter “Content”, see below. Ready-to-use material: Experience has shown that teachers appreciate in-service training where ideas and material are discussed and distributed which can be immediately implemented in the classroom. Trainer Participants of in-service training courses often claim that the presentations are too academic, too far off the school reality, that the content is not applicable. On the other hand, a professional education should also contain theoretical background, which means, for the profession of a physics teacher, information on new developments in different areas of physics as well as new results in educational research. In order to avoid an unwanted bias to some extreme, the organization, as far as the content is concerned, should be done by a coherent team of experts from universities and schools. Ideal would be a group of persons with the following qualifications: school experience, experimental skills, deep knowledge of the subject, didactics of physics and general pedagogy. This should ensure that trainers and lecturers are recruited from the same broad range of fields, too. Also a coordination with pre-service education should be aimed at. Method It is a didactic commonplace that teaching should be done by applying different methods. Reality shows a somewhat different picture, particularly when university teaching is concerned. In-service training has some advantage in this respect, since it is done mostly by various persons therefore exhibiting (hopefully) different teaching styles. An important aspect with regard to the method should be that the participants of in-service training courses should be active on different levels. This activity is seen as a mental activity, a creation and production of ideas and material, an ongoing giving and taking of experiences, a processing and not just an input of information. Laboratory work, for example, is not an active method by itself. Content The content should be very strongly oriented on the needs of customers, i.e., the teachers. The European Physics Education Network (EUPEN) initiated a survey in which teachers of five European countries expressed their training needs. Results can be seen in EUPEN Series, Vol. 4 (Eds. H. Ferdinande, S. Pugliese Jona, H. Latal, Univ. Gent, 1999). One outcome from this survey, as well as from the discussions in the workshop, was that there is more interest in courses in physics, less in didactics of physics and least in general pedagogy.

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It is important that teachers express their needs very clearly. But there are also implicit needs which are not so obvious to the customers themselves (e.g., the adaptation of a new teaching method); the organizers should be aware of this and offer and advertise also such kind of courses. Organisation It was already stated above that the planning of the programs of in-service training should be done by a team of experts of different fields. In the following, we will address the administrative organisation. The survey has shown that there is a big variation of how this is done in different countries. In some countries, there exist special institutions dedicated (at least partly) to in-service training – very often they are decentralized, operating on a regional level. In other countries, universities are given the duties to organize in-service training or they take over this task voluntarily, maybe to gain profit in some form. There exist also examples where in-service training is offered by private enterprises. Money: It was a general consensus that participants should not have to pay for in-service training (a contribution to attractiveness). But the government should not take over the costs for the organization more or less anonymously, the amount should be visible. The money should be given directly to teachers. In paying the course, the participants should see how costly it is, therefore (maybe) getting a feeling that it has some value. Examples were also given where industry is sponsoring in-service training; this could be a welcomed extra, but not the basis of a system. Location: A training centre would facilitate the organisation of regular courses. But this should not preclude other possibilities, for example excursions to location of interest with regard to physics. But also locations interesting for other reasons (skiing resort, beach,…) should be taken into consideration when the costs are manageable. Time: A big issue in some countries concerns the question whether in-service training courses should take place during school time or in vacations. Arguments are the following ones: School time – Yes, because in-service training is part of the job / No, because the time is taken from the students who have a right for regular classes. Vacation – Yes, because teachers have more vacations than other workers anyway / No, this would not help to attract participants. Duration: A kind of mixture is seen as the most adequate system: starting from one-hour lectures (like a talk at university where a person introduces some topic including a short discussion), to halfa-day seminars (in the afternoon, the teacher can be at school all morning), to courses which last for several days up to a week (this gives the opportunity to work on one topic intensively and also allows for time to communicate among each other). Another possibility would be to meet for some time (for example half a day) every week or once a month. This would support a continuous work on one topic, where the teacher could also practice the new ideas, proposals, material with her/his school classes. Distance training: In-service training is maybe the most appropriate place for education at distance. It implies improvements in several aspects (independence of time and location, fast information exchange with the trainer and among the participants) and should be pursued with effort. Since Workshop I was dedicated entirely to distance training, it will not be addressed here any further. International projects: Very positive feedback was reported from bilateral seminars where teachers from two different countries took part in the same course and exchanged experiences. It brought a substantial gain in information and was also very lively and therefore attractive to the participants. Different languages caused just minor problems. Conclusions An enhancement of attractiveness is an important step towards successful in-service training programs. A bonus system, an offer closer to the needs of teachers, a user-friendly administration could bring an impetus in this direction. Teams of experts should develop more coherent and systematic programs. The participants should take a more active role. Research projects on topics of in-service training should be initiated and addressed more often at international conferences.

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TUTORS IN SECONDARY SCHOOL: LINKING INNOVATION IN TEACHING, PRE-SERVICE AND IN-SERVICE TEACHER TRAINING IN ITALY Maria Bortoluzzi, University of Udine, Italy 1. Introduction The recently established pre-service teacher training has created in Italy new professional figures of trainers that before did not exist, among them the tutor (or mentor) of trainees in schools. The contribution outlines the main professional characteristics of tutors in the Italian context and the way in which they perceive their role of trainers. The starting hypothesis of this study is that the professional characteristics of tutors (related to teaching and interpersonal competences) can be a fundamental asset both for the school and the university systems: they are essential for teaching practice and for establishing the link between university applied research and innovation in schools. The hypothesis that follows from this is that the new pre-service teacher training established in Italy in 1999, has indirectly triggered a complex process of training, self-training and professional reflection that has promoted new ways of training and collaboration between school and university. 2. The Italian context and the choice of data Pre-service teacher training was only introduced in Italy in 1999 when Scuole di Specializzazione provided a long due institutionalised and academic course for trainee teachers (two-year course) (Decreto Ministeriale in Università e Scuola, 1998, 1999; Crivellari, 2002: 32-33). Before 1999, preservice teacher training consisted in non-obligatory courses and a state exam that gave access to a teaching post. Practical teacher training in schools, obligatory only from 1999, takes up a quarter of the whole training time over the two-year course. Given the lack of previous experience in this field, tutors in school are an entirely new figure of trainer that before did not exist and developed spontaneously without specific and consistent guidelines. In the past four years tutors have been doing mainly voluntary work: only rarely have they been paid for their work and, in general, they are not really recognised for their professional skills and competences. Additionally, they have not been specifically trained before becoming tutors, as happens in countries where teaching practice in schools is well-established (Britain, for instance). The choice of tutors has been made over the months and years assessing the quality of the work they did with the trainees. In this fluid and multifaceted context, the best tutors have worked with continuity for SSIS and have attracted to the job other motivated and experienced teachers. The type of research chosen to investigate characteristics and roles of tutors is qualitative and not quantitative because the analysis looks at the professional characteristics of good or excellent training practice: the aim of this study is not to find out characteristics across the board, but the salient professional aspects that can best contribute to the success of teaching practice in Italian schools for the trainees. 3. The framework of analysis The best tutors in school have offered the trainees the opportunity to pass from theoretical knowledge to experiential knowledge constructed autonomously through a long process of learning and professional, personal, relational development. What Williams and Burden say for teaching can be also applied to teacher training: “Both teachers and learners reshape their ways of understanding, their knowledge structures and the meanings that they attribute to events and ideas as a result of [an] interactive process. They also continually reconstruct their views of each other.” (Williams and Burden, 1997: 53) This correspondence between the two processes of learning and teaching and learning and training has informed the structure and methodology of the present study: the framework of analysis for the professional characteristics of tutors is a re-elaboration (specific for the present paper) of van

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Lier’s (1996) basic principles of the curriculum. Linking ‘the basic epistemological questions of language learning (the knowledge base of our field) to the axiological or ethical issues which [...] concern most teachers (our values)’ (ibid.: 10), van Lier identifies the three basic principles of the curriculum as Awareness, Autonomy, Authenticity and a fourth A which is Achievement (including Assessment and Accountability). The joint consideration of knowledge and values makes these variables suitable as a framework of analysis for the data of the present study, as explained in the next section. 4. The first stage of analysis The initial analysis of data aimed at piloting the use of van Lier’s categories in order to check whether they are suitable for the aims of this study. The initial data analysis was carried out on the records of the individual interviews I regularly have (as supervisore di tirocinio) with tutors when I meet them during the pastoral visits in school and we discuss about the teaching practice of the trainees. The framework has proved suitable for this kind of study and has helped categorising rather complex and varied materials gathered during the routine interviews (see Bortoluzzi 2003a for the outline of this first data analysis). The pilot data analysis yielded interesting results and contributed to identifying sub-categories which are not present in van Lier (1996), but are specific to the data and the aims of this study. This is the framework of analysis as outlined after the pilot study. Characteristics refer to roles, perceptions, attitudes and beliefs as expressed by the tutors. 1. Awareness • Awareness of the importance of teaching practice in schools for pre-service teacher training • Awareness of the complexity of their job as tutors • Awareness of the variety of methodologies and teaching strategies • Awareness of the importance of the teacher’s reflection on professional choices (teaching modalities, contents, aims, etc) • Awareness of the relational dynamics involving students, trainees and tutor • Awareness of affective aspects of teaching and training 2. Autonomy • Autonomy in the choice of methodologies, strategies and techniques • Sense of responsibility 3. Authenticity • Motivation in teaching • Real involvement in the learning process • Authentic ability to communicate • Respect for individual differences and personal choices 4. Achievement • Ability to reflect critically on the results obtained in class • Reflecting on the single results of the work done in class by the trainees • Reflecting on the global results of the training experience for the trainees • Ability to reflect critically on their own work • As class teachers • As tutors • Ability to analyse the teacher training practice and offer suggestions to improve its implementation • Ability to look for and create opportunities in professional development.

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5. The questionnaire and the second stage of analysis The first stage of the analysis and the final framework derived from it identified the aspects of preservice teaching practice that are relevant to tutors in secondary school. Using the categories and the sub-categories of the framework, I prepared the questionnaire for the case studies I wanted to examine in detail (see Bortoluzzi, 2003b for a detailed description of the questionnaire and the data). The analysis of the questionnaires showed that the tutors frequently refer to issues related to the following dichotomies: • Routine and novelty • Autonomy and collaboration as seen within what is considered an overwhelmingly important aspect of training: the relational aspect 5.1. Routine and novelty In the questionnaires, the idea of routine has both positive and negative connotations for the tutors. All of them argue that practice training in school should provide the trainee with the idea of everyday teaching and learning routine in context. Therefore everyday, normal ‘routine’ becomes what the trainees need to see and experiment in context in order to become fully-fledged ‘practitioners’. The tutors are aware that one of the difficulties of the teaching job for the apprentices is precisely to be able to cope with everyday teaching and learning issues (as Wallace, 1999, argues, ‘trainees’ have to become ‘practitioners’). At the same time, ‘routine’ is perceived as one potential problem for the experienced practitioner who might fall into the habit of teaching the same things in the same way. The presence of the trainees in school is generally perceived by the trainers as an antidote to the dangers of routine: they say that their work as tutors makes them reflect on their own teaching practice, experiment with new ideas and come into contact with different teaching and relational modalities through their trainees. Helping the trainees to come to terms with everyday school practice, contributed to the solution of what they perceive as the potential problem of lapsing into repetitive and demotivating habit. Habit (however necessary for any practitioner) has the negative methodological side that teaching becomes repetitive and lowers motivational levels both in teachers and in students: the tutors point out how the presence of the trainees in class was positive because their students could experiment new teaching and relational modalities. All tutors remark that they themselves learn and experiment while their trainees learn to teach: continuous learning and continuous training seem to be part of the tutors’ professional frame of mind. Another downside of habit highlighted by the tutors is relational: tutors noticed how the presence of the trainees helped them (the experienced teacher) to ‘see’ (this is a pervasive metaphor in the data) their own students with different eyes. In particular the tutors noticed how interesting and refreshing they found seeing their classes relating to teachers different from themselves and they discovered new things about their students. Relationally, training helped expert teachers to go beyond their habitual expectations and their own beliefs about students. The presence of the trainees in class was sufficient to break the mould of routine even when they were only observers of the class context. The tutors are aware that they reflected more about their own classes when the trainees were present also because they could discuss about their own teaching with a colleague (less experienced, but highly motivated and involved). This meant that the metaphor of sight and perception is used also for themselves as teachers: one tutor explicitly remarks that she could see herself as a teacher through different eyes. Another interesting effect of practice teacher training that helps the tutor overcome the negative effects of routine is the discussion with the trainees about teaching and learning. Experienced and motivated teachers tend to consider ‘normal’ what they give to their classes in professional terms; the comments of the trainees help the trainer realise the positive aspects of her own teaching initiating or promoting a virtuous circle of learning that involves all participants. One of the tutors specifically remarked on the fact that the relationship between trainer and trainee should be based

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on principles similar to those between teacher and students: reflection about learning, teaching and training has raised the level of awareness of these teachers and has contributed to the virtuous circle of learning in which all participants are related by similar principles of respect and professional skills. Summarising, school context is considered fundamental for teaching practice and the trainee should learn to work in a school routine to become a fully-fledged practitioner. However, routine can demotivate experienced teachers and lower their level of awareness in their profession. Practical teacher training is an opportunity for the trainees to become practitioners in context, and for the tutors to redefine their role in the teaching environment, reflect on their beliefs and practices, share and discuss ideas with colleagues (the trainees), learn and experiment new teaching modalities and become a more reflective, motivated and efficient teacher and trainer. 5.2. Autonomy and collaboration A key aspect highlighted throughout the questionnaires is the paramount importance for the tutors of the relational issues in teaching practice: as one tutor writes, the human factor is essential for the profession, another tutor mentions ‘empathy’ and ‘real sharing of experience’ and relational aspects are defined ‘crucial’. Within this keen awareness of the relational aspect of teaching and training, the tutors identify two main characteristics of their own work which they consider essential and interact together in interesting combinations during teaching practice: autonomy and collaboration. Tutors tend to maintain that the autonomy of the trainees in teaching choices must be as wide as the teaching context allows it to be: trainees should adapt to the school and class context (this relates back to the previous point about the importance of everyday activities and routines), but should be autonomous (if guided, supported and helped) as far as teaching choices are concerned. This is a very difficult balance to strike in principle, but it does not seem to have caused problems in implementation at least in these case studies. The common limitation given to the autonomy of the trainees is the context of teaching itself, that is the constraints that fully-fledged practitioners have when teaching (the type of class and school). Having established autonomy as a fundamental working principle for teacher training, the other complementary principle is collaboration and sharing which permeates all the questionnaires and involves in the same way all participants: tutors, trainees and students. In the case of collaboration, one of the most frequently used metaphors is related to ‘listening’ carefully to what the trainees say: the tutors realise that active listening is one of the qualities of teachers and, even more so, of trainers. One tutor points out that the positive relationship between trainees and trainer influences the relationship (and therefore the success) between trainees and students. This idea of setting the example on the part of the tutor is a recurrent theme in the data: as mentioned in the previous section, tutors realise how training and learning to teach, teaching and learning are all processes which are closely connected and intertwined in complex ways mirroring one another. 6. Conclusion The data clearly show that tutors are ‘reflective practitioners’ (Farrell, 1998) aware of the complexity of their professional roles and of the delicate balance of skills which are needed during training. Reflecting critically on one’s own professional practice as teachers and as trainers, linking theory and practice in context, looking for continuous personal and professional improvement, establishing collaborative relationship with colleagues, communicating efficiently are all characteristics of tutors which emerged from the data analysis and are also considered basic in the literature about training trainers (see, for instance, McGrath, 1997 ; Fowle, 2000 ; Lubelska et al. 2000 ; Hunter, 2001 ; O’Connell, 2002 ; Heller-Murphy and Northcott, 2003). The main hypotheses of the study are therefore confirmed: the tutors in school are the professional figures that can establish the necessary link between pre-service teacher training, in-service teacher training, teaching innovation and university applied research. This also means that the new pre-

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service teacher training established in Italy in 1999, has indirectly triggered a complex process of self-training and professional reflection, promoting the development of new ways of training and collaboration between school and university. References Bortoluzzi, M. (2003a) L’insegnante accogliente tra formazione iniziale e formazione in itinere [in press] Bortoluzzi, M. (2003b) Tutors in schools between pre-service and in-service teacher training [in press] Crivellari, C. (2002) SSIS: Il quadro istituzionale. In Università e Formazione degli insegnanti: non si parte da zero. Bonetta, G. et al. (eds). 25-35 Udine Forum Editrice Farrell, T. (1998) Reflective Teaching. The principles and practices. English Teaching Forum. 36 (4) 10-17 Fowle, C. (2000) Teacher Training: a web of trust. The Teacher Trainer. 14 (3) 6-8 Heller-Murphy, A. and Northcott, J. (2003) “ Who does she thinks she is ? ” Constraints on autonomy in language teacher education. Edinburgh Working Papers in Applied Linguistics. 12 10-18 Hunter, T. (2001) Appraisal and development for long term consultants on ELT projects. The Teacher Trainer. 15 (1) 14-21 Van Lier, L. (1996) Interaction in the Language Curriculum: Awareness, autonomy and authenticity. Harlow Pearson Education Limited Lubelska et al. (2000) Training the trainers: developing skills in observing and giving feedback for teacher development. The Teacher Trainer. 14 (2) 15-19 McGrath I. (ed). (1997) Learning to train: Perspectives on the Development of Language Teacher Trainer. Hemel Hempstead Prentice Hall Europe O’Connell, G. (2002) Competence and excellence in facilitation. The Teacher Trainer. 16(1) 3-7 Trappes-Lomax, H. and McGrath, I. (eds). (1999) Theory in Language Teacher Education. London Longman. Università e scuola (1998) III 2/N [containing the Decreto Ministeriale del 26/5/1998] Università e scuola (1999) IV 2/R Wallace, M. (1999) The reflective model revisited. In Trappes-Lomax, H. and McGrath, I. (eds). 179-189 Williams, M. and Burden, R. L. (1997) Psychology for Language Teachers. Cambridge C U P

A CO-OPERATION EXPERIENCE TO PROMOTE AND SUPPORT AN EFFECTIVE TEACHING Giuliana Cavaggioni, Science Education Laboratory, CIRD, Trieste University, Italy 1. The background In Treviso province about fifty teachers took part from 1994 to 1998 in a local association’s efforts aiming at spreading innovating ideas about scientific education. This gave rise to a permanent lab for scientific education, the first effort of which was to promote the use of practical activity in the teaching of science. This was done by organising a show of exhibits made by primary and secondary school students. The exhibition has taken place every year, since1998, and is supported by provincial school office. 2. Needs leading to the constitution of a co-operating group As it often occurs, teachers trying to carry out the ideas of an effective teaching with their own students feel isolated in their schools. Their innovating activities turn out to be detached from other educational plans carried on in the school where they work, and this brings forth uncertainties. We must say as well that the need for continuity taking into account the gradual forming of ideas in students’ minds was accepted by many teachers thanks to updating interventions. However, official curriculum provides only very general suggestions in this sense, so teachers feel safer if they keep basing their teaching on information conveyance, even when they realise this is not the good way for an effective teaching and learning. 3. Objectives of the project - To spread individual teachers’ scientific teaching experiences made with students’ active involvement.

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- To discuss the teaching of a scientific issue with teachers acting at different school levels. - To plan teaching units together with other teachers of one’s own school and evaluate together their outcome and effectiveness. 4. An action – reflection cycle Through this project, the teachers acted as a critical community of practitioners reflecting on their own work while attempting to formulate generalisations based on an examination of their teaching practices. - Teachers’ co-operative groups document the students’ responses to the action. - Teachers’ co-operative groups reflect on the outcomes of their actions. - Each co-operative group writes up its case comments and disseminates it to colleagues. 5. The participants in the project - 2 primary schools (36 teachers) - 2 secondary schools (14 teachers) - 3 comprehensive schools (35 teachers) - 2 high schools (19 teachers) 6. The group’s structure 1. Co-operating groups of teachers in each school led by a teacher acting as co-ordinator with the task of planning the teaching units, on the field testing, setting up of observation tools at school. 2. School co-ordinators’ group with two external observers which acts in order of the definition of the needs of training of the participants, planning of the common activities and evaluation. 3. Participants’ general meeting taking part in updating interventions and giving periodic communications about the progress of activity. In preliminary discussions with different school co-ordinators, some typical attitudes relating to practical activity came out: some teachers, mainly primary school ones, emphasise their students’ whatever activity, without taking into account the development of scientific ideas linked to what they are doing. In this case practical activity is carried on in parallel with the conveyance of scientific information taken from textbooks and essentially detached from these. Other teachers, above all secondary school ones, see the practical activity as a means to confirm scientific information they transmitted, therefore tend to use only demonstrations explained by teachers or experiments made under strict schemes. 7. Preliminary training interventions [14 hours] In order to aid communications among group members, a common issue “Materials and their transformations” was established. Training interventions were given with the help of Science Education Laboratories of Naples and Trieste Universities. These were intended to: - Take on account the dimension of progress of children’ ideas and what can be expected of younger and older children when they are studying materials and how they can be changed. - Acknowledge the development of scientific attitudes as an important outcome of science education and consider the progress in building these attitudes in order to promote learning in science. 8. Activities in the schools During the year 2001-2002, 21 teaching units - out of which 13 were about the agreed issue - were planned and carried out at school. These involved 7 schools: - 4 units in 26 primary school former level classes (grades 1 – 2) - 6 units in 42 primary school latter level classes (grades 3 – 5) - 2 units in 8 secondary school classes (grades 6 – 8) - 1 unit in 2 high school (grades 9 – 10) Secondary school and high school teachers, otherwise from primary school ones, generally found difficulties in taking part in common teaching plans.

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9. What teachers observed Teachers were provided with observation forms aiming at evaluating students’ achievement of objectives relating with understanding, communication, scientific attitudes and difficulties that teachers themselves found in carrying on the activity. Observations about students were mostly general and seldom referring to the activity specific objectives. They widely agree about the following points: - students’ enthusiasm for what they were doing ; - unusual permanent learning even after a long time; - weaker students’ active participation; - students’ socialisation and communication affect their learning: “they try and find right words in order to be understood by others”, “they learn to co-operate to achieve an objective”, “working together they refine their handicrafts as well”. There were prominent observations stemming from teachers’ uneasiness in carrying on the activity: - To manage activity time: everyone complains it took them much longer than they expected - To manage students’ discussion and their group work: “there are too many students to effectively manage work”, “it is not easy to find the right language”, “it is difficult to restrain from suggesting answers”, “it is almost impossible to make observations on students while following their work”. 10. What teachers perceived as an effective help According to 75% of teachers, independently of their school level, co-operative work is an effective instrument to improve their professional skills: “To work effectively in co-operation with one’s own school colleagues improves everyone’s professional skills”. According to all of the primary school and a half of secondary school teachers it is motivating to know that what is done at school takes part in a wider plan going on during the years: “It is better when you know your own work in class takes part in a wider plan ”. 11. New required aids All the groups thought it would be helpful to have a tutor closely following their own work, even at school, to help them to make observations. Many still had uncertainties and would like to work following detailed traces of ready teaching units. Almost all would like an updating based on a teaching lab. 12. How work went on In 2002 the school reform law in Italy was cancelled by the new minister of education together with the curriculum for primary and middle school. In Treviso co-operating group many teachers felt demotivated to go on and participants number went down from 104 to 65 members, who however, insisted in carrying on the plan undertaken. They decided to go along a way with ready and much detailed teaching units about the issue “Heat and Cold” which had already been tested in other schools. The informative stage was in the form of a teaching lab having as an objective the adjustment to the different schools contexts and the drafting of fairly detailed observation cards that were linked to observable behaviours relating to unit objectives. We noticed that, by diminishing their anxiety about how to organise their work in the classroom, teachers were much more attentive to the meaning of each teaching action, and interesting suggestions came out mainly about how to manage the observations carried out by students specially when they observed something that was not foreseen by the teacher. 13. Conclusion Nothing new is said by asserting the way to get an effective teaching is long and not easy, even after teachers’ following updating courses. The importance of this process lies in what teachers do in classroom. Teachers in the co-operative groups were looking for ways to improve their practice within the various constraints of the situation in which they were working. We could observe that in doing that they acted also as critical agents of those constraints and of themselves. They tried

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to analyse their experiences with the aim to make public their teaching ad its results to each other so that their reflective insights formed the basis of a common developmental process. In conclusion, a focus on teachers’ training “that ignores the processes of teaching and learning in classrooms will not provide the direction that teachers need in their quest to improve.” References Black, P. and William, D. (1998) Assessment and Classroom Learning. Assessment in Education Harlen, W. (2000) The Teaching of Science in Primary Schools. David Fulton Pub Pellerey, M. (1980) Il metodo della ricerca-azione di K.Lewin nei suoi più recenti sviluppi e applicazioni. In Orientamenti Pedagogici. 27 449-463 Ministero della Pubblica Istruzione (1998) L’Istituto Comprensivo Sperimentale: Laboratorio per l’Innovazione. Roma

ACTIVITIES OF A CROSS-INSTITUTIONAL GROUP TO PROMOTE PHYSICS “Working Group in Physics”, Servei de Formació Permanent, Universitat de València, Spain The “Working Group in Physics” (WGP) is an hybrid or cross-institutional group integrated by high school teachers and university professors of physics. It was constituted as a group open to any teacher wishing to contribute to public scientific literacy and with the goal of promoting physics studies and contribute to the improvement of the teaching and learning of physics at high school level. In order to fully understand the purpose of the activities carried out by our group, it is necessary to start with some premises. By the time the group was created, the high school physics in Spain suffered a deep change due to the generalized implementation of a new educational system that redefined the contents of the physics high school curriculum [1]. It must be pointed out that traditionally, physics at high school has always been studied in a physics+chemistry integrated subject and only in the last high school year physics is studied on its own (in fact, a great percentage of high school physics teachers are chemistry graduates). The new educational system mentioned above has changed the situation of physics in two ways: first of all it has rendered the subject optional for most student curricular choices. A more recent modification of such system will allow a student to pass through all high school stages without the slightest contact with physics. Secondly the physics contents have been drastically changed, with a strong reduction of the classical parts and a shift towards the so-called modern physics. Such choice of contents constitutes a generalized and controversial trend [2], which generates a great need of in-service training courses which is hardly satisfied by the administration. On the other hand, the non compulsory character of the subject has led to an extraordinary decrease in the number of students choosing physics at high school (either in the compulsory educational stage or in the baccalaureat1), not to speak of the University level. Furthermore, the importance given in the physics curriculum to the guided observation of phenomena and the experimental (also quantitative) practice is very scarce at all levels. Experimentation requires an institutional supplementary effort which exceeds the mere acquisition of laboratory instrumentation. Such support has been usually absent and the successive changes in the curriculum have scarcely modified that trend [3]. “The Working Group in Physics” has carried out different activities which reflect the belief that a generalized scientific literacy can only be achieved if the link between the concrete (phenomena and experiments) and the abstract level (models to explain them) is not broken2,4, and that the students must be actively involved in science through a personal discovery and investigation of the natural phenomena together with a guided rationalization [4, 5]. The goal of our group is, hence, the improvement of the teachers’ hands-on experience and conceptual understanding of physics, as well as the promotion of physics at high school level, through the planning and development of a

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variety of training activities, including those needed for the new Spanish physics curriculum mentioned above. Our group has developed such activities in cooperation with different institutions, with a stable partnership with the Faculty of Physics of the University of Valencia, the department of Applied Physics of the Polytechnic University of Valencia and the Permanent Training Service (SFP) of the University of Valencia, to which our group has belonged from the beginning. In the following sections, we shall explain in detail the organization and objectives of the different activities we have already carried out. 1. Physics training courses, addressed to high school teachers, cover in a comprehensive way the contents defined in the Spanish new physics curriculum. In these courses, special attention has been paid to the introduction of physical concepts through experiments. In particular, low-cost and versatile demonstrations that the students are able to build by themselves in the classroom or as homework have been developed for each course, in order to illustrate basic phenomena in a simple and clear way. When possible, the quantitative analysis of the experimental results has been emphasized. We believe that the decision of limiting the courses to small groups of trainees (up to 30 distributed in two groups) has greatly contributed to their success, as it has favoured the discussion and a first-hand manipulation of the demonstrations and laboratory material. Following this plan, courses like Workshop for Physics Experiments for the New High School Curriculum (LOGSE): Mechanical and Electromagnetic Waves, Presentation of Scientific Concepts with Power Point, Practical course of Quantum Physics (basic concepts and experimental developments) or Practical course of Electromagnetism have been carried out with great success. Second editions of some of the courses have been organized in order to satisfy the demand. These are the only physics in-service teacher training initiatives which have been offered in the recent years in our region. The contents of the different courses have been published on various CD-ROMs and distributed to the trainees for their future use. This material won the second prize in the national edition of the “Physics on Stage” 2002. 2. “Physics Exchange Program”. This project consists in the preparation of a laboratory session for high school students in the undergraduate laboratories of the Physics Faculty. The goal pursued through this activity is twofold. First, this hands-on activity improves the students understanding of the fundamental physical phenomena, enhancing the relation between the physical models developed in the classroom to explain the real world and the actual observable phenomena. Secondly, the active participation of the students in experimental work possibly contributes to their future scientific orientation. This is specially true in the case of 16 year-old students who have chosen a physics+chemistry subject in their first year of the baccalaureat and must decide about choosing a physics subject in the second (and last) year. The general lines of the activities to be performed by the high school students were designed jointly by High school teachers and University professors involved in the WGP. The scripts (adapted to the high school level) and methodology were developed by the professors of the Optics and Applied Physics departments, in charge of the laboratory activity, while the high school teachers involved in the experience worked out the experiment contents with their own students. In fact, teachers were invited to a preliminary practical session in which the proposed experiments were thoroughly explained and the conceptual and practical difficulties identified. In the laboratories, after a brief introduction covering the basic physical concepts of each experience, the students (a maximum of 20) are organized in pairs and are given two or three hours (depending on the laboratory) to perform the experimental work. Their teachers, as well as the university professors in charge, are constantly monitoring their experimental work. The results are finally recorded in a report that each pair gives back to their teacher, who evaluates it, incorporating the mark into the students’ final grade. The critical comment of students and teachers, which constitutes the evaluation of the experience have been very positive, and a significant number of students decided to undertake physics in the last year of

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high school. The following photographs show the students while working in the Mechanics (a) and Optics (b) laboratories. 3. “The Experiment Cupboard”. This is an experimental project designed to promote the use of physics demonstrations (in a quantitative, as well as qualitative way) in high school. We have developed three experimental setups covering different subjects (mechanics, electromagnetism and optics) of the physics high school curriculum. The materials and instructions needed for each experiment fit inside a rolling suitcase that can be easily transported. The project includes a script with experimental suggestions as well as an evaluation sheet that high school teachers must fill after the experience. High school teachers can sequentially borrow the experimental cases, use them in the classroom and give them back for a successive use. This project has been developed in collaboration with different high school centres with good results, and will constitute the basis for a wider project in which a complete collection of experiments and demonstrations will be shared by a greater number of centres. The use of the experiment cases by the teachers requires their previous participation in a training workshop where they prepare the experimental set-up on their own and reflect on the best way to use the demo in its theoretical context. In such workshops, special emphasis is given to the quantitative use of the experiments, so as to illustrate the predictive character of physical models to real phenomena. The use of these experimental cases has already been presented in different workshops on physics and science education (Workshop on Physics and Chemistry: motivation and didactics for teaching (Valencia 2002), First Workshop about Physics and Chemistry Teaching in High School (Barcelona 2003)).

4. In addition to the courses and projects already mentioned, the group has been involved in different workshops on Physics and Science Education. To accomplish the goal of involving students in the active discovery of science phenomena, we believe teachers must acquire confidence in the practical construction and conceptual interpretation of easy-to-mount demonstrations that they can later work out in their classroom. With this idea in mind, several contributions were developed for workshops like the First and Second Workshop on Didactics and Scientific Education (Sagunto 2002-2003), Workshop on Physics and Chemistry: motivation and didactics for teaching (Valencia 2002) or First Workshop on Didactics and Scientific Education (Barcelona 2003). As an example of the organization of our hands-on activities, we describe here the experiences proposed under the name Let’s see what we can find at home!: Simple Physics Demonstrations. This practical workshop was addressed to primary and high school teachers, who built by themselves three demonstrations under the careful supervision of different WGP members. In particular, we explained the physics underlying the operation of a simple motor (electricity), the diaphragmatic breathing (differences of pressure, thermodynamics) and the pinhole camera (optics). Simple circuits and conductivity (electricity), wave phenomena with

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slinkies or the seasonal variations on Earth were considered as topics in a second edition of the same workshop. The trainees were given general and individual explanations on the underlying physics and links with other related scientific fields. The possible pedagogical uses of these demonstrations were investigated through fruitful discussions with the participants. It was found essential to convince the teachers to build their own working demonstrations individually, a task that is only possible if teachers are organized in small groups (a maximum of 10 supervised by one instructor). As pointed out in the introductory paragraphs, there is an enormous lack of experimental tradition in teaching. All the above mentioned demonstrations are well-known and simple ones. But the difficulty consists in overcoming the natural tendency to avoid any experimental contact, an attitude which finds its roots in such tradition, the absence of training and, last but not least, lack of time and means. We have found very positive that, at the end of the sessions, the trainees can take away their just made ready-to-use demos. We are very much concerned about the proper use of such demos, in a contextualized conceptual scheme, and not as mere attractions to which no rationalizing effort is done. For this reason we usually distribute written hand-outs in which a precise conceptual use of the demos is proposed. The “Working group in Physics” has been also involved in the organization of numerous activities related to physics education: high school students’ visits to the Physics Faculty, debate sessions about the new physics and chemistry curriculum or visits to high school centers to show the use of new technologies in science teaching. Future activities will include courses for primary school teachers in which the experimental demonstrations will constitute the nucleus around which we will conduct the conceptual explanations. Another initiative we have taken in consideration is that of visiting different high school labs in order to evaluate the available material and organize workshops in which teachers prepare different experimental setups using their own set of instruments. To conclude, we consider that our high shool-university partnership has been a very fruitful enterprise so far: its hybrid nature has favoured the acquisition of a privileged viewpoint which has led, in our opinion, to the success of our initiatives and their increasing demand, specially those concerning experimental demonstrations. We are very much concerned about the situation described in the introduction (i.e. a progressive deterioration of physics teaching and learning, particularly serious in the Spanish case), and we are aware that the roots of the problem can be found in the early educational stages, to which we will address a part of our future work. References [1] The previous system used to structure the educational life in a primary school period (EGB, from 6 to 13 years old) and an optional 4-year high school period or baccalaureate (BUP+ maturity, from 14 to 17) or a professional itinerary in alternative. The new LOGSE system contemplates three periods: primary school (6 to 11), compulsory secondary school (ESO, from 12 to 16) and an optional two-year baccalaureate previous to university (or a professional stage in alternative). An even newer modification of that system (LOCE) will be soon applied. It is not the scope of this article to judge or discuss the benefits of the different structural changes, mainly because they should not necessarily have resulted in a drastic change of the physics curriculum, as in fact it has [2] Russo, L. (1998) Segmenti e bastoncini. Dove sta andando la scuola?. Feltrinelli [3] Laboratory work has never been compulsory for Spanish students (the different physics programs have always declared its importance in principle but it has never been regulated in practice), as a consequence, litttle attention has been paid to specific laboratory training for teachers. Besides, technical laboratory support has never existed in Spanish high schools (no laboratory assistants or technicians) [4] Arons, A. B. (1990) A guide to introductory physics teaching. John Wiley & Sons [5] Frova, A. (2001) La Fisica sotto il naso. Superbur saggi

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PROJECT 5 P03B 076 20 EPISTEMOLOGICAL OBSTACLES IN THE TEACHING OF PHYSICS STUDENTS AND THEIR TEACHERS DIFFICULTIES IN UNDERSTANDING OF PHYSICS THE ROLE OF TEXTBOOKS Zofia Gołłąb-Meyer, Institute of Physics of the Jagiellonian University, Cracow, Poland Danuta Szot-Gawlik, Institute of Physics of the Pedagogical University, Cracow, Poland 1. Important factors in choosing the textbooks Four years ago our educational system has been profoundly reformed. In the new system only the basic curriculum is defined. Detailed curricula and textbooks have only to be approved by the Ministry of Education. Their number is unlimited. As a result there is a multitude of teaching programs and textbooks. For example, for the gimnazjum (junior high school) more than 15 proposals are presently offered. Each one is strongly recommended and advertised by its editors, who in their marketing campaigns do not always use fair methods. It seems to be forgotten that educational books should not be treated as regular trade goods. The teacher is facing an extremely responsible task of choosing the most suitable textbook. Our interest was to find out which criteria were applied by the teachers when choosing the textbook. The second task was to answer the question: can we expect from teachers a proper evaluation of the scientific content of the textbooks. We have drawn up a questionnaire, worked out and formulated for this purpose. In 2002, eighty teachers of physics in junior high schools in Southern Poland answered our questionnaire. We have found out factors which influenced the teachers’ decisions: – Individual judgment after scanning several, although not all textbooks 70% – participation in the editor’s presentation of the textbook 39% – other teachers advice 30% – marketing offer directed to the school by the editor 13% – advice of an official adviser from the educational board 9% The 70% fraction of the teachers who mainly rely on their own judgment, shows the skeptic attitude, perhaps typical for Polish people, towards any imposed opinions. Our questionnaire indicates that the presentations organized by editors may substantially affect the teachers’ choice. It is somehow startling that a marketing offer received at school has a stronger influence then the advice of a competent official adviser. 2. Decisive virtues of a textbook as seen by teachers Teachers responding to our questionnaire listed the following features as important for choosing the textbook (listed in order of frequency teachers pointed): – the textbook should show physics in a practical context; – the textbook should contain many paradigmatic problems with solutions; – appreciated are modern graphical design and interesting photographs; – good index and multimedia additions are very welcomed. Only three, i.e., 4% of the responders pointed out the merit correctness of scientific content as a necessary virtue! As we understand, all other teachers take it for granted! 3. Quality of physical content of textbooks not seen by teachers The Textbook Commission of the Polish Academy of Arts and Sciences has examined the physics textbooks for the junior high schools, which their editors submitted for evaluation (seven out of fifteen). Only one of the textbooks has been distinguished as error free. Others contained errors; in some cases very serious ones. All evaluated textbooks are approved by the Ministery of Education. This means that our teachers have to choose from textbooks of very different quality. The question is whether all of them can properly evaluate the scientific content of the textbook.

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To answer these questions another investigation has been undertaken: a) A chapter of a textbook about energy was presented to a group of science teachers and they were asked to indicate incorrect or unclear phrases. Only very few teachers identified the wrong phrases, whereas the majority described the incorrect sentences as unclear. b) In the workshops devoted to problem solving some erroneous problems were given to the groups of physics teachers. Again, only very few of them indicated errors in the formulated problems, while the others tried in vain to solve them and blamed themselves for this lack of success. c) The same teachers appreciated the everyday language in formulations of problems, however they did not notice that the lack of precision can be a source of misunderstanding. d) During the workshop devoted to evaluation of four textbooks, junior high school teachers formulated many very deep and useful remarks and comments, but not related to the correctness of the scientific content. Those errors were not noticed. e) To a big group of science teachers (more than 100 persons) of elementary schools the passage from Aristotle “Physics” (Book 7, 241b, about the causes of movement) was presented as part of some textbook. Teachers were asked to comment it, to say whether they agree or disagree with the presented opinion. No single person disagreed. They considered the text to be correct. (It is another story, how this fact should be taken into account in teachers and students education). Conclusion Since the teachers are those who eventually make the choice of the textbooks, their opinions are decisive for how the optimal textbook should look like. It was their pressure that caused changes of the style of old textbooks to the more attractive present ones. However, it is alarming that the physical content is not correct in too many cases. In our opinion the ministerial referees are to be blamed for that. The teachers expect absolute correctness of the textbooks approved by the Ministry of Education and our authorities should ensure it. Another conclusion from our investigation is the following: Good textbooks can be written by a team consisting of teachers and scientists. If it is written only by teachers then they must very carefully checked by scientists. Reviewers should do their work properly.

RESEARCH GRANT FOR IN-SERVICE TEACHER FORMATION: PILOT EXPERIENCE IN UNIVERSITY OF UDINE Mario Dutto, Lombardia Regional Direction of the Ministry of Education Marisa Michelini, Silvana Schiavi Fachin, CIRD, University of Udine Problems in the formation of in-service teachers in Italy In-service formation of teachers in Italy has a particular character, because it is part of a context of professional self-training of the teachers’ school activity (Luzzatto, 1999; Pugliese et al., 1999; Dutto, 2001; Bonetta et al. 2002; Dutto et al., 2003). In fact, until 1999 the initial university formation of teachers hadn’t been started, even though it was foreseen by a law dating back to 1990 (L 341/90). The institutional experiences previously made in this field have been useful references for its set up, also when they had a disciplinary or experimental character (Bandiera et al., 1996; Bonetta et al., 2002; Loria et al., 1978; 1980; 1981). Our teachers of nursery school and elementary school had a minimum pedagogical formation and a weak cultural and disciplinary formation at a secondary school level. The small amount of apprenticeship foreseen in their secondary formation has always given a modest professional contribution.

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Secondary teachers have usually obtained a degree after at least four years at univesrity, which has given them a good non-targeted disciplinary formation, but they haven’t received professional formation. All teachers have been employed through procedures which have ascertained mainly their cultural preparation and sometimes their transmission capacities. During the trial year they always had complete and direct responsability of the classes in which they taught. They have therefore formed their professionality and learnt to teach in class through direct experience (Luzzatto, 1999; Dutto, 2001). A negligible contribution respect to the teachers in service, but able to create a point of view and a context of reference, comes from the scientific sector, thanks to the consolidated sensitivity of the academic world of these disciplinary areas for the formation of teachers and didactic research (1). Studies and research conducted on the needs of initial and in-service formation of secondary teachers of scientific subjects (Michelini, 1997; Pugliese et al., 1999) have evidenced formative needs of methodological character and disciplinary didactics, which add to those of other european teachers regarding the up-dating of the disciplinary contents, and innovative and emblematic curricular proposals. The formative proposal for in-service teachers cannot have the same general and basic character of the one for first formation students (pre-service teacher formation) (2), who are offered the occasion to operate in a formative context a sinthesis between didactical competences and those of the teaching profession (Michelini 2001; Bonetta et al. 2002; Michelini et al., 2003). Inservice teachers need to be able to face specific educative and formative problems, such as – for example – the nature and role of interaction between the subjects involved in the formation and the organization of didactic activity, the managing of curricula, of the learning processes, of the methods of didactic innovation and of the overcoming of conceptual knots (Michelini e Schiavi, 2001). Our teachers have often had the chance to develop, through experience, a useful sensitivity for the choice of strategies and methods. The intuitive dimension, not rarely extraordinary, often remains their only reference for educative and didactic choices, compared to proposals, which come from class didactic tradition, from scolastic publishing, from dispersed and differentiated forms of in-service training, mostly disorienting because of their disomogeneity in nature, contents, methods, duration, and offerers. The tendency to reproduce traditional didactic styles, proposed by text books, experienced by the teacher during his or her formative route or observed in older teachers (Eraut, 1994) is the behaviour most commonly encountered in teachers, who think about the teaching profession in static terms (Buchberger et al., 2001) and think it is necessary to adapt their intervention to a consolidated praxis (Day et al., 1990). Some of the most recent studies coming from some national didactic research groups (3) regarding models and the set-up of actions, instruments and methods for the re-qualification of the teaching profession in schools and didactic innovation have evidenced a need of formation, which cannot be satisfied with theoretic notions (Anderson, 1995). Contextualized experiences are indispensable. The situated dimension, of contextualized analysis, of experimentation, of implementation in context of didactic proposals, allows in particular the development of the reflection in professional practice, which constitutes a necessary condition to learn and master innovation (Woolnough, 2000; 1999). 1 Apart from the pedagogical area, even today the university disciplinary groups which foresee scientific disciplinary sectors for education and didactics (SSD) are only those of maths and physics. 2 Also in the pre-service teacher training it is discussed whether a general approach to the subjects of the area appointed to the teaching profession (A1) is preferable, rather than a specific, experimental and professional one, as well as their scarce link-up with disciplinary didactics (A2) (Bonetta et al., 2002; Michelini et al., this volume) 3 Within the Scientific Disciplinary Area of Physical Sciences various coordinated at a national level research projects have been carried out for the formation of teachers.Two recent Projects of National Relevance (PRIN) for the biennium 1999-00 and 2001-03, coordinated by P Guidoni, with the title Spiegare e Capire in Fisica (SeCiF) e Formazione in Fisica del Cittadino (FFC) have involved the universities of Bologna, Milano, Napoli, Palermo, Pavia, Torino, Udine.

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The continuous formation of teachers must be integrated in didactic research for the new teaching profession composed by an articulate complex of disciplinary, technical, pedagogical, social and organizational competences (Michelini, 2001; Michelini et al., 2002). Research confirms itself as the most effective instrument for the involvement of the teacher in his or her formation and for a formation integrated with the didactic commitment of the teacher. Teachers do not have research within their competences, and therefore they need to be trained in it, for example through experiences of collaboration with professionals in educative and didactic research. An important condition for the joining of research and professional practice regards the character of the topics treated: it can’t be a research on discipline, but on its didactics and on the methodological and educative problems, in which there is a mixture of pure, applied and action research. The Pilot Project Research Grant for Teachers (RGT) Borse di Ricerca per Insegnanti (BRI) launched in 1999 and brought into action in 2000 by the Ministry’s Board of Directors for the Formation of teachers (MIUR) has promoted teachers’ research, with the tutoring of an expert, for the qualification of in-service teachers (Dutto, 2001). The national Pilot Project Research Grant for Teachers (RGT) carried out in Udine The national Pilot Project RGT was created to study the modalities to attribute to in-service teachers an active role in professional development, through research activities based on class work. It has not been rigidly defined a priori, so as to receive the contribution of the local scientific responsibles of the 4 sites involved for a total of 40 grantsgrants. Managing and research styles, modalities of support and consultancy have compared various institutions: the Provveditorato of Pescara, the Regional Institutes for Educational Research Experimentation and Training (RIERET) Istituti Regionali di Ricerca Sperimentazione ed Aggiornamento Educativo (IRRSAE) in Bologna and Torino, the University of Udine. Three strong constraints characterize RGT in a precise way: a) the grants are for the teacher; the expert has a separate contribution for the advice given; b) the experts are chosen locally and are responsible for the quality of the research; c) the topic of every research concerns problematics of the teacher in his or her class work. With a specific convention stipulated in december 1999 the Ministerium of University, Instruction and Research (MIUR) assigned to the University of Udine the task of handing out 15 research grants. The University of Udine has singled out a scientific responsible, a reference structure for the management of the RGT programm and has nominated a Scientific Committee (CS) for the management of the project, formed by 20 experts for the scientific supervision of the researches (4). For the assignement of the grants it called a public examination, involving a discussion on the research proposals after a preliminary selection of the projects. The examination is reserved for teachers, employed in-service full time in the schools of the 4 provinces (5) for a research of the duration of one academic year, based on didactic activity and class interaction, aiming also at growing the mastering of the teacher’s didactic action regarding the teaching discipline. The CS played the role of judging committee of the 80 projects presented. It then had the task of coordinating all the activities of the project and guaranteeing scientificity and support to the research work of the teachers. Each member of the CS also had the responsibility of paying attention to a specific field within the foreseen 15 in 4 areas: A - Fields1 – 3 – 4: Music, History, Modern languages;

4 Scientific Responsible: Marisa Michelini. Reference Structure: Interdipartimental Center of Didactic Research (CIRD). Scientific Committee: Anoè Renato, Benciolini Luca, Bonfanti Pierluigi, Cecchini Carlo, Dutto Mario, Fabbro Franco, Fava Giancarlo, Francescato Ennio, Iannis Ester, Marcone Alberto, Mastrovito Anna, Michelini Marisa, Michelutti Gian Luigi, Mirolo Claudio, Moretti Maria Antonia, Pascolini Mauro, Rigo Pierluigi, Santi Lorenzo, Schiavi Fachin Silvana, Stefanutti Andreina. 5 Udine, Pordenone, Gorizia and Treviso

208

Topical Aspects

B - Fields2 – 5 – 6: Geography, Biological Sciences, Chemistry; C - Fields7 – 8 – 9 – 10 – 11: Maths, Physics, Information Technologies; D - Fields12 – 13 – 14 – 15 Informal education, Counselling. Four members of the CS had the task of monitoring, controlling and internal evaluation. The coordinating of the research was carried out with the three following modalities: 1) a programm of monthly meetings, organized by the scientific responsible; 2) a telematic forum reserved for the community of researches and experts; 3) a personalized support for the teacher-researcher from the relative expert. Researches were carried out by the researching teachers at the school institution he/she belonged to, under the guide and monitoring of the scientific responsible and of the experts. The first phase of each research of the winners of the grants consisted in the compiler and the expert revising the proposal so to better oriented it in a perspective of research. Half way through the research an intermediary report was produced by the researching teachers, who also drew up an ample final research report according to a reference grid at the end of the academic year of the grant’s fruition. During the research phase some initiatives were carried out by the teachers in order to increase familiarity with the research activities: 1. a programm of meetings for each tematic area, in which every teacher-researcher explained the research work to his or her colleagues and discussed it, with the support of the relative expert; 2. an initiative called “the mirror”, consisting in a form of reflection through the mediation of a referee: we wrote what we could see in the single research projects and we gave it to those interested, telling them “if we were to talk about your project, this is what we would say “; this caused an extraordinary discussion, which really made teachers move from a state of non reflective activism to a state of re-analysis of their work and of research in literature for the bibliographical references of the problems faced; 3. seminar on specific research in education with external experts; 4. the discussion in a telematic forum for the explanation of each personal representation regarding the following problems: a) nature and characteristics of the research in education and didactic; b) contribution that the class work gives to didactic research; c) fall backs of didactic research in class work; d) type of didactic research proposed in the presented project and explanation of the research problems focused on; e) contribution of research towards the teacher formation: context and/or situated teacher education.. Reflections on the experimented research process In the organization given in Udine, researches were carried out with a certain coordination, which allowed to costitute a research community, even if the areas, fields and topics of research were different. The formation activity therefore didn’t reduce itself to the situation in which the teacher works on his/her own in class and consults the expert now and then: the entire community of experts and researches met periodically to discuss the problems which emerged from all the researches. They exchanged materials through the telematic site and general problems were discussed in the forum. The research provided a great quantity of indications on various levels: - Problems concerning educative research. - Nature and carrying out of researches based on the reflection in practitioner research. - Collaboration between expert and teacher for researches contextualized in the scholastic praxis. - Formation of teachers in building a mentality and using methodologies focused on research. - Management of a research community with common problems and different topics. - Contribution of research in the formation of in-service teachers. We singled out some knots which need to be sorted out in order to build a new teaching profession based on research and innovation: - The prevalence of the proposal for good practice on the proposal for research,

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- The prevalence of action on reflection, - The prevalence of production on analysis and the controlling of processes, - The tendency of teachers to carry out link-ups, integrations and broadenings, instead of a selection of aspects and problems, - The operative and productive dimension often focused on scholars, reserving a role of pure mediation to the teacher. The research proposals of curricular character take on a character of projectation of didactic activities, with the testing of methodologies and materials, ignoring the problematic dimension of the purpose of the research. The following aspects are mostly absent in the research plans: - The presentation of culturally innovative set-ups, - The discussion of conceptual knots, - The analysis of specific learning difficulties, - The discussion of strategies proposed by didactic research, - The explanation of didactic experimentation protocols. The controlling and the evaluation of the processes, in particular, hardly ever are at the centre of attention in proposals of didactic class activities. The aspects capable of improving the teaching profession and/or the impact that reflection has on professional practice in the teacher’s work are hardly ever discussed. We made these observations known to the teachers, receiving opposing reactions: shutting down in front of a criticism taken personally (few), or great open-mindedness and interest in studying in depth the observations. Concluding remarks The grants were considered by all the teachers an important occasion. The research projects refer mostly to school activities which have previously given satisfaction and gratification to the teachers. The teachers tend to set themselves objectives which are too big for the time and research possibilities given. They consider an academic year as a period which is too short for the research and they point out that the work of research and, at the same time, school service, is difficult to manage. Distances create obstacles to interaction and it seems necessary to study the modalities of interaction from a distance. The forum is useful, but it is used nearly exclusively to give answers, and not much to ask questions. The schools don’t understand the potentialities of the researches and the efforts of the researching teachers: it is therefore necessary to study specific ways of involving the schools. The methodological support and the coordination of the project are essential for the teacher’s research work, who also needs to confront himself/herself with the research models. The following have been important elements for the quality and the success of the initiative: - a public examination and a public selection of the researches - a preliminar and motivated involvement of experts for each topic of research - a technical scientific committee, which acts as a guarantor of the quality of the work - a coordination of the research which singles out and deals with the common problems of the research - an evaluation committee which follows and “measures” the work - a precise organization of tasks and deadlines in the research. The telematic Forum has revealed itself a strong instrument for interaction, which is not able to activate itself spontaneously and therefore needs to be supported with a precise organization of long-distance communications. There are various articles which document the pilot project and the researches (Burba et al., 2001; Michelini et al., 2001; 2003; Dutto et al., 2003), a book in italian reports a detailed presentation of the experience, its evaluation and its outcomes, even through brief articles written by each researching teacher in collaboration with the relative expert (Michelini eds, 2003).

210

Topical Aspects

References Anderson L W ed (1995) International Encyclopaedia of Teaching and Teacher Education, Elsevier Science Ltd., Oxford Bandiera M, Michelini M, Pedemonte O (1996) Una indagine sui Corsi di Perfezionamento rivolti agli insegnanti (a.a. 1993/’94 e 1994/’95), Università e Scuola (UeS), I, 1/R Bonetta G, Luzzatto G, Michelini M, Pieri M T, eds. (2002) Università e formazione degli insegnanti: non si parte da zero, Concured, Forum, Udine Buchberger F, Campos B P, Kallos D, Stephenson J, Eds. (2001) Green Paper, TNTEE, Presentazione italiana a cura di Giunio Luzzatto “Libro verde sulla formazione degli insegnanti in Europa”, UeS, V, 1e2R, 2000, VI, 1R. Burba G, Dovier G, Moschetta C (2001) Nuove opportunità di crescita professionale per i docenti: borse di ricerca per la riflessione sulla pratica didattica. L’esperienza di Udine, presentato al Convegno “Lo sviluppo della professionalità docente tra ricerca e formazione. Riflessioni e esperienze”, Saint Vincent, settembre 2001. Day C, Pope M, Denicolo P (1990) Insights into teachers’ thinking and practice, Falmer Press, London, 1990 Dutto M G (2001), La professionalità nel sistema dell’autonomia, in Q6 - La formazione dei docenti/1, Treccani, Iter, 9-suppl., p.11 Dutto M G, Michelini M, Schiavi S (2003), Reinventing in-service teacher education and training: research grants for teachers, in L’Educazione Plurilingue. Dalla ricerca di base alla pratica didattica, selected paper, Forum, Udine 2003 (ISBN 88-8420-158-6) p.213-226. Eraut M (1994) Developing professional knowledge and competence, Falmer Press, London Grimmet P P and G.L. EricKson G L (eds) (1998) Reflection in Teacher Education, New York: Teacher College Press Loria A, Malagodi C, Michelini M (1981) Teacher’s Attitudes: on undating curriculum in particular, Proceedings of the International Conference on Education for Physics Teaching - ICPE, p.272-273 Loria A, Michelini M (1978) Il Corso di Perfezionamento in Fisica a Indirizzo Didattico dell’Università di Modena, La Fisica nella Scuola, XI, 1, p.16 Loria A, Michelini M (1980) World-Wide systems for the education and training of physics teachers, in The Education and Training of Physics Teachers, B.Davies ed., London, p.180 Luzzatto G (1999) Insegnare a insegnare, Carrocci ed., Roma Michelini M (1997) Didattica disciplinare e bisogni formativi: risultati di un’indagine tra i frequentanti di un corso di perfezionamento per la formazione degli insegnanti, La Fisica nella Scuola, XXX, 2, p.68. Michelini M (2001) Supporting scientific knowledge by structures and curricula which integrate research into teaching, in Physics Teacher Education Beyond 2000 (Phyteb2000), R.Pinto, S. Surinach Eds., Girep book - Selected contributions of the Phyteb2000 International Conference, Elsevier, Paris, p. 77 Michelini M eds. (2003) Ricerche nella pratica della didattica per la formazione degli insegnanti. Le 15 ricerche del progetto Borse di Ricerca Insegnanti a Udine, Forum, UeS, Udine, 2003 [ISBN 88-8420-183-7] Michelini M, Moschetta C (2001) Borse di Ricerca per Insegnanti: coniugare pratica didattica e ricerca, NUSU dell’Università diUdine, 2, p.36. Michelini M, Rossi P G, Stefanel A (2002) Integrazione fra formazione iniziale degli insegnanti e ricerca didattica: un modello per la fisica, in Università e formazione degli insegnanti: non si parte da zero, Concured, Forum, pagg.124-140 Michelini M, Schiavi S (2001) La ricerca degli insegnanti: le prime esperienze di borse di ricerca per insegnanti, in Q6 - La formazione dei docenti/1, Treccani, Iter , 9-suppl., p.106-125 Pinto R, Surinach S, Eds. (2001) Physics Teacher Education Beyond 2000 (Phyteb2000), Girep book - Selected contributions of the Phyteb2000 International Conference, Elsevier, Paris Pugliese Jona S, Michelini M, Mancini A M (1999) Physics teachers at secondary schools in Italy, in The Training Needs of Physics Teachers in Five European Countries: An Inquiry, H Ferdinande, S Pugliese Jona, H Latal eds., vol.4, Eupen Consortium, Eur. Phys. Soc.Technology Research and Development, 39, 3, p.5 Woolnough B E (2001) Physics Teachers as self-evaluating professionals, in Physics Teacher Education Beyond 2000, Girep book, Barcellona, 2000; B E Woolnough, S McLaughlin, S Jackson, Learning by doing, School Science Review, 81, 1999, p.294

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PROSPECTIVE SCIENCE TEACHERS’ VIEWS ON MODELS IN PHYSICS Jan Smit, Potchefstroomse Universiteit vir CHO, Potchefstroom, South Africa Stella Maris Islas, Departamento de Formación Docente, Facultad de Ciencias Exactas - Universidad Nacional del Centro de la Provincia de Buenos Aires, Argentina Introduction Previous studies indicate that scientific models play a very important role in the understanding of physics [1-3]. Poor understanding of the nature and functions of these models leads to a variety of conceptual problems amongst students [1, 4]. This presentation reports on a study conducted at universities in Argentina and South Africa. It was found that the views on models in physics of prospective science teachers differ significantly from that of physicists. In the study data was obtained by means of a questionnaire. The questionnaire was based on a previous survey by Smit and Finegold [1]. The questionnaire consisted of 25 items, 23 of which were statements. Students could respond to the statements by indicating on a 5-point scale whether they disagree (1) or agree (5) with the statement. Written motivations for the responses were requested. One of the other two items dealt with a classification of given entities as model or real and the other requested a definition of what a model in physics is. In the developmental stage a concept questionnaire was administered to a group of 15 students in South Africa. The group was similar to the groups later involved in the investigation. After completion of the questionnaires every item was discussed with the students and altered where necessary. The final version of the questionnaire was the result. The group who completed the concept questionnaire did not participate further in the investigation. Five physics lecturers at a university in South Africa edited the final version. The Questionnaire was then translated to Spanish and administered to four groups of prospective science teachers studying at three universities in Argentina. In South Africa five groups studying at two universities completed the English version also in class. The study is regarded as a population study as all students present in class on that day participated. In total 98 questionnaires were completed. The physics backgrounds of the participants ranged between one and four years of study at tertiary level. All were in their final year of preparation as science/physics teachers. Analysis of the data was done according to a procedure described by Gilbert [5]. Results The results of the study are reported in Tables 1-4. In Tables 1 & 2 the averages of students’ responses are given in the third last and physicists’ responses in the last column. The figures in the second last column are obtained by subtracting in the items where physicists responded with a 1 the figure in the previous column from 5. (The same result could be obtained if the statements were initially formulated in the negative or positive to obtain a physicist’s response of 5.) This operation made it possible to calculate a student group average to compare with physicists’ view. In the tables the four Argentinean groups are from the universities of UNICEN (Olavarría &Tandil campuses), Buenos Aires (UBA) and La Pampa (UNLap). In South Africa five groups in three teachers’ training programmes from the Universities of Potchefstroom and the North West were involved. Comparison of the averages of the second last columns of Tables 1 and 2 shows that the Argentinean group has on average 3.4 and the South African counterparts 2.8. The conclusion is that the South Africans are on average unsure about the statements. The Argentineans’ views are more in accordance with that of physicists. Differences of more than 1.0 are recorded for items 7, 8, 11 and 21. Significantly more South Africans than Argentineans disagreed with the statement (Item 7): A physics model describes the object, structure or process in nature it models completely. In response to item 8 South African students are to a high degree convinced that a model is derived in a logical way from facts obtained from experiments or observations. Argentineans are on

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average unsure about this statement. The responses to item 11 indicate that Argentineans are more positive to the statement that all physics models are analogies. South Africans are unsure on average. (For an in-depth discussion of this issue refer to Harré [6] and Hesse [7]). In response to item 21, Light is particles; the Argentineans were on average unsure (2.9), while the South Africans were relative sure (4.3) about the validity of this statement. In the written motivations of their responses to the statements in the questionnaires interesting ideas came forth. A few that was expressed by more than 15% of the South Africans are: – Models are real and exist in all matter / The model is within the object / Model exist in object / Model form part of particles / Model is part of physical phenomenon. – The ideal gas is not a presentation of a real existing entity. – Models provide a powerful framework within which to organize our thinking about Nature and its workings. – Light originates from particles of different colour. Table 1. Results (Argentina):Perceptions of Models in Physics (N=28)

Statement

1 Ol

2 Ta

3 Uba

4 Lap

Average Average(5) Physicist

1. Models are creations of the human mind.

4,5

4,3

5

5

4,6

4,6

5

2. All physics models are presentations of real existing entities.

2,3

4,3

3

2,7

3,3

1,7

1

4

4,1

4,2

4

4,1

0,9

1

3. Any presentation a physicist makes of an object, structure or process is called a model in the language of physics. 4 . Models occur in nature.

1,8

2,3

1,2

1,3

1,9

3,1

1

5. All physics models are mental images.

4,1

3,9

4,6

4,7

4,2

0,8

1

6. Physics models are aids a physicist uses to obtain information about nature.

3,4

4,3

3,8

4,7

4

4

5

7. A physics model describes the object, structure or process in nature it models completely.

1,8

2,8

1,2

1,7

2,1

2,9

1

3

3,3

1,6

2,3

2,8

2,2

1

1,3

1,3

2

1

1,4

3,6

1

10. The only function of models in physics is in the teaching of physics.

2

1,9

1

1,7

1,8

3,2

1

11. All physics models are analogies. This means the model is something the physicist has more knowledge of than the object it models.

3

3,3

3,4

4

3,3

1,7

1

8. This statement relates to the origin of physics models: A model is derived in a logical way from facts obtained from experiments or observations. 9. The terms model and theory are synonyms.

12. Physics models are temporary by nature.

4,1

4,5

4,2

5

4,4

4,4

5

13. Physicists always have more knowledge of the object, structure or process under modelling than of the model itself.

1,6

2,9

1,6

2

3,5

3,5

5

14. An important function of any physics model is to describe an object, structure or process in nature.

4

4,5

4,6

3,3

4,3

4,3

5

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15. Models play an important role in the explanation of physical phenomena.

4,9

4,8

4,2

3,7

4,6

4,6

5

16. Models can be used to predict objects, structures, processes or phenomena in nature not observed before.

3,8

4,1

4,4

4,7

4,1

4,1

5

17. All physicists have more or less the same mental picture of a specific model in physics, for example Bohr’s model of the atom.

4,3

3,6

2,8

3

3,6

3,6

5

18. There are models in physics that are not presentations of any real, existing objects, structures or processes in nature.

2,4

2,8

3

4,3

2,9

2,9

5

19. All models in physics can be visualised. 3,4

4,1

3

3,3

3,6

3,6

5

20. Light is electromagnetic waves.

2

4,1

1,8

2,3

2,9

2,1

1

21. Light is particles (photons).

2,1

4

1,8

2,3

2,9

2,1

1

22. Physicists have two models for light: a wave model and a particle model.

4,3

4,8

3,4

5

4,4

4,4

5

2,8

3,3

2,8

4,3

3,2

3,2

5

23. Physicists never apply the two models (wave and particle) simultaneously in the explanation of optical phenomena. Average = 3,37 σ = 0.89

Physicist 5.0

Table 2. Results (South Africa): Perceptions of Models in Physics (N=70)

Statement 1

2

Groups 3

4

5

Average Average(5) Physicist

1. Models are creations of the human mind.

4.7

3.9

4.0

4.8

4.0

4.3

4.3

5

2. All physics models are presentations of real existing entities.

4.3

4.4

3.8

3.4

3.3

3.9

1.1

1

3. Any presentation a physicist makes of an object, structure or process is called a model in the language of physics.

5.0

2.9

4.3

2.8

4.3

3.9

1.1

1

4. Models occur in nature.

3.3

3.6

2.7

2.2

3.7

2.3

2.7

1

5. All physics models are mental images.

4.2

3.9

3.8

3.2

3.3

3.8

1.2

1

6. Physics models are aids a physicist uses to obtain information about nature.

4.0

4.4

4.1

4.2

3.6

3.9

3.9

5

7. A physics model describes the object, structure or process in nature it models completely.

4.1

4.3

3.9

3.2

1.7

3.6

1.4

1

8. This statement relates to the origin of physics models: A model is derived in a logical way from facts obtained from experiments or observations.

4.6

4.9

4.1

4.7

4.8

4.5

0.5

1

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Topical Aspects

9. The terms model and theory are synonyms.

2.0

3.3

3.1

1.6

2.6

2.3

2.7

1

10. The only function of models in physics is in the teaching of physics.

2.4

1.7

2.4

1.6

2.0

2.7

2.3

1

11. All physics models are analogies. 2.8 This means the model is something the physicist has more knowledge of than the object it models.

3.9

3.6

3.0

3.1

2.3

2.7

1

12. Physics models are temporary by nature.

3.9

4.3

3.8

3.9

4.0

3.9

3.9

5

13. Physicists always have more knowledge of the object, structure or process under modelling than of the model itself.

3.7

2.9

2.7

3.6

2.3

3.2

3.2

5

14. An important function of any physics model is to describe an object, structure or process in nature.

4.7

4.0

3.9

4.6

4.8

4.4

4.4

5

15. Models play an important role in the explanation of physical phenomena.

4.9

4.9

4.2

4.9

4.9

4.7

4.7

5

16. Models can be used to predict objects, structures, processes or phenomena in nature not observed before.

4.2

3.6

3.8

4.1

3.6

3.6

3.6

5

17. All physicists have more or less the same mental picture of a specific model in physics, for example Bohr’s model of the atom.

3.6

3.0

3.4

3.6

3.8

3.6

3.6

5

18. There are models in physics that are not presentations of any real, existing objects, structures or processes in nature.

3.1

3.0

2.4

1.9

2.4

2.7

2.7

5

19. All models in physics can be visualised.

4.1

3.4

3.9

3.4

4.1

3.9

3.9

5

20. Light is electromagnetic waves.

4.4

4.7

3.8

2.3

3.7

3.8

1.2

1

21. Light is particles (photons).

4.7

4.4

3.8

4.8

4.7

4.3

0.7

1

22. Physicists have two models for light: a wave model and a particle model.

4.9

3.7

3.8

4.9

4.1

4.4

4.4

5

23. Physicists never apply the two models (wave and particle) simultaneously in the explanation of optical phenomena.

3.3

3.3

3.5

3.6

2.2

3.3

3.3

5

Average 2.8 σ = 1.3 Physicist 5.0

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Table 3. Classification as real or model (Argentina) (In the Table only the numbers of students who classified the entities as real are listed)

Olavarría (8)

Tandil (12)

Buenos Aires (5)

La Pampa (3)

Total

Entity / n & %

N

%

n

%

n

%

N

%

N=28

Total

Physicist

%

Real/ Model

Electron

3

38

8

67

2

40

3

100

16

57

Real

Atom

2

25

7

58

1

20

3

100

13

46

Real

Light ray

3

38

4

33

1

20

2

67

10

36

Model

Light beam

2

25

10

83

1

20

3

100

16

57

Real

Photon

2

25

6

50

1

20

1

33

10

36

Real

Rutherford’s Atom

0

0

0

0

0

0

0

0

0

0

Model

Conventional Electric current

1

12

6

50

0

0

0

0

7

25

Model

Geocentric view Of Universe

0

0

0

0

0

0

0

0

0

0

Model

Remarks: One student distinguishes the “real” character of entities & phenomena (she said that electron and photon are just names used to explain real phenomena). Other student remarks the etymology of “phenomenon” = appearance. Another one: there is a high probability for all these entities to be modified; then, no one is real. Another one: scientist sees only those facts he/she is prepared to see for (subjectivity of scientific knowledge) Table 4. Classification as real or model (South Africa) (In the Table only the numbers of students who classified the entities as real are listed)

Sediba ’02(23)

Uniwest ’02(7)

Uniwest ’03(17)

PU ’02(14)

n

%

n

Entity / n & %

n

%

n

%

n

%

PU ’03(9)

Total

Total

Physicist

%

N=70

%

Real/ Model

Electron

8

35

3

43

7

41

9

64

4

44

31

44

Real

Atom

8

35

2

29

6

35

11

79

3

33

30

43

Real

Light ray

20

87

6

86

15

88

12

86

8*

89

61

87

Model

Light beam

19

83

5

71

13

76

8

57

6*

67

51

73

Real

Photon

7

30

2

29

7

41

9

64

4*

44

29

41

Real

Rutherford’s Atom

1

4

0

0

2

12

0

0

0

0

6

9

Model

Conventional Electric current

9

39

1

14

8

47

11

79

4

44

33

47

Model

Geocentric view Of Universe

3

13

2

29

5

29

0

0

0*

0

10

14

Model

Remarks * One student stated the entities could be real or a model - “ All the above exist in nature, but models make it understandable”

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Topical Aspects

Definition of model In response to item 25 where students were requested to give a definition of what a model in physics is representative ideas collected from Argentinean students’ responses are: – The model is a human construction, a creation of the mind. – Most students focused their motivations to model’s functions in scientific research. A model is a useful tool to several functions. Among these functions they emphasize description, explanation and prediction. – The model is a representation based on experience. – A distinction is made between nature and reality (considering products of technology). – The model is seen as a tool used by physicists to adapt phenomena to their comprehension capability (one student said: to give nature a format at the human mind measure) It needs to be remarked that most Argentinean students omitted to pay attention to the modeltheory relationship and to check the model with its empirical consequences. From literature it is clear that the terms model and theory are often used as synonyms [8-10]. According to Leubner [11], D’Espagnat [12] and Kollaard [13] a model is always part of a theory, but not the theory itself. Twenty-one different propositions were identified in the responses of South African students to the item requesting a definition of a model (Item 25). The five most prominent ideas that emerged from the analysis are: A model is… – a representation of reality. – used to explain things/phenomena/observations. – an attempt to describe or illustrate objects/systems in nature that cannot be visualised, but are existing. – anything that is used for teaching physics. – a picture of an imaginary thing, especially a thing we cannot see with the naked eye. Other interesting views respondents expressed are that a model is a copy of reality, a replica of reality, that a model must be visual. One stated: (A model is) “A representation of concepts that does not exist in Nature, an expression of physicists’ thinking”. There is a general perception that models have a function to make things understandable, to describe, explain and predict. It is also apparent in the definitions that the emphasis is on the functions of a model and its role as teaching aid. If for the South African groups the written motivations to items 1 - 23 are compared with the definitions they gave for a model in physics a good correlation is found. From the definition and written responses one may conclude that the dominant view/definition is that a model is a (visual) representation/picture of reality, it is used to explain natural things/observations/phenomena, an attempt to describe or illustrate objects/systems in nature. It is used for teaching and study. That a comprehensive definition of a model is rather difficult is revealed in discussion by Kollaard [13]. Conclusion In conclusion it can be stated that this research reveals that many of both Argentinean and South African students in their final year of preparation for the teaching profession hold views about what a model is, how it originates and what its functions are that is not compatible with that of physicists. Since models as content type form cornerstones in the framework of the physics paradigm alternative, restrictive or distorted views about the origin, nature and functions of these models are expected to impact negatively on teaching for understanding of physics when these students are in the profession. The benefit of this investigation to the physics teaching community would be to attend in teaching to the particular aspects of models revealed in this study students have problems with. It is

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proposed that studies be done on groups of students subjected to this modelistic teaching approach. The impact of this approach on students’ understanding of physics can thus be assessed. References [1] Smit, J. J.A. and Finegold, M. (1994) International Journal of Science Education. 17 (5) 621 - 634 [2] Santema, J. H. (1978) Modellen in de wetenschap en de toepassing ervan. Delft Delft University Press [3] Smit, J. J. A. and Nel, S. J. (1997) Perceptions of models of electric current held by physical science teachers in South Africa. South African Journal of Science. 93(5) 202 – 206 [4] Islas, S. and Pesa, M. (2001) Revista Brasileira de Ensino de Fisica. 23 (3) 319-328 [5] Gilbert, S. W. (1991) Journal of Research in Science Teaching. 28 (1) 73 - 79 [6] Harré, R. (1971) The Principles of Scientific Thinking. Chicago University of Chicago Press [7] Hesse, M. B. (1966) Models and Analogies in Science. Notre Dame In University of Notre Dame Press [8] Heyns, G. F. (1988) et al. Physical Science 2000. Cape Town Nasou [9] Ouweneel, W. J. (1991) Natuurwetenskap en natuurbeskouing. Potchefstroom SA PU for CHE [10] Park, D. (1988) The How and Why. Princeton New Yersey Princeton University Press [11] Leubner, C. (1989) The Structure of Physical Theories. Innsbruck Austria University of Innsbruck [12] D’Espagnat, B. (1983) In Search of Reality. New York Springer-Verlag [13] Kollaard, U. H. (1991) Didactish Vertalen. Amsterdam The Netherlands Free University

DERIVE 6 – A SYSTEM FOR LEARNING MATHEMATICS AND TEACHING STUDENTS Bernhard Kutzler, ACDCA Austrian Center for Didactics of Computer Algebra, Austria Vlasta Kokol-Voljc, Faculty of Education, University of Maribor, Slovenia 1. Display the steps in the simplification of an expression with optional display of transformation rules Derive 6 offers a very powerful feature which allows you to step through a simplification and see the transformation rules the program applies. It is called the Display Steps feature. When using this feature, Derive performs only one step of the simplification and displays the transformation rule used for this step. The rule is contained in a text box and is displayed in blue to distinguish it from normal text that is black by default. This Display Step feature is an ongoing research and development project. About 2,000 transformation rules are implemented in Derive 6.00 covering differentiation, integration, summation, products, elementary and special function simplification, and equation and inequality simplification. You can try stepping through any problem, but some or all of the intermediate steps may not be displayed (yet). More transformation rules will be implemented in the future. If you want to keep up and obtain more of this feature, regularly look for free upgrades to version 6.x at http://www.derive-europe.com. The Display Step feature is a powerful and useful feature for mathematics teaching and learning. Possible uses of this feature are: (1) A user wants to know how Derive simplified an expression, i.e. wants to look into the “black box”.

218

Topical Aspects

(2) A user wants to study the subtleties of simplification. (3) A student starts studying a topic by observing an “expert” on examples the student chooses. (4) A student deepens understanding by seeing the steps an “expert” makes and recognizing the rules the expert used. (Here the display of rules must be switched off.) We see the major goal in using computer algebra systems such as Derive for teaching mathematics in a reduction of the handicraft parts of the subject. Derive supports this goal by automating calculations. With the Display Steps feature it also supports more traditional approaches. We consider this ideal for an evolutional transition from what we have to what we want. 2. Communicate with ti cas calculators: import data from and export data to ti-89, ti-92+, voyage200

A handheld provides a maximum of mobility and robustness. You can use it in virtually any environment: an office, a lecture room, a classroom, at home, a car, a train, a bus, etc. Often it is the only CAS tool available to the students in a mathematics or science class, perhaps because the computer lab is used by someone else. Another advantage is that the screen of a handheld can easily be shared with other students of the entire class using the TI Viewscreen or the TI TV Presenter. Derive, on the other hand, provides speed, a high resolution color screen, mouse support, and connection to a printer. Derive also offers more mathematics than the handhelds and a powerful worksheet concept for producing mathematical documents comprising expressions, text, graphs, and OLE objects. Interconnectivity is a concept that allows you to combine the best of these two worlds into a powerful mathematics and science teaching and learning environment, as is shown in Part 2 of the book “Interconnectivity – Derive 6 and Voyage200/TI-92+/TI-89 in Teaching Mathematics”: Derive6 and a TI handheld in the classroom is a powerful demonstration of the famous proverb “the whole is more than the sum of its parts.” Using a combination of tools has pedagogical value in itself: Derive6 and the handheld use two different but still sufficiently similar languages. The differences are documented in a dictionary in the above mentioned book. It is advantageous for students to learn more than one mathematics software language, because this will prepare them better for their professional life. Two fundamentally different mathematics languages would hardly be manageable within one curriculum. The two languages of Derive6 and Voyage200/TI-92+/TI-89 are close enough that students can handle this and still experience two different dialects as a preparation for their career. Another important advantage of using two different tools is that students learn to choose the tool that is most appropriate for a given task.

Quality Development in Teacher Education and Training

219

3. Make plots dynamic: animate expression plots with slider bars

To study, for example, the influence of parameter a on the shape of the graph of y = a ⋅ x2 you can insert a slider bar for a before plotting the graph. Then you can control the value of a (within the bounds specified when introducing the slider bar) with the mouse and immediately see the change of the graph. 4. Optionally format the background of a plot window with a bitmap graphic file format This is a very powerful pedagogical feature. Teachers can prepare background pictures with curves and then let the students find a function whose graph matches the curve(s). 5. Let plots be labelled with defining equations This option uses the existing plot window annotation feature to provide a descriptive label in the same color used by the plot itself. The label is initially placed in the top left hand corner of the plot window. Subsequent labels are positioned below the previous label. Like all plot window annotations, the plot label can be edited and/or moved by the user as desired. 6. Customize menus and toolbars Teachers can now tailor Derive according to the needs in the classroom. For example, one can generate a “calculus-free” Derive by removing the five calculus buttons (for limits, derivatives, integrals, sums, and products) and the calculus menu. 7. Function definitions and variable values many now be edited with multi-line edit boxes

One can now use the Author>Function Definition command to display a dialog box where definitions that span more than one line can easily be edited. A vertical scrollbar is displayed when there are more definition lines than display lines. One can use the up/down arrow keys to move between lines and press the (Alt)+(Enter) key while editing to create new lines.

220

Topical Aspects

The Edit>Expression command can now be used to edit function definitions, variable values, and domains using the Function Definition, Variable Value and Variable Domain multi-line edit dialogs. There are many other new features. Following is a list of most of them: • Mathematical characters are now entered and displayed using the new Derive Monospace Unicode encoded font. • The Derive Unicode font is scaleable and the interface appropriately provides options for selecting font size, style and color. • An enhanced text box now supports Unicode characters and html link hot spots. • The state variable settings are now saved in dfw files rather than in the Derive6.ini file. • A table of contents tab makes it easy to navigate through the on-line help for Derive. • Expression entry using multiple entry lines is now available. • Parentheses matching is offered in most places where Greek and Math toolbar symbols are allowed (e.g. expressions, function definitions and variables, plot annotations, etc.) • The style of a line segment may be selected for connected point plots. • Optionally turn off mesh lines in 3D plots. • Small, medium, or large points may now be specified. • Rotate the 3D-plot “box” with the mouse. • Many algorithmic improvements and extensions make the mathematics of Derive even more powerful. Find out more about Derive 6 by trying the free 30 day trial license. It can be downloaded from http://www.derive-europe.com.

GUIDING FOR INQUIRY LEARNING: THE FALLING CONES CASE Ton Van der Valk, Ad Mooldijk, Jacqueline Wooning, Universiteit Utrecht, the Netherlands Introduction Osborne (1996) made a plea for a shift from practical work to research and discussion activities in science classrooms. In a recent curriculum reform for upper secondary education in the Netherlands this shift is promoted by introducing a final research assignment as a part of the school examination. Preparing for this assignment crosses the boundaries of the single subjects (Millar et al. 1994). In 1999 our institute started a project, which aimed at guiding the science departments in schools in implementing the research assignment. The departments of four schools agreed to include a preparatory research assignment in their curriculum. The goal was to have students experience the research process from start to end. The guidance trajectory included providing the teachers with draft teaching materials to be adapted to the school context. One draft assignment for the combination of physics and mathematics was offered: Falling Cones. Using the materials in the classrooms, the students experienced two problems which could not be solved by their teachers because of the complexity of the physics. This paper describes the solution of the problems and the ways in which the solution can be used in guiding the students. The falling cones assignment and the guidance trajectory The falling cones research assignment is about studying the movement of a paper cone released at a certain height. The teacher introduces the issue by showing the movement of one cone. Then pairs of cones are studied, among others two cones of different sizes, having the same top angle and made of the same paper (see figure 1). To students’ surprise, these two cones fall at the same speed

221

Quality Development in Teacher Education and Training

when released at the same time. This brings them into discussions about the characteristics of a cone which determine the movement. Then groups of students are challenged to make themselves some of cones and do experiments. After this orientation, they are asked to formulate a research question about paper cones and to elaborate and implement a research plan. At the end, the groups present their results on a poster. In the guidance trajectory, university staff coached the science and mathematics teams in how to guide the students. Main issues Fig. 1. Paper cones falling down. were: - how to orient students to the experimental as well as to theoretical aspects of the movement under study - how to stimulate students to determine what and how to investigate for themselves - at the same time, how to give students direction, in order to focus upon an interesting aspect and to do a fruitful investigation. The discussions were fruitful both in providing teachers with a thorough understanding of the topic and in developing ideas on how to coach students doing an inquiry, a prerequisite for adequate guidance (Tamir 1989). Two problems The teachers implemented the assignment in the classroom. From observations we learnt that some students asked questions the teachers could only answer by rules of thumb. The students appeared not to be content with the answers. We identified two physics content problems. Solving them went beyond teachers’ possibilities. It was the developers’ task to solve them. First problem Experiments about how the maximum speed of the cone depends on the mass, the shape of the cone, its radius etc. appeared to be favourite with students. However, trying to measure the maximum speed, a problem was met: what distance does the cone have to fall for its speed to become constant? The teachers advised to assume that after falling 1 meter the speed is at its maximum. Some groups were reluctant to accept this and argued: the start phase of the falling may be dependent on the mass of the cone. In a drawing they showed what they meant by ‘start phase’: the supposed one meter long acceleration phase. Their argument is correct, vmax and so the ‘start phase’ is related to the variables mass (m), radius (r) or area (A) of the base, air density (ρ) and drag coefficient (C). See the following equations:

Fgrav = Fdrag m⋅ g = 2 v max =

1

2 2 CAρv max

2mg πr 2 ⋅ Cρ

(1) (2) (3) Fig. 2. Scheme of a cone with variables

222

Topical Aspects

Second problem Some students studied how the maximum speed depends on the top angle (γ) by releasing cones with equal mass and radius, but different top angles. They found that the bigger the top angle is, the slower the maximum speed. For getting a formula for this relation, they studied the theory and concluded: If you insert all known values into formula (3), the drag coefficient and the speed are left as variables. They measured vmax for three cones with different top angles and wanted to make a graph of vmax and something with γ (e.g. sin γ) to try to make a formula, but did not succeed. They asked their teacher which formula to try. He suggested ν2max ∞ (sin γ)-1 but in fact had no basis for it. So the problem is: what does the relation between vmax and sin γ look like? First an answer will be given to the question: how does the drag value depend on the top angle? This is done in two steps: (a) by developing a model and (b) by doing experiments and evaluating results using the model. Next, the solution of the two problems and consequences for guiding the students will be discussed. Developing a model for the cone The drag coefficient C is dependent on the top angle Flat circle 1.11 of a cone. This can be illustrated by looking at the Open half sphere 0.34 drag coefficients of some shapes comparable to Drop of water 0.06 cones, which are found in the literature (table 1). The Table 1. Drag coefficient of some different flat circle can be regarded as a cone with a top angle shapes (Vademecum 1995) of 180˚. Real cones will have smaller drag coefficients, but no less than the drag coefficient of the open half sphere. For, it has an open base like the cone and an “ideal” water-drop-like top. So the cone drag coefficients are expected to have values between 0,34 and 1,1. Newton already studied the resistance objects experience when falling through a homogeneous medium. Edwards (1997) presented a simplified version of the complicated Principia Mathematica theory. His version was used to find a relationship between the cone drag coefficient and the top angle. Newton assumed that the air consists of tiny elastic particles with mass m, uniformly distributed in space, having no speed. If the cone is taken as the reference system, the air particles are moving vertically upward with speed v. As the directions of the velocities of the actual air molecules are uniformly distributed in space, this model can be applied here as a first order approximation. It has to be noted that collisions between particles are not accounted for. The bouncing against the exterior causes a drag force. Using the model, the following formula for the drag force can be derived (see Wooning et al. 2003):

Fdrag = 2 Aρv ⋅ sin (γ 2) 2

2

Fig. 3. A particle colliding elastically with the cone

(4)

Using formulae (4) and (2), one finds for the drag coefficient:

C (γ ) = 4 ⋅ sin 2 (γ 2)

(5)

This result predicts that C = 4 when the top angle is 180˚ and it tends to 0 when the top angle tends to 0˚. Following this first model, 0 < C ≤ 4. This does not agree with our expectation 0,34 < C < 1,1. So the Newton model is not adequate. This is due to collisions between particles not included in the model, resulting in airstreams.

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Quality Development in Teacher Education and Training

At the open side of the falling cone, turbulence effects occur, as is the case with the open half sphere. So, we guess that a turbulence factor a not depending of γ, has to be added to the theoretical drag value, its magnitude being order of the C of the half sphere ( ~0.34). At the bottom, laminar airstreams may play a role, not affecting the sin2 (γ/2) dependence, but lowering its coefficient below 4. So formula (5) has to be changed into:

g

C (γ ) = a + b ⋅ sin (γ 2)

( )

2

(6)

If γ = 180˚ (flat circle) the drag coefficient is 1,1. So a + b should be about 1,1. The experiments To study the relation between the drag coefficient and the top angle, a series of cones were constructed. All had the same base area A but different top angles γ. To keep A constant, the radius r of the base has to be kept constant. Therefore, an increase of top angle γ means a decrease of the length l of the cone. The mass of each cone was made equal by adding some weight. A position sensor (CBR of Texas Instruments) was used to measure the position of the falling cones at different moments of time. Using an interface (Coachlab II, CMA 2000), the sensor signal was sent to the computer and processed by the program Coach 5 to produce distance-time and speedtime graphs. From the graphs, the maximum speed of every cone was calculated and the average of three measurements was used in the calculations. Formula (3) was used to calculate the drag coefficients. Results were plotted in a C, sin2 (γ/2) diagram. When doing the measurements, some difficulties were met. The cone tended to deviate when released less than 1 meter from the wall of the laboratory room. The height of the room (4,5 m) appeared to be too small for the sharper cones to leave a sufficient distance for measuring the maximum speed. Therefore, no reliable data could be gathered for cones with a top angle less than 60o. For cones with γ > 120o it was not possible to select three movements without fluttering. Eventually, Fig. 4. A diagram from Coach5 the data of seven cones with top angles between 60o and 120o could be used. Results In figure 4, a typical diagram produced by Coach5 is shown. It illustrates that, some time after release, the (x, t) graph shows a straight line, the (v, t) graph reaching a maximum. The drag coefficient and sin2(γ/2) are plotted in figure 5. This diagram confirms formula (6), the coefficients being a = 0,40 + 0,04 b = 0,57 + 0,11 Discussion The linear relation between the drag value and sin2(γ/2) is confirmed within the realm of

Fig. 5. Diagram with the drag coefficient as a function of the square of the sine of the top angle

224

Topical Aspects

60o < γ < 120o . Extrapolation to γ = 0 gives: C = 0,40 + 0,04. Extrapolation of the relation to γ = 180° gives C = 0,97 + 0,15. These values agree with the expected order (0,34 and 1,1 respectively). Consequences for guiding students Having found the formula (6) and the values of its coefficients, we developed ways in which students meeting these problems can be guided conform the proverb ‘room and direction’. Fig. 6. Estimate of distance of falling before reaching The first problem was: what distance maximum speed does the cone have to fall for its speed to become constant? To solve this, Polya’s approach of making a first and a second ‘reasonable guess’ can be used (Polya 1954). In the first ‘reasonable guess’ students are asked to use prior knowledge: the distance a free falling body has to fall to reach the maximum speed is given by the ‘uniform acceleration’ formula:

s=

2 vmax 2g

(7)

As the acceleration diminishes, this distance is surely too short. Using our experimental results this can be seen by inserting the maximum speed from the figure 4 graphs into (7). The result is: first guess = 0,3 m. This is represented by the lower horizontal line in figure 6. The crossing point of this line with the (x, t) graph is not on the linear part of the graph. So the cone is not yet at its maximum speed after having fallen 0,3 m. So a second guess is needed. An easy way can be chosen: double the distance! The upper line in figure 6 at double distance does cross the linear part. The same results were found when we applied this second guess to the other cones we used. The teacher can suggest the students meeting problem 1 to solve it by taking the distance two or three times the result of formula (7). They need a further suggestion for they are likely to say they cannot use that formula because they do not know the maximum speed. Then it could be suggested to make a reasonable guess from what point onwards the speed is constant, to measure the approximated maximum speed. And then check it using (7). An alternative for solving problem 2 is modelling with the computer (Mooldijk et al 2000). It takes a lot of time and is a research itself to students. But room to students to find their own ways! The second issue was: how does the maximum speed depend on the top angle? From a guidance point of view, it is better to transform it into: what graph is the best to make, to process the data gathered when studying how the maximum speed depends on the top angle? The teacher can suggest the following procedure to the students: - calculate the drag coefficient of all cones from experimental data, using formula (3) - try a graph of the drag coefficient and sin(γ /2) or sin2(γ /2). When trying to measure the maximum speed, they will meet problem 1. As it can be solved now without using formula (6), they can find the formula themselves! Conclusions In this study, the relation between the drag coefficient and the top angle of a cone is found: formula (6). Ways of using this formula to answer questions students may ask are suggested, using formula (7). Three important, more general aspects of our suggestions have to be stressed. Firstly, the Polya method we described: make a reasonable guess using what you already know; check the result and

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if needed, adapt your guess. This method is an important one in the light of the main goal of the investigation assignments: learning about doing investigations. Secondly, the different roles of the teacher and of the physics curriculum expert. The teacher has to concentrate on the actual guiding of the students. He/she therefore needs the expert to identify physics content problems which hinder the guidance and to do the deep-going and time-consuming development work to find handsome solutions. Thirdly, knowledge of a complicated formula like (6) can be used by teachers to give direction to the investigation process of students, but should not be given to the students, for then the room for them to find their own solutions would be too small. References CMA (2000) Coach5 and Coachlab II at http://www.cma.science.uva.nl/english/index.html Edwards, C. H. (1997) Newtons’s Nose-Cone Problem. The Mathematica Journal. 7(1) 64–71 Millar, R. Lubben, F. Gott, R. and Duggan, S. (1994) Investigating in the school science laboratory: conceptual and procedural knowledge and their influence on performance. Research Papers in Education. 9 (2) 207 – 249 Mooldijk, A. H. and Savelsbergh, E. R. (2000) An Example of the Integration of Modelling into the Curriculum: a Falling Cone. In, Proceedings of the GIREP: Physics Teacher Education Beyond 2000 Barcelona Elsevier Osborne, J. (1996) Untying the Gordian Knot: diminishing the role of practical work. Phys. Ed. 31 (5) 271 - 278 Polya, G. (1954) Mathematics and plausible reasoning. Princeton Princeton UP Tamir, P. (1989) Training teachers to teach effectively in the laboratory. Science Education. 73 (1) 59 – 69 TI motion sensor http://education.ti.com/product/tech/cbr/features/features.html Vademecum van de natuurkunde (1995) Utrecht Het Spectrum. 142 Wooning, J. Mooldijk, A. and Van der Valk, T. (2003) Topangle and the maximum speed of falling cones, guiding student investigations. http://www.fi.uu.nl/bps/artikelen/fallingcone.pdf

AN ATTEMPT AT COOPERATION BETWEEN UNIVERSITIES AND HIGH SCHOOLS IN A CLASS WORK TRIAL USING “ADVANCING PHYSICS” Takatoshi Murata, Kazunari Taniguchi, Kyoto University of Education, Japan Takeshi Miyanaga, Faculty of Education, Wakayama University, Japan Toshiaki Yamazaki, Doshisha High School, Kyoto, Japan Junpei Ryu, Kyoto Girls High School, Kyoto, Japan 1. Introduction Recently in Japan, the national curriculum standards of all the subjects including science were changed very drastically. About 30 % of total teaching time and the contents of the subjects in primary and lower secondary schools was reduced. Consequently, the contents of textbooks used in the school decreased. In place of this reduction, a new subject called “Integrated Study Hour” was introduced to the entire primary and secondary school curriculum. This policy was conducted by the Ministry of Education following “Program of Educational Reform” presented in 1997. One of the points along which the Ministry undertook the educational reform was to enhance emotional education which fosters the cultivation of rich humanity, such as a sense of right, a sense of morality and a sense of compassion, in order to encourage a zest for living and securing more room for children to grow. The effect of this “more-room” policy led to the reduction of teaching time and contents to be taught. Very strong opposition was raised from various sectors of society. Major academic societies such as the Physical Society of Japan, the Japanese Society of Applied Physics, and the Japanese Society of Physics Education proclaimed apprehensions to deteriorate the level of science in schools and universities as well as society. Some groups of scientists even published non-authorized science textbooks. High school teachers are facing strong pressure from parents and society. They are mainly

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evaluated by the results of entrance examinations of universities. Large class sizes (40 as a standard) are also one of the difficulties. For physics teachers, the situation is worse. Due to the decrease of students who take physics in high school, young teachers are not recruited by the educational boards of local communities or by private schools. As a result, the youngest physics teachers working in high schools are in their mid-thirties. The above situations in high schools strongly influence university education. Therefore, university professors are conscious of the importance of developing a remedial education, especially in physics education. In order to overcome this situation, collaboration between universities and high schools is a very effective. We made an attempt at collaboration activities by organizing a study group of Advancing Physics [1] (hereafter abbreviated as AP) with university staff and high school teachers and taught performed an extension course as a class work trial using the method. In section 2, we give a brief introduction of the study group. The class work trial is presented in Section 3. Finally we summarize our activity as a new type of in-service training for high school teachers. 2. Study group of Advancing Physics In August 2001, Philip Britton (physics teacher of Leeds grammar school) held a demonstration class work of AP in Kyoto. High school teachers and university professors who attended the class were strongly impressed to see it, and decided to form study group of this curriculum in two cities; one in Kyoto and one in Wakayama [2]. The activity in Kyoto began in January 2002. About 10 high school teachers gathered at the laboratory of the Physics Department at Kyoto University of Education. University staff joined the group and supported them in various ways, such as offering laboratory facilities. They also applied for a research grant to the Ministry of Education. After acceptance of the proposal, the activity was promoted very rapidly and effectively. They assembled regularly, more than once a month, and examined or studied the contents of CD-ROM, practiced the experiments for students and demonstration, ran the software programs such as Crocodile Clip, Modellus, Video Point, Multimedia Motion, Easy sense, etc. In addition, new experiments motivated by the AP curriculum were also developed. The group opened their web page [3] and reported the activities regularly. The main objective of the study group was to realize a trial class work activity using the AP. [4] We selected chapter 2 “Sensing” in the textbook. This chapter introduces various sensors used in daily life, and it is concerned with the DC current circuit. The role of resistance as a potential divider is stressed. The same content is also included in Japanese physics textbooks, with different context. For example, resistance is explained as an element to obstruct or disturb the electric current. Another example is the role of Wheatstone bridge. In Japanese textbooks, only the balancing condition of the bridge is emphasized, and the calculation of the balancing condition is one of the most popular problems in the examination. Contrastively in AP, the bridge is introduced as a tool to observe the difference in electric potential. The members of the group found the difference very interesting, and decided to check whether these ideas are accepted by Japanese high school students as well as by university students. Questionnaires were provided for the attendants. The study group spent more than 4 months preparing the extension course, translating the textbook, performing all the experiments in the chapter, as well as preparing a guidebook for student experiments. The activity in Wakayama began in October 2002, after the extension course in Kyoto. The main members attended the course in Kyoto, and gathered the physics laboratory at Wakayama University. 3. Extension course of class work trial in Kyoto The extension course was held in August 2002 for 3 days. Twenty-four high school students from various schools in Kyoto city and 8 university students from Kyoto University of Education attended the course at Doshisha high school. The ages and levels of students were diverse. Some of

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them had never studied physics. About 20 teachers both from high schools and universities participated as instructors. The course was designed as follows. Day 1 was used for the introduction of the course. In the morning: small groups with 3 to 4 students were formed, and simple experiments were given. After completing the experiment, each group was asked to make a presentation of the result to other people. In the afternoon, a technician of a sensor maker (Omron Incorporated) gave a one-hour introductory lecture. After the lecture, high school teachers performed several demonstration experiments from the AP textbook. Finally, students practiced the measurements using a digital multimeter. On day 2, students practiced measurements of current against potential difference (voltage) of various materials in the morning, In the afternoon, various optical and temperature sensors were used to measure the light intensity and temperature. In this practice, the potential divider was intentionally introduced. On day 3 the “sensor project” was carried out using various optical and thermal sensors. It consisted of nine open-ended subjects. Each group selected one of them, and performed the experiments, analyzed the data, summed up the results to report publicly to other people. This type of openended coursework is one of the most characteristic parts of the AP curriculum, and is a totally a new experience for Japanese students. The students showed a strong interest in the course. They understood the idea of the potential divider without severe difficulty, and performed the experiments smoothly. Although they had never performed an oral presentation before, each group did it correctly. Apparent improvements on the third day were recognized compared to that of the first day in many groups. The study group activities continue even now and the second extension course in Kyoto and first course in Wakayama were held in August 2003. The subject in Kyoto was “Computing the next move” (Chapter 9), and that in Wakayama was “Sensing.” Both courses were successful. 4. Study group activity as a new type of in-service training The activities of the study groups are now very steady and continuous. The members are practicing the acquired knowledge and techniques in their own class. For example, one of the members tried an open-ended coursework in biology class successfully. The “sensor projects” were also preformed in classes in different schools. The high school teachers acquired new ideas and showed that the AP curriculum can be applied and adapted to current Japanese education. The benefit of the grant from the Ministry of Education is very large. We could purchase 40 copies of textbooks and CD-ROM’s of AP. Equipments such as laptop computers, liquid-crystal projectors, and various software programs were also provided. Forty sets of digital mutimeter, electronic parts, sensors etc. which are essential in sensor experiments were purchased. This is enough for a class of 40 students. Electronic parts and sensors together with a digital multimeter are stocked as a kit in the university laboratory, and are lent to high school classes. The study group activity was a new-type of in-service training. Even it is an activity which is not compulsory, the teachers devote a lot of time to it. The study group activities become a central part of their educational life. The role of the teachers training universities/faculties is now very important. The grant is assured to the fiscal year of 2006. We will continue the activity as much as possible and more extensively by forming the same type of study groups in different cities in Japan. Our members are often invited from various groups of teachers to give a talk of our experience or perform experiments. We are confident that as a result of those collaborations, a new idea of physics education will be introduced to the Japanese national curriculum. Acknowledgement This work was financially supported by a Grant-in-Aid for Scientific Research from the Ministry of Education, Culture, Sports, Science and Technology (Nos. 14020206 and 15020236.)

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References [1] URLof Advancing Physics: http://advancingphysics.iop.org/ [2] Taniguchi, K. Ryu, J. Yamazaki, T. Iwama, T. Ogawa, M. Miyanaga, T. and Murata, T. (2003) Butsuri Kyoiku. Physics Education.51(3) 198 [in Japanese] [3] URL of Study Group: http://adphy.infoseek.co.jp/ [4] Yamazaki, T. Iwama, T. Ryu, J. Ogawa, M. Taniguchi, K. Miyanaga, T. and Murata, T. (2003) Butsuri Kyoiku. Physics Education. 51(3) 202 [in Japanese]

HOW TO TEACH HEAT IN LOWER SECONDARY SCHOOLS Nada Razpet, Faculty of Education, University of Ljubljana, Slovenia Introduction The in-service teacher training (all-inclusive 120 hours) includes eight modules which deal with matter, electricity, heat, waves, sound and optics (two modules), as well as an additional module dealing with special didactical issues. The training may take place in one year or it may extend over a period of several years. As the teacher-training is indispensable for a good performance of the new science subjects in the new nine-year elementary school, all the training activities are supported by Ministry of Education and there is no fee to be paid by participants. One group of 38 participants attended the training that extended over three years, with only two or three modules per year. We will refer mainly to this group when discussing the main features and results of this kind of in-service teacher training. Each module has 15 hours (on two consecutive Fridays). On the first Friday, there are plenary lectures, on the second Friday two workshops. A third Friday is intended for preparation of seminars at home. In the course of the first workshop, the participants perform some standard experiments (like the ones performed by students of physics majors) which are useful for demonstration purposes in school. In the course of the second workshop, the participants get acquainted with a series of experiments intended to be performed by pupils at elementary school. Later, these experiments and their physical background are thoroughly discussed in smaller groups and the workshop ends by presentation of seminars prepared beforehand by participants. Most of the teachers like to test the suggested experiments in the classroom immediately and then to discuss the results and their experience with trainers and other participants. Module heat The theoretical part consists of measuring temperature, thermal equilibrium, thermal expansion, temperature and heat, heat capacity, first law of thermodynamics, heat transfer mechanisms (conduction, radiation, convection). A special emphasis is put to make clear the distinction between temperature, heat and internal energy and a special attention is paid to the description and explanation of the energy equilibrium in human body. Some of the pedagogical issues are: topics directly related to syllabus, topics learnt by children in previous classes, energy flow, thermal expansion, temperature and heat, thermal conduction, heat and human senses, thermometers, heat transfer mechanisms, heating and cooling bodies (measurements and plotting graphs), heat engines, refrigerators and heat pumps, regulation of animal and human body temperature.

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Theoretical workshop: heat Thermal conductivity: Estimate the thermal conductivity of glass, copper and aluminum. Calorimetry Check the correctness of the statement: When a substance undergoes a phase change, heat is added but the temperature of the substance does not change (neither does pressure). Experiment: Calculation of the efficiency of an electric heater. Estimation the initial mass of ice. Didactical workshop: heat and human body Fingers as measuring instrument In everyday life, temperature is a measure of how warm or cold is a body. Can temperature be measured by fingers?

Answer the following questions: Is it possible to measure the temperature of water by putting one finger in hot water and another one in cold water? Why not? Try the experiment again by putting thimbles on your fingers. Is there any connection with diver’s clothes? How a mother can know whether or not the body temperature of a child is higher than normal by putting a hand on the child’s forehead? Interesting fact: Servicemen of central heating are able to measure the temperature of pipes very accurately by touching them with their hands. They measure the time (in seconds) they can endure to hold the hot pipe. The time they can hold the pipe is proportional to its temperature. Thermometers • Describe the difference between the mercury and alcohol thermometer. • Why mercury thermometers are not used in school any more? • How can we measure the body temperature? • In which part of the body the temperature should be measured? • Measure the body temperature several times a day and put the data in a table.

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• Measure the temperature of different parts of the body. • Make ten squats (or run on the playground) and measure your body temperature. • Measure the body temperature of a friend in the classroom. Can you find some interesting peculiarities? Wet and dry bodies When we swim in the sea and then go out of the water, we have the impression that it is colder outside than in the water. Why?

Read the temperature of dry and wet thermometer and write the data into a table. Compare the temperatures and write them down. Comment the results. Is it possible to cool a drink in a bottle by wet paper or a wet cloth? Heat conduction Divide a vessel (a pot) into two parts and put hot water in one part and cold water in the other part. Measure the temperature change of the hot and the cold water during a few minutes and put the results in a table. Plot a graph T(t) for both the hot and the cold water. How does the temperature of the hot (cold) water change in time? What can you say about the temperature of “hot” water (“cold” water) after half an hour? What can you say about the temperature after a long time (long in comparison to the measuring time)? Compare the graphs of T(t) for two different pots. Are there any differences? Explain. Why we need clothes?

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• How to choose the pots in order to test the dependence of the heat conduction on their size? Why? • How to select the pots to check the thermal conductivity of insulators? • How to test the dependences of the heat transfer on the height of the pots? • Is there any connection between the body constitution of people and the region where they are living? Explain the answer. • Why clothes are important for protection from cold or heat (maybe their color too)? • How have to dress if it is cold (hot) outside? • How one can help people with fever?

When outside is cold it is nice to stay close together in groups (not only people, the animals too). Why? Connect the answer with the results of the experiments on the figures. Measure the temperature and plot a graph T(t) for each of the tea boxes. Cold weather and fingers The mountain climbers often have problems with fingers on feet and hands when they are exposed to severe cold. Make some experiments with hot water and gloves (see the picture). Measure the temperature of fingers and hands. Is there any difference? Why? Have you done any experiments before which can help you in answering this question?

Controlling the constant temperature A nice comparison between controlling mechanism of human body temperature and regulation of electric iron temperature is made in our seminar. We use the equipment shown on the picture. The iron is plugged in.

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• Measure the time the iron is connected (the control lamp is lighting). • Measure the time the iron is disconnected (the control lamp is off). • Put the iron in a different room which is colder (warmer) and repeat the measurement. Is there any difference? Explain the answer. Teachers (and children) response The participants could check the experiments they got to know in the course of the training in the classroom with their pupils. To this end, the participants could borrow all the equipment (thermometers and other measuring instruments, pots etc.) at our Department. Most of the participants reported that, on the work-sheets offered to children, they did not describe the experiments in detail. The children found it surprising and requested a more detailed instruction. But the teachers wanted the children to rely upon their own invention and resourcefulness and insisted that the instruction given to them was enough to start and to perform the experiment. In fact, it turned out that the children were able to do the experiments alone with the instructions given and also were able to process the obtained results and plot the necessary graphs. One of the problems at the school work was the organization (laboratory assistants are needed), the appropriate equipment and a place to store it. References: Mojca Čepič, Bojan Kranjc, Nada Razpet, Ana Gostinčar Blagotinšek, Bojan Golli, Jure Bajc, Doizobraževanje učiteljev naravoslovja v 6. in 7. razredu devetletne osnovne šole, fizikalni del, Pedagoška fakulteta v Ljubljani, 2002/2003 (In-service training for science in 6th and 7th class – primary school)

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A UNIVERSITY MASTER FOR IN-SERVICE TEACHER TRAINING ON DIDACTIC INNOVATION Claudia Longhetto, Marisa Michelini, CIRD University of Udine, Italy 1. Introduction At the moment in service teachers have a weak professional formation1 (Anderson, 1995; Bonetta et al, 2002; Buchberger et al, 2001; Michelini, 2003). They have built their professionality in the field with an empirical method and with competencies based on intuition rather than theories and established methods (Dutto et al, 2002; 2003; Michelini, 2003). This implies the need for pedagogical, psychological, social, and methodological-didactical competencies, as well as an integration between these competencies and disciplinary ones (Day et al, 1990; Calderhead, 1994; Eraut, 1994). Nowadays teachers are required to have new competencies, as a consequence of the rapid development in technology and in particular in Information and Communication Technologies (TIC), which radically influence all the communicative and formative processes (Michelini, 2001; Mossenta, 2001; Sperandeo, 2001; Girep Seminar, 2003). Teachers perceive the need to use different instruments in didactics (Martongelli et al, 2001) and to employ new ways of managing the latter (Pugliese et al, 1999; Benciolini et al, 2000). With the communication instruments and their application (both in presence and long distance, in a synchronic and a-synchronic way) the ways in which subjects and objects relate changes and the need for new transversal competencies arises (Woolnough, 2001). Among the teacher’s transversal competencies orientation occupies an important and complex place (Bosio, 1998). It involves communicative and psychological aspects, as well as informative and formative ones, experiences and the managing of actions which enable subjects to orientation. Formation plays an orientative role which constitutes a triggering process of competencies, aspirations and motivations. Assuming the principle of individuals’ free and autonomous determination, it represents a right of citizenship in an effective communication process in which subjects are responsible for the processes in which they are involved. The institutional web, with all its complex competencies and different roles played (by regions, public bodies, schools, chambers of commerce) has to integrate itself in this process through the schools (Michelini, 2003). In this context, the need for new ways of documentation inserts itself, with different instruments and different finalities, as a help to growth and exchange. Documentation becomes an element of communication and of professional formation for the growth and use of good practices. On the one hand the failed formation of basic professional competencies, on the other hand the need for an integration of competencies in the fields of TIC (Marucci et al, 2001) and in transversal aspects such as communication, relation, orientation and documentation have brought to the carrying out of various formative actions in these fields. The absence of a teaching career, or of a system for in service formation (Bandiera et al., 1993, 1995; Dutto et al., 2003) or of an explicit prevision of forms of professional re-qualification have oriented our project towards an institutional instrument, recognised as a title in the national formative system, like the University Master of 60 credits. It is the first Italian institutional course aimed at in service teacher formation on transversal competencies. This paper presents its main characteristics, and its first outcomes. 2. The Master’s goals In light of the above-said, an instrument such as the Master has been set up in order to offer a transversal contribution on various levels of the teaching profession. The project of the Master in “Didactic Innovation and Orientation” aims at offering a training opportunity to in-service teachers and represents a response to several needs:

1 Teachers from infancy and elementary school have a pedagogical and disciplinary formation of secondary school level. Secondary school teachers have a degree.

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• the fact that cultural and professional organic answers could go beyond the dispersive situation caused by a plurality of different training and experimental activities that have often represented the only instrument of development for in-service teachers (Dutto et al, 2003); • the demand for new training methodologies and for the revision of contents and methods, so that “knowledge” can become a tool for setting out and solving problems; • the need to explore how new technologies have deeply modified the communicative and informative processes influencing the social environment • the need to fill the gap between social reality, which is steadily changing, and the school system which is adopting flexible and effective strategies for professional qualification • the need to connect professional practice with the dimension of university research • the need for official acknowledgement of the schools which work in connection with Udine University • the need for official acknowledgement of the teachers, as this leads to an institutional certificate • the need to present a system of permanent opportunities for professional development 3. Organisation The Master has been organised by the University of Udine with the collaboration of several structures: • the Specialisation School for secondary Teachers (SISS) • the Interdepartmental Centre for Research in Education (CIRD) • the Athenaeum Committee for Orientation and Tutoring (CATO) • the University-School Connection Committee (CRUS) It is structured in a two-year term and at present it has been scheduled for the academic years 2002/2003 and 2003/2004. The didactic activity began in March 2003 and will end in July 2005. It is worth 60 Formative University Credits (CFU) The Master includes three Specialisation Courses in “Communication and Information Technologies for the Didactic Innovation” (10 CFU), “Training Orientation” (15 CFU), and “Documentation in the School” (12 CFU), which aim at fulfilling the school’s need for training and requiring a lighter commitment. In fact, it should be taken into account that the Master foresees a compulsory presence of the participants. The Specialisation Courses have an annual term and have been scheduled for the academic year 2002/2003, although the didactic activities take place during a period of two years similarly to the Master. 4. Structure and contents The didactic programme consists of four areas (Table1): • general area – aimed at providing the theoretical references of the teachings (15 CFU - 25%), • characterising area – to put the role of technological innovation, orientation and documentation into the specificity of the teaching profession (16 CFU – 26.6%), • planning area – aimed at transforming knowledge in competence, through application and projects (15 CFU – 25%), • situated area – the purpose of which is to carry out the practical formation of the professional action (didactics), already singled out as a fundamental element of the formative process (Grimmet et al, 1998; Dutto et al, 2003) (14 CFU – 23.4%). Each area integrates the most important formative models with topics which are highly interesting for the school: • Didactic innovation produced by information and communication technologies; • Formative Orientation following the university reform; • Documentation concerning scholastic activity On the whole, the didactic activity schedules 95 lessons of 5 hours each for a total of 475 hours. 41% of the lessons will focus on themes concerning formative orientation, followed by didactic innovation 34% and documentation 25% (Fig. 1). All the lessons will be held on working days, as requested by the participants, who have attended an average of 10 hours per week.

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Table 1 - Contents GENERAL AREA (15 UFC) IND/G – Teachers’ professionality IND/G – Innovation after autonomy IND/G – Theoretical and didactic aspects of communication, e-learning IND/G – Evaluation of projects, actions and learning O/G – Orientation / Guidance – Psychological aspects O/G – Orientation / Guidance – Social aspects O/G – Orientation / Guidance – Didactic aspects D/G – Documentation – Theoretical, methodological and application instruments concerning the organisation and realisation of services for the documentation in schools D/G – Documentation – Libraries D/G – Documentation – National service

H 20 20 20 10 10 20 10

FC 2 2 2 1 1 2 1

20 6 6

2 1 1

CHARACTERIZING AREA (16 UFC) IND/C – Information technology. Algorithmic thinking and didactic innovation IND/C – The contribution of the new technologies to the scientific learning IND/C – Didactic innovation and in-service teacher training IND/C – Communication and new technologies. Co-operative learning O/C – Orientative instruments and decisional processes O/C – Tutoring services in the Region and in the Athenaeum O/C – Didactic reform and new studying courses O/C – Self evaluation materials for University O/C – Problem Solving and formative Orientation D/C – Pedagogical documentation D/C – Documentation – Library services D/C – Documentation – Organise a museum of natural sciences – The use of internet in a school library D/C – Documentation - The Regional Centre for Documentation

H 9 9 20 10 10 9 30 10 10 6 6

FC 1 1 2 1 1 1 3 1 1 1 1

10 10

1 1

PLANNING AREA (15 UFC) IND/P – Planning and use of communicative and didactic environments O/P – Planning orientative activities – School projects for orientation O/P – Planning student forms and interpreting the reform O/P – Analysis of self-evaluation materials O/P – Planning problem solving activities D/P – Documentation projects

H 20 6 3 2 20 20

FC 2 1 3 2 4 3

SITUATED AREA (14 UFC) IND/S – Creation of virtual environments for the school IND/S – Experimenting an innovative didactic activity O/S – Experimenting an orientative plan O/S – Experimenting an activity of orientative problem solving IND/S – Discussion through internet Documentation of the activities performed

H 10 10 10 10 15 4

FC 1 2 2 2 3 4

3 25%

1 34%

% lessons focusing on: 1. didactic innovation 2. orientation 3. documentation

1 2 3

2 41%

Fig. 1.

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5. Participants At the opening of the courses a total of 67 teachers applied, 50 for the Master and 17 for the Specialisation Courses, with a university degree in the following disciplines (Table 2 and Fig.2): Table 2 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 10

Pedagogy, Education Sciences Mathematics, Physics, Information technology Literature, History, Philosophy Political Sciences, Sociology Information Sciences Biological, Veterinary and Agricultural Sciences Economy and Commerce Foreign Languages and Literature Architecture Psychology

15%

3% 2%

22%

3%

6%

8% 2% 6% 33%

22% 6% 33% 6% 2% 8% 3% 15% 2% 3%

During the term several participants acknowledged that a lot of effort and time was required to attend the high number of lessons and to prepare the final exams and the classroom activities, therefore they decided to pass from the Master to the Specialisation courses. Table 3 shows that, in fact, the total number of participants has only slightly decreased and the application for the Courses has passed from 17 units to 33 units, while only 3 people have decided to withdraw (Table 3 and Fig. 3).

Fig. 2.

Table 3 - Participants Course MASTER Spec TECHNOLOGIES Spec DOCUMENTATION Spec ORIENTATION Total Withdrawn

Applications 50 7 2 8 67 3

Final situation 31 13 4 16 64

6. Exams Only the participants who will have attended the minimum rate of 70% of the lessons are eligible to apply for the final exams and obtain the certification. Participants registered for the Master will be asked to present a theoretical degree thesis on one of the three main topics (didactic innovation, orientation, documentation) and a plan of its practical application in the classroom activities at school. The thesis will be subject to an evaluation procedure and the students will be asked to orally discuss it in front of a scientific commission. Moreover they should complete their work presenting two project works on the other two topics. Participants registered for the Specialisation Courses will be asked to present two project works for each course, the first theoretical and the second practical, which will be subject only to a written evaluation procedure.

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Comparison between applications and final situation 60

50 First applications

Final situation

40

30

20

10

0 MASTER

TECHNOLOGIES DOCUMENTATION ORIENTATION

Fig. 3.

7. Conclusion Both Master and Specialisation Courses represent an important opportunity for teachers who feel the need to: • choose a personal development path • individuate and perform a research/action on a specific topic • work under the supervision of tutors • receive a personal professional qualification • carry out a formative project that represents an instrument of development for the school and the educational system. Specific outcomes concerning both transversal competencies, and disciplinary didactics competencies are expected from the project works and the thesis. 8. Acknowledgments We are thankful to the people who believe in this initiative helping us to realize it: Furio Honsell, Rector of the University of Udine, Pierluigi Rigo, Director of the Specializing School for Secondary Teacher Training, the Members of CRUS (Commission for University and School Connection). We are also grateful to Michela Bardus, student of Public Relation Course, whose work was very important in the managing of these activities and who contributed in preparing the graphs of this paper. 9. References Anderson L W ed (1995), International Encyclopaedia of Teaching and Teacher Education, Elsevier Science Ltd., Oxford Bandiera M, Michelini M, Pedemonte O (1996) Una indagine sui Corsi di Perfezionamento rivolti agli insegnanti (a.a. 1993/’94 e 1994/’95), Università e Scuola (UeS), I, 1/R

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Benciolini L, Michelini M, Mossenta A, (2000) Teachers answer to new integrated proposals in physics education : a case study in NE Italy, in Information and Communication Technology in Education, Intern. Conf. Proceedings, E Mechlova ed., University of Ostrava, p.149 Bonetta G, Luzzatto G, Michelini M, Pieri M T, eds. (2002), Università e formazione degli insegnanti: non si parte da zero, Concured, Forum Bosio S, Capocchiani V, Michelini M, Vogrig F, Corni F, Problem solving activities with hands on experiments for orienting in science, Girep Book on Hands on experiments in physics education, G. Born, H Harries, H Litschke, N Treitz Eds. for ICPE_GIREP_Duisburg University, Duisburg, 1998 Buchberger F, Campos B P, Kallos D, Stephenson J, Eds. (2001) Green Paper Calderhead J ed. (1994), Teachers’ professional learning, London Faimer Press Day C, Pope M, Denicolo P (1990), Insights into teachers’ thinking and practice, Falmer Press, London, 1990 Day C, Pope M, Denicolo P, (1990) Insights into teachers’ thinking and practice, Falmer Press London Dutto M G, Michelini M, Schiavi Fachin S, Reinventing in-service teacher education and training: research grants for teachers, in L’Educazione Plurilingue. Dalla ricerca di base alla pratica didattica, selected paper, Forum 2003, p.213-226 [ISBN 88-8420-158-6] Dutto M G, Michelini M, Schiavi S (2002), Research grants for in-service teacher training, in “Practitioner Research International trends and perspectives”, V Trafford and F Kroath responsibles, III International Conference, Innsbruck, Sept. 2000. Proceedings Dutto M G, Michelini M, Schiavi S (2003), Reinventing in-service teacher education and training: research grants for teachers, in L’Educazione Plurilingue. Dalla ricerca di base alla pratica didattica, selected paper, Forum 2003 (ISBN 88-8420-158-6) p.213-226. Eraut M (1994), Developing professional knowledge and competence, Falmer Press, London Girep Seminar (2003), International Seminar “Quality development in Teacher Education and Training”, organised by GIREP, EPS, ICPE, AAPT and the University of Udine in september 2003, www.uniud.it/cird/girepseminar2003/. Grimmet P P and G.L. EricKson G L (eds) (1998), Reflection in Teacher Education, New York: Teacher College Press Martongelli R, Michelini M, Santi L, Stefanel A, (2001) Educational Proposals using New Technologies and Telematic Net for Physics, in Physics Teacher Education Beyond 2000 (Phyteb2000), R.Pinto, S. Surinach Eds., Girep book - Selected contributions of the Phyteb2000 International Conference, Elsevier, p.615 Marucci G, Michelini M (2001 a), Il Progetto Labtec/1: insegnamento scientifico - tecnologico integrato con le nuove tecnologie, Quaderno MPI n. 39, Ist. Montessori Ed., Roma Marucci G, Michelini M, Santi L (2001 b), The Italian Pilot Project LabTec of the Ministry of Education, in Physics Teacher Education Beyond 2000 (Phyteb2000), R.Pinto, S. Surinach Eds., Girep book - Selected contributions of the Phyteb2000 International Conference, Elsevier, p.607 Michelini M (2001), Supporting scientific knowledge by structures and curricula which integrate research into teaching, in Physics Teacher Education Beyond 2000 (Phyteb2000), R.Pinto, S. Surinach Eds., Girep book - Selected contributions of the Phyteb2000 International Conference, Elsevier, p. 77 Michelini M (2003 a), Un modulo di intervento formativo da una sperimentazione di ricerca triennale, Magellano, IV, 18, 2003, p.35-47 Michelini M (2003 b), New approach in physics education for primary school teachers: experimenting innovative approach in Udine University, selected papers of the VIII Inter-American Conference on Physics Education, Teaching Physics for the Future, C-11, SCdF, Havana, Cuba, 2003 Mossenta A, Michelini M, (2001) The EPC Project - Explorating Planning, Communicating, in Physics Teacher Education Beyond 2000 (Phyteb2000), R.Pinto, S. Surinach Eds., Girep book - Selected contributions of the Phyteb2000 International Conference, Elsevier, p.457 Mossenta A, Michelini M, (2001) The EPC Project - Exploring Planning, Communicating, in Physics Teacher Education Beyond 2000 (Phyteb2000), R.Pinto, S. Surinach Eds., Girep book - Selected contributions of the Phyteb2000 International Conference, Elsevier, p.457 Pugliese Jona S, Michelini M, Mancini A M (1999) Physics teachers at secondary schools in Italy, in The Training Needs of Physics Teachers in Five European Countries: An Inquiry, H Ferdinande, S Pugliese Jona, H Latal eds., vol.4, Eupen Consortium, Eur. Phys. Soc.Technology Research and Development, 39, 3, p.5 Sperandeo R M (2001), I.MO.PHY. (Introduction to Modelling in Physics education) : a net course supporting teachers in implementing tools and teaching strategies, in Physics Teacher Education Beyond 2000 (Phyteb2000), R.Pinto, S. Surinach Eds., Girep book - Selected contributions of the Phyteb2000 International Conference, Elsevier Woolnough B E (2001), Physics Teachers as self-evaluating professionals, in Physics Teacher Education Beyond 2000, Girep book, Barcellona, 2000; B E Woolnough, S McLaughlin, S Jackson, Learning by doing, School Science Review, 81, 1999, p.294

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WAVES AS MEANS OF COMMUNICATION IN THE LIVING WORLD Seta Oblak, Ljubljana, Slovenia Science curriculum in class 7 In Slovenia, science curriculum has been prepared anew for classes 1-7; only in 8th and 9th class there are three traditionaly separate subjects – biology, chemistry and physics. Till now, in class 7 (age 12) there was only biology. The curriculum committee, consisting of representatives from biology, chemistry and physics, prepared a new curriculum of two thirds of biology, one sixth of chemistry and one sixth of physics. Biology deals with different ecosystems. The physics content (17,5 hours) was partly taken from physics at the end of class eight (light, mostly geometrical optics) which was not integrated with other chapters and therefore usually omitted because of lack of time. Besides it, sound and waves were included; these chapters have in recent years not been part of physics content in lower secondary school. But curriculum is not integrated, it has distinct parts: biology, chemistry, physics. This is so eclatant that at the beginning of trial implementation, different teachers started to teach different parts. Later on, universities organised after-graduate courses for integrated science in which biologists took physics and chemistry, physicists biology and chemistry and so on. So today, there is mostly one teacher for the whole curriculum, and since biologists traditionally have been teaching in this class, the majority of teachers are biologists (who are not particularly fond of physics). Integration of physics and biology As I said, the content has not been integrated; this has been left to teachers themselves and to authors of textbooks. Yet a very evident integration can be found which connects the physics part with living beings. Biology deals with different ecosystems, and in every one of them, living beings have to get informations from their surroundings, and more developed living beings communicate with each other. Information is received through senses: touch, smell, taste, sight, hearing. In touch, smell and taste, it is matter itself which carries informations, and in sight and hearing, it is waves. How to present this part of physics? For a physicist, it is usual to start with vibrations and go on to waves. Yet this is understandable only if we need mathematical approach. For understanding, we can just as well start with waves and concentrate on experiments and observation. And if mathematics is left out, these chapters are interesting also for biologists who will teach them. Since experiments, especially pupils’ experiments, are of basic importance for understanding these chapters, there must be enough simple, everyday equipment available for all schools. For instance, to study water waves, a glass tray is filled with water some centimeters high and put on an overhead projector. Sound is illustrated by everyday devices, and mirrors and magnifying lens are usual household objects. There are only a few special pieces which have to be bought, like slinky, tuning fork etc. It is recommandable that the physics part starts with water waves. To understand them, one can first recall vivid personal impressions like swimming in the sea in windy weather, and then repeat wave phenomena in classroom. Water waves are simple for experimenting, and they can be dealt with by drawing pictures of sinoidal waves. The concept of their wavelength is known from everyday experience. The only semiquantitative relation is between wavelength and frequency: by making water waves with a stick in a pool or in a water tank in classroom, this relation can be studied easily. Then there are other types of waves which are less known: waves upon a string and a spring. This equipment has to be bought, but it is very rewarding. While observing traveling waves upon the string and the spring in the classroom, transversal and longitudinal waves are explained, and also the relation between wavelength and frequency is studied once more. There is still the question of energy which has to be dealt with. Different effects of waves in nature (cliffs, earth quakes etc.) are brought to attention, and classroom experiments show that the source must do work to produce waves. At the end, transfer of information through waves is mentioned,

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although sending and receiving information by waves on a spring or string is very clumsy. The next chapter deals with sound. This is the most important and interesting part of curriculum. Sound waves cannot be visualised, yet they can be explained with other waves which are already known. At the beginning, the generation of sound by vibrating objects is discussed. A membrane vibrating near a sound source shows that sound waves propagate through air. Traveling of sound through air, water and solid matter is illustrated with simple experiments like string telephone, telephone with a garden hose and a funnel etc. The impossibility to communicate with sound in space is mentioned which is often neglected by science fiction films. Speed of sound in air can be estimated with the help of echo. Then, pitch and colour of sound are discussed, again through simple experiments (bottle with water, a rule pressed to the edge of the table etc.), and physics is linked with music (different musical instruments). Next comes the theme which connects physics and biology: highly developed living beings mostly communicate through sound. They have a sound generator and a sound receiver. Different examples of sound generating (vocal cord by birds and mammals, rubbing of wings by insects etc.) and of sense organs for hearing are discussed. The humans generate sound by passing air along the vocal cord and modulate it in the mouth cave. With modulated sound signals, they not only communicate their needs and feelings like animals, but they have developed language with which they express abstract thoughts. When they started to write it down, philosophy and science have developed. We often are not aware that sound is so important for humans. Special pedagogues know that deaf children have much greater trouble in developing their mind than blind ones. The last chapter is about light. First of all, it can be recalled that energy from the Sun which makes life possible is brought to Earth by light. Wave properties of light are not discussed; at this age, it is enough that pupils know how quickly light travels, how things can be seen, how shadow is formed, and it is interesting to mention light sources and shadows in the sky (eclipses) which are a link to astronomy. Reflection and refraction of light are dealt with by experimenting with mirrors and lenses (controlling light). At the end, the human eye as light receiver is discussed – and we can mention that, contrary to sound, humans have no light generator; this can be found only by creatures who live in the dark, like fireflies or some species of fishes in deep sees. So, through light we only gain information about our surroundings. Sound and light signals to send and receive informations have been developed in history, but mostly only a few bits of information have been transmitted with them (church bells, ship siren, bonfires warning against the enemy). Today, with the evolution of technology, sound and light are converted to modulated electric signals and sent through cables, light conductors, empty space or saved on discs, CD etc. With such discussions, we put a basis for informatics. In this way, one sixth of the classroom work in which biology prevailes with two thirds can be put to profitable use. References Herrmann, F. et al. (1995) Der Karlsruher Physikkurs. Universität Karlsruhe Mathelitsch, L. (1992) Natur und Physik, Physik-compact, Verlag Hölder-Pichler-Tempsky. Wien Dobson, K. (1996) The Physical World. Thomas Nelson and Sons Ltd. London Cash, T. Taylor, B. Ferbar, J. (1991) Sound (Zvok). Pomurska založba. Murska Sobota [edited in Slovene] Walpole, B. Ferbar J. (1990) Light (Svetloba) Pomurska založba. Ljubljana [edited in Slovene] and innumerable lectures and seminars of Janez Ferbar

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TEACHING OBSERVATIONAL METHODS OBSERVATIONS FROM THE SCHOOL

IN

ASTROPHYSICS:

REMOTE

Paolo Santin, INAF - Astronomical Observatory of Trieste, Trieste, Italy Introduction There is a lot of activity today in the field of the outreach, popularization and education in Astronomy and Astrophysics. Astronomy is blessed by the beauty and by the stunning power of its scientific results that hit the imagination of the public. Beautiful images of galaxies (with their different shapes, isolated, interacting …), nebulae (generally very colorful) and deep fields reaching the outer limits of the visible universe and populated by thousands of galaxies are therefore presented, accompanied by some basic explanation and theory. In the school, the basics of the stellar interiors and evolution, the physics describing their life, birth and death are given. Astronomy is not an experimental science in strict galileian terms, it is an observational science, and an experiment is conducted not repeating it with the same conditions, but trying to observe the same or different objects with the same configuration and making use of statistics. As for other experimental sciences it is very important to teach the experimental method, also in Astronomy we consider fundamental to give the students knowledge on the observational methods: this will help in better understanding the characteristics of the telescopes and of the focal plane instrumentation and will be the key to interpret the features present in the results. Without this knowledge all the results will be digested without a critical point of view. This is normally not done when teaching Astronomy, it’s hardly done at the beginning of one’s professional life, and it is hard to do it without carrying on real observations. Moreover, to make it easier and more flexible, it requires a dedicated observational setup. The project “The Stars go to School” This is why the Astronomical Observatory of Trieste decided to start the project “The Stars go to School”, supported by the Italian Ministry for Education, University and Research. Its main goal is to move the control of the telescope and of the focal plane instrumentation from the dome to the school. In this way the complete observation can be carried on by the students, supervised by their teacher. An astronomer is present in the dome, in video-conference with the class, and can direct the operations and answer all the questions that will arise. All the steps of the observation are explained, discussed and carried on by the students: • Choice of the target The subject, or teaching path, is agreed previously with the teacher, according to the type of school, to the class and to what has been done by the teacher. An example of a typical teaching path is given in a next section of this paper. • Identification of the target on the sky A map of the sky is displayed on the screen. The target is searched for and an exercise may be done on the visibility of the celestial objects during the year. • Telescope pointing Once the target is found the telescope is pointed. A separate net-camera is located in the dome and continuously shows the telescope.The students can in this way check the movement of the telescope. • Definition of the exposure time This is the most critical step. According to the target, its magnitude, the instrument used (imaging or spectroscopy), the setup of the instrument (e.g. a filter is inserted), the conditions of the sky (dark night, moon, clouds etc.) an exposure time (typically from a fraction of a second to tenths of minutes) is selected to obtain the best results. • Integration The integration is started. If the auto-guider is active, the performance of the tracking of the telescope may be also monitored on-line.

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• Data acquisition and verification At the end of the integration a preliminary check on the data will say if the choice of the exposure time has been correct. Of course in our case, due to the duration of the integrations, the exposure may be started again, but it must be stressed that in reality this cannot be generally done, since the exposures can last hours and repeating them would waste precious observation time. • Data processing (calibration, true-color, details enhancement, etc.) This step is meant to teach the students a fundamental concept, the instrumental signature. The concept of calibration is introduced and an example of how to remove the instrumental signature is given. There is also the possibility to perform some simple data processing to enhance some details or to obtain a true-color image from three filter frames. • Archiving (the final data will be owned, at the end, by the school, for later reference) The observation is finished. The archiving phase is an important step, locally at the school as in the real case. A lot of information is present in an image or in a spectrum and it can be analyzed also at later stages, and the same image may be used at school by a different class. The conclusions may be drawn the by the teacher with the help of the astronomer. A typical observational session may last one hour. Imaging and Spectroscopy With the available focal plane instrumentation (see below) both imaging and spectroscopy can be carried on. Imaging is of course the most attractive, providing nice images of celestial objects. Spectroscopy on the other side is the direct way to link the astronomical experience with what has been done or is scheduled in the programs of e.g. Physics and Chemistry. Spectroscopy is the fundamental link between Astronomy and (Astro)physics and, in its broadest definition, is the foundation on which astrophysical models of the universe are built and validated. The breathtaking progress in Astrophysics within the last century can be directly traced back to the advances in spectroscopic techniques and instrumentation throughout the electromagnetic spectrum. From the point of view of teaching methods, Spectroscopy represents the link between Astronomy and Physics and Chemistry. The availability of the solar telescope allows also daily observations of the Sun. The Ha filter images show the details of the activity of the solar atmosphere (spots, protuberances, filaments, eruptions etc.). This broad range of possible observations permits to tailor the offer according to the school and to the age of the students, maximizing in this way its effectiveness. The Instrumentation The Observatory has adapted a small building at its observational branch of Basovizza near Trieste as a dome to host a dedicated telescope, a Celestron C14, an F/11 reflector with an aperture of 355 mm. An auxiliary telescope with a CCD camera for auto-guiding is also available for long lasting exposures. The focal plane instrumentation includes a CCD camera for imaging and a grating spectrograph, fed with an optical fiber, for spectroscopy. An additional solar telescope (a Helios 70 mm F/6, with a H_ filter) is also available, and can be mounted as a piggy back, exchanging position with the auto-guider. A net-camera located in the dome makes available all time the image of the telescope (also during the night a dim red light is sufficient to make the telescope visible). Technical details on the instrumentation may be found on the project web pages (http://www.ts.astro.it/LeStellevannoaScuola), where also a limited tutorial on astronomical instrumentation and techniques is under construction. One of the main goals during the setup of the project was to reduce to the minimum any special device at the school. Therefore any school provided with a basic computer laboratory (a PC, a video-projector, an audio amplifier and a web-cam) can participate to a session. The only particular requirement is the connection to the network via at least an ADSL link.

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The solar telescope

The telescope and the auto-guider

The Teaching Paths One of the key points is the offer of a number of pre-defined Teaching Paths. For teaching path we intend an astronomical topic, with a direct reference to some observable objects and with a direct link to the programs of e.g. Physics or Chemistry or to the everyday experience in case of the general public. The path below may be taken as an example: • The topic is “Colors in Astrophysics”, connected to the almost everyday experience that the astronomical objects are not “black and white”. • With the imager a simple couple of images can be taken of some binary system, whose

The color of astrophysical objects

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components are a red and a blue stars, or a galaxy can be selected where different stellar populations (blue=young, red=old) may be spatially identified in different locations of the galaxy (i.e. nucleus, arms). • If a spectrograph is available a planetary nebula may be observed where some strong emission lines can be identified. After proper calibration and processing both observations can become strong evidences of some basic subjects like the Black Body theory, the Stephan-Boltzmann and Wien law, the line spectrum formation theory, the absorption and emission spectra, Quantum physics etc. On the astrophysical side the same evidences can lead to the description of basic theories of astrophysics like the temperature of stellar atmosphere, the stellar evolution, the energy production and stellar interiors, the chemical composition of stellar atmosphere etc. Different roles Our approach is to reverse the classic roles of the experts from a research center and the teacher with its class. The students with their teacher should be the main actors during all the operations, carrying on the observation, getting the result, going through mistakes and retrying, till they get an acceptable result. The astronomer is always present, in voice and video, to assist, to give advice and to answer all the questions. This approach clearly asks for a greater involvement of the teachers. A primary task is therefore the training of the teachers to enable them to make the best use of this tool in the framework of their activity, and the Observatory in available to organize periodic training courses, including visits to the observing facility at the Observatory. Conclusions This is the third year of life of the project. Many aspects are still under construction, but nevertheless the activity with the schools started on January 2003. We are now working to disseminate the knowledge of the project among the schools and the teachers, and organizing a form of training for the teachers to optimize the use of this tool. A web page is available for the project, (http://www.ts.astro.it/LeStellevannoaScuola) with the description of the project itself, of the available instrumentation and of the on-going activity, with the list of the past observations and with a gallery of astronomical objects observed by the classes during the past sessions. A lot of effort, money and human resources have been devoted to the project by the Astronomical Observatory of Trieste. The full team of the project must be here acknowledged, including researchers and technicians: R. Cirami, M. Comari, I. Coretti, C. Corte, S. Furlani, A. Marassi, M. Messerotti, S. Monai, P. Di Marcantonio, M. Pucillo, A. Zacchei. The Consorzio per l’Incremento degli Studi e delle Ricerche dei Dipartimenti di Fisica e di Astronomia dell’Universita’ di Trieste supported the development of the project during the years. The project has been promoted and supported by the Italian Ministry for Education, University and Research (law 6/2000 for the dissemination of the scientific culture).

3.3 New technology in teacher training

NEW TECHNOLOGY IN TEACHER TRAINING - OUTCOME OF THE WORKSHOP DISCUSSION Michele D’Anna, High Pedagogical School, Locarno, Switzerland Roy Barton, School of Education and Professional Development, University of East Anglia, UK Eight papers were presented at the Panel Session in preparation for the workshop, which can be read elsewhere in the proceedings for this seminar. The initial task for the workshop was to identify any common themes or significant issues emerging from these presentations. These provided a starting point for the group discussion in the workshop. Considering the topic for the workshop we found it necessary to explore two interrelated themes connected to teacher education raised in these presentations:• Areas of difficulty experienced by pupils when learning physics including the role of ICT in helping to overcoming them • The pedagogic problems faced by teachers in trying to exploit the potential learning gains of using ICT These broad categories arose from the following issues raised during the Panel Session Talks: • Problems pupils have in the identification of relevant variables • The role of software based models to support pupils’ learning • The opportunity for ICT to support a qualitative approach by enabling the description and discussion of data presented graphically – which in turn facilitates a semi-quantitative approach to be adopted • The role of ICT to facilitate a focus on the relationships between variables • The importance of linking the real world with abstract concepts and the ways in which ICT can assist in this process • The benefits of making use of real life examples and those provided by recent scientific discoveries • The problems of moving from the identification of the opportunities offered by new technology to their effective use in the classroom context • The potential for new technologies to facilitate meaningful discussions in the classroom The workshop discussion was wide ranging and enabled the participants to make a number of important points and also to identify issues which they felt needed to be addressed. The following notes provide an indication of the range and scope of these discussions. There was a convinced consensus that the case for using ICT in physics education has already been made and so the open questions relates to pedagogical approaches and strategies for implementation. In addition, ICT offers the opportunity to form links between different areas of physics. For example via modelling we can enable pupils to see explicit links in the nature of the subject. This may support pupils’ understanding by enabling them to appreciate an underlying level of unity within the subject often treated at different stages of the physics curriculum e.g. by exploring the processes with result in equilibrium states in different areas. Modelling also offers the opportunity to represent the relationships between variables in a schematic way which may be helpful for pupils who have a learning style which favour this approach. However, there are some research questions related to the use of modelling which needs to be clarified. For example, ‘How can we introduce modelling to younger pupils who do not yet have a sufficient range of mathematical tools’? Also, how do we get them started on modelling and what prior knowledge do pupils need to do this effectively? Do they need a formal understanding of variables and an ability to interpret data in a graphical form? In addition, we discussed the extent to which modelling could

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be used for concept development: there was a consensus that modelling would be helpful in the consolidation of existing or partially understood concepts. We need to build a physics curriculum which makes physics concepts seem relevant to pupils and which also address their known learning difficulties. These needs to be done alongside developing a clear pedagogic content knowledge aimed at making the teaching of this curriculum as effective as possible, which may involve the use of ICT. ICT has the potential to assist in making use of a problem-solving approach, which can add authenticity to the study of physics thereby making it more attractive to students. Real world problems, whilst more interesting to pupils, are often also more complex and so ICT-tools can be useful in enabling them to be investigated by pupils, for example exploring aircraft flight. By including such problems in the curriculum we may provide pupils with a range of useful skills and perhaps encourage life-long learning. One possible reason for the relative popularity of other sciences such as biology in comparison with physics may be pupils’ difficulties with mathematics. In addition biology usually involves examples which relate directly to pupils’ real-life experience and those which are often found in media reports. Physics education needs to try to employ such approaches to broaden the scientific interest for pupils. For example, we have seen the ways in which ICT can enable pupils to direct a powerful telescope and to discuss the images with experts via a videoconferencing link. Perhaps we can learn from the descriptive approach adopted initially in biology teaching and use a less formal introduction to physics courses. Clearly we will then need to move on to a more quantitative approach but perhaps ICT-tools can assist in this process by enabling semi-quantitative approaches to be used during this process. From a methodological point of view we considered that an approach based on the use of ICT may represent a way in which to strengthen the relationship between the different science disciplines. We need to make sure that trainee teachers are in a position to make an informed choice about whether or not they should make use of ICT in a particular context, based on the educational benefits. It is important to stress that the use of ICT is just a tool to be employed as and when it is appropriate. Although there are a wide range of ICT-tools available the focus in the workshop centred around tools related to data acquisition and modelling. It is clear that an ICT based approach will not be appropriate for all situations and both ICT-based and traditional laboratory work needs to be valued. Trainee teachers coming from a background mainly in mathematics generally have problems in adopting an experimental approach. Possibly new technology can have a role in helping to overcome this problem for them. There is some evidence to suggest that the use of real-time data collection may lead to improvements in pupils’ understanding. However, despite the potential gains of using computers in this way there remains some unanswered questions which still need to be addressed. Why do we not see more examples of an innovative approach using ICT in classrooms? What can we do to improve the situation? What do we mean by innovations in ICT? Can we identify concrete examples of an innovative approach? In attempting to address these questions we need to focus on pedagogic issues in addition to practical issues. We also need to inform our training based on the feedback obtained from teachers’ experiences in the classroom. Since teachers are at different stages in employing ICT-tools in their teaching we need to provide training which meets the needs of both novice users and those who need to move on from simple ICT-based activities. The exploitation of the potential of ICT is not a simple issue. At its simplest level there is the tendency for trainee teachers to expect to teach in the way they themselves have been taught, which may have been in a very formal way but is also unlikely to have involved the use of ICT. However, even teachers who are committed to the use of ICT in the classroom often find it difficult to overcome the pedagogic and practical problems they face. Innovation in the classroom is difficult to achieve and needs more than useful ICT-tools and motivated teachers. More attention needs to be given to planning effectively for the implementation of ICT-based activities. There are barriers

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to change which go beyond the level of resources and relate to the teachers’ attitudes and preferred teaching style. Outcomes If we are to advocate a change in teaching approach this requires a clear rationale for what the new approach is and exactly how it improves on the current system. There is a need for more research into exactly how teachers can best employ ICT based approaches and to identify clear pedagogical objectives. Conventional approaches, even those making use of pupil-centred and active learning methods are not completely effective when used in the context of ICT. Therefore our workshop came to the conclusion that we will need to, as a first step: (a) Identify what we wish to do with ICT in terms of teaching and learning. (b) Explore ways in which we can equip teachers (pre-service and in-service) to implement them. In order to try to address these two issues there are a number of sub-question which need to be clarified: • What are the characteristics of ICT-tools which make them effective in promoting innovative change from pedagogical point of view? • What are the implications for teaching and learning of making effective use of ICT and in particular what changes are needed in teaching strategies? • How can training best equip teachers to make the most effective use of new technology in the classroom? • What problems are likely to be faced by teachers when adopting an approach involving the use of ICT and how can they be minimised? • Does ICT offer an opportunity to re-organise the internal logic of the subject discipline? If so what are the implications for teacher training? Also in relation to the use of modelling we identified the following questions: • Amongst physics educators should modelling be seen to be an integral part of scientific literacy? • Do modelling activities provide a basis for re-conceptualising the curriculum? For example by providing links between apparently disconnected elements of the curriculum. • What should be the relationship between data logging and modelling? Whilst the workshop did not provide answers to these questions we felt that they set out an agenda for future studies with the aim of providing some specific guidance for teacher educators.

EXPLORING THE POTENTIAL OF COMPUTER-AIDED PRACTICAL WORK AS AN AGENT FOR INNOVATIVE CHANGE: A PILOT STUDY WITH ABLE Y10 STUDENTS Roy Barton, School of Education and Professional Development, University of East Anglia, Norwich, UK Introduction This paper describes a pilot study which had two principal aims; to investigate the potential of more sophisticated uses of computer-aided practical work and to explore a methodology which facilitated its application in a classroom situation. There is considerable background literature related to the use of computers to support practical work in science education (Brasell 1987; Mokros and Tinker 1987; Nakhleh and Krajcik 1994; Settlage 1995; Friedler and McFarlane 1997). However, despite these potential benefits being identified some years ago, it is also clear that the routine implementation of computer-aided practical work in secondary science teaching in the UK

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is problematic (Newton 2000). Newton worked with science teachers who were enthusiastic and experienced in the use of ICT to support their teaching. Whilst he reported on significant benefits identified by these teachers, he also highlighted a range of problematic issues related to the successful planning and implementation of data logging. In addition to these problems, a study by Friedler and McFarlane (1997 p547), which involved teachers embedding data logging into their normal science curriculum, noted that ‘…teachers tended to use the same strategies in traditional and data logging labs’ and that ‘..new opportunities to discuss and interpret the graphs as they were produced were rarely exploited.’ Newton (1998) confirmed this finding and noted that teachers have yet to fully appreciate the new opportunities offered by the use of computer-aided practical work. At the heart of the problem is the difficulty facing practicing teachers by the limited opportunity they have for experimentation and innovation, especially when it involves time-consuming planning and organisation. The focus of this pilot study was to try to address these problems by exploring the potential of new initiatives in the use of ICT, in the context of whole class teaching, whilst at the same time trying to identify ways of supporting practicing teachers in this process. To highlight what is meant by an innovative approach it may be helpful to distinguish between what I have called the Level 1 and Level 2 advantages of computer-aided practical work. The Level 1 advantages can be described as: • producing a time saving effect in comparison with conventional practical work • facilitating a wider range of experiments • avoiding the of drudgery of data collection • reducing the errors in data processing - particularly helpful for less able pupils • presenting data in a clear way to aid interpretation • increasing the enjoyment of practical work I would suggest these ‘Level 1’ advantages are the ones which are usually cited in the research literature discussed earlier. However, if we start from the premise that data collection is the starting point and not the end point of scientific inquiry, then there may be more significant possible advantages, especially suitable for older and more able pupils. This gives rise to what I have identified as the Level 2 advantages, such as: • facilitating the investigation of the relationships between variables and extending this activity well beyond what is possible by conventional means • changing the focus of the teacher’s role during practical work to enable more meaningful discussion of the principles and concepts of the lesson therefore enabling an increased emphasis on the exploration of pupils’ understanding of the science content of the lesson • supporting pupils to extend their ability to interrogate the data they collect by drawing on the analysing tools available in the software • changing the boundaries of what is possible with pupils of all abilities and therefore aiding differentiation At the start of the pilot study the following overarching research questions were identified: • To what extent can the use of software tools and new teaching approaches deliver the Level 2 advantages discussed above, with more able pupils? • What is the most effective role for the teacher to support pupils in achieving the Level 2 advantages? Methodology In an attempt to try to overcome some of the difficulties identified above it was decided to explore the potential of a methodological approach involving a researcher working alongside a class teacher in a very active participant-observer role. This involved the researcher and class teacher working alongside each other, each taking on aspects of the research and teaching roles as required. Consequently an evaluation of the methodology itself became an important part of the study, which gave rise to the additional research question: • Does a team approach involving the class teacher and a researcher both adopting

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interchangeable roles of teacher and data gatherer during lessons, offer a feasible method of introducing an innovative approach in the use of ICT and to researching its impact? The Study The teacher who agreed to become involved was an ex-PGCE student of mine who was into her 4th year of teaching. Having maintained contact with her, I was aware that she was a regular user of ICT in her science teaching and that she was open to the exploration of new ideas and approaches. Her top set Year 10 group (ages 14-15 years) was identified as an ideal class for this pilot study. At the time of our initial discussions the next topic to be studied was Electricity, and so this was chosen as the content of the study. At this stage I designed a number of tasks designed to explore the potential of the ‘Level 2’ advantages but which would also fit as far as possible into the existing scheme of work. In all I was present at six lessons, although there were other lessons taught on this topic where only the class teacher was present. • Lesson 1: taught by the class teacher – introduction to the topic followed up by a conventional class practical using ammeters and voltmeters • Lesson 2: taught by the researcher – exploring the relationship between light output and current flowing through a light bulb using data loggers • Lesson 3: taught by the researcher – completion of the previous lesson • Lesson 4: taught by the class teacher – investigating the electrical characteristics of a bulb using a conventional approach • Lesson 5: taught by the researcher – investigating the electrical characteristics of fixed resistors, bulbs and diodes using a data logger • Lesson 6: taught by the researcher – introduction to mathematical modelling using the Insight 4 software (Logotron 2002) Review of pupils’ work In general the task involved pupils drawing sketch graphs of the data on the computer screen, follow-up activities which required pupils to draw predicted sketch graphs, and a series of questions to probe their understanding. Sketch graphs proved to be a time-efficient way of getting a record of the data, avoiding queues at printers. Predicted sketch graphs were an effective way of exploring pupils ideas and understanding, although there was a tendency for pupils not to take sufficient care in reproducing the detail of the graphs from the computer screen. The data on the computer screen did provide a useful focus for pupil-teacher discussions. Follow-up questions on the worksheets proved to be useful. For example during the lesson on electrical characteristics the pupils’ responses seemed to provide good feedback on their level of understanding: ‘The bigger the resistance the smaller the current, so the line wouldn’t be so steep’. Similarly in response to the question relating to the characteristic for the bulb, e.g. ‘as the voltage increases the resistance gets less’. These responses also revealed some slight misunderstandings such as, ‘resistance low to start with, when it reaches a certain voltage the resistance increases’. It was a pity that these were not identified at the time since these pupils could have been asked to take data from the screen to calculate the resistance at different points on the graph or indeed to use the software to plot resistance directly against voltage, as a way of exploring this issue further. Analysis The transcripts taken from the video recordings gave an insight into the ways in which the teacher might exploit opportunities to encourage pupils to think more deeply about the significance of the data they had collected. For example, in the case of the graph of light against current, there was some discussion about features of the graph such as no light until a threshold current is flowing but unfortunately no going beyond these obvious features, for example to go on to discuss in more detail the significance of the changing gradient of the line. This would suggest that there is

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potential for this to occur but that further study is needed both in terms of the design of the activities and the most effective ways of supporting pupils as they struggle to interpret the data. This is rather disappointing in view of the specific intention to explore the Level 2 advantages but does highlight the fact that these benefits will not simply emerge from the routine use of data logging equipment and will require specific research of this type, including more thought about pupil-teacher discussions. Usually in a conventional practical context, the in-class discussions about the significance of data often tends to be at a simple level, allowing the teacher to identify appropriate questions as the discussion progresses, an issue which is at the core of this research. A pilot study of this type did not provide much opportunity to monitor the ways in which pupils were able to use the analysing tools in the software to extend their ability to interrogate data. Only a small number of pupils reached the activity to use the on-screen cursors to read off values of current and voltage in order to calculate resistance. However, the main message to emerge was the missed opportunity in both the written materials and the discussions between pupils and teachers, in not drawing pupils’ attention to these tools. For example the ‘Gradient’ option would have provided a helpful visual support when discussing changes to non-linear graphs. This is an area which needs to be integrated into any further work. Analysis of the methodology adopted The second element of this pilot study was an exploration of whether a methodology based on an active collaboration between the class teacher and the researcher facilitated an effective exploration of the research questions. From all perspectives, researcher, teacher and pupils, this seems to have been a success. The most significant aspect was that it enabled the class teacher to be an integral part of the lesson. This provided a comfortable environment for the pupils and enabled her to draw on her relationship with the pupils and to use her knowledge of individual pupils’ ability when exploring their understanding. In terms of the introduction of new approaches, it was much easier to demonstrate what I had in mind by teaching the lesson rather than attempting to ‘train’ the teacher to deliver it for me. It is clearly something of a luxury to have two teacher/researchers in the room, however it did provide the scope for both teaching and data gathering whilst at the same time coping with the normal requirements of running a lesson. Conclusions The pilot study has been successful in making a start on exploring some of the more sophisticated uses of computer-aided practical work but more significantly in identifying a context and a methodology in which such developments can be investigated. The approach did highlight some disadvantages, with perhaps the lack of time for the teacher to receive adequate briefing as the main problem. Whilst maintaining the importance of conducting the research in the context of a whole class activity, in future it would be sensible to try out these new ideas initially with a small group of pupils prior to use in a whole class context. This would give the opportunity to ‘iron-out’ some of the problems which only become obvious once the activity has started. This may have the added advantage of assisting in identifying what sort of discussions would be most useful to conduct with pupils and possibly refine the written materials, aiming to integrate the use of the software tools more centrally into the activities. The video record of the lessons proved to be useful as a means of recording pupil-teacher discussions and the edited tapes could potentially be used for training purposes. The methodology has indicated that there is some potential for this approach but that there is a need for a closer relationship between the teacher and researcher. For example, jointly identifying the research questions would be beneficial both in terms of making the research more effective but also in attempting to deal with the issue of integrating these new approaches into the curriculum. A more difficult issue will be in reconciling an innovative approach with the more prosaic demands of external examinations. So what is the future of a methodology based on this dual role of researcher/teacher? Clearly this approach is something of a luxury and it was never the aim to try to replicate it in all schools.

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However, there are a number of possibilities for a practical way forward based on this approach. For example, it may be that a small number of studies based on this approach will help to indicate an approach which teachers can adopt and try out for themselves. Alternatively, it might provide a model which could be adopted by groups of teachers within a school science department. What emerges from this study and from the related literature is the complexity and interdependence of a wide range of factors which influence the impact of ICT. This type of research will not yield simple rules to be followed, but it will help to probe more deeply the benefits of ICT to support practical work in science. We have yet to see what effect a combination of sophisticated ICT tools, careful planning and the further development the role of the teacher may have. However, the potential for an improvement in pupils’ understanding of science and perhaps more significantly their level of fulfilment as they learn, is clearly present. References Brasell, H. (1987) The Effect of Real-Time Lab. Graphing on Learning Graphic Representation of Distance and Time Journal of Research in Science Teaching. 24 (4) 385-395 Friedler, Y. and McFarlane, A. (1997) Data Logging with Portable Computers: A Study of the Impact on Graphing Skills in Secondary Pupils. Journal of Computers in Mathematics & Science Teaching. 16 (4) 527-50 Logotron (2002) Datalogging Insight (Version 4) Cambridge, Logotron. Mokros, J. R. and Tinker R. (1987) The Impact of Microcomputer Based Labs on Children’s Ability to Interpret Graphs. Journal of Research in Science Teaching. 24 (4) 369-383 Nakhleh, M. B. and Krajcik, J. S. (1994) Influence of levels of information as presented by different technologies on students' understanding of acid, base, and pH concepts. Journal of Research in Science Teaching. 31 (10) 1077-1096 Newton, L. R. (1998) Gathering data: does it make sense? Journal of Information Technology for Teacher Education. 7 (3) 379-394 Newton, L. R. (2000) Data-Logging in Practical Science: Research and Reality. International Journal of Science Education. 22(12): 1247-59 Settlage, J. Jr. (1995) Children's conceptions of light in the context of a technology-based curriculum. Science Education 79 (5) 535-553

PRE-SERVICE TEACHER PREPARATION: EXAMPLES OF PEDAGOGIC ACTIVITIES BY USING ICT TOOLS Claudio Fazio, Rosa Maria Sperandeo-Mineo and Giovanni Tarantino, GRIAF (Research Group on Teaching/Learning Physics), Department of Physical and Astronomical Studies, University of Palermo, Italy Introduction Many papers on teacher education report that the subject-matter understanding delivered by preservice teachers during teacher education coursework, is not the sort of conceptual understanding that they will need to develop in their future students. This has been shown in many fields of science education (Mellado,1998; Zuckerman, 1999), and physics in particular: it is well documented (Tiberghien et al. 1998) that the procedural understanding of physics that pre-service teachers typically exhibit in university physics courses, is not adequate to teach physics according to those innovations which involve deep changes in content and pedagogical methods. This mismatch points to a need, within the practice of teacher education, not only to assess, but to transform and deepen prospective teachers’ understanding of subject matter, and to redirect their habitual ways of thinking about subject matter for teaching. It has been suggested (Zeidler, 2002) that the centrepiece of many educational reforms in the field of science teacher education has a tripartite structure with the anchoring points being: teachers’ subject matter knowledge, pedagogical knowledge and Pedagogical Content Knowledge (PCK). The idea of a tripartite structure, that seems to capture the fundamental attributes of the teaching entity, can be found in some of Shulman’s papers (1986a; 1986b; 1987) where these domains of knowledge are represented

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as separate but interacting. In these papers we also find the PCK definition as the teacher’s ability to convey the constructs underlying elements of the content knowledge in a manner that makes it accessible to students. This paper reports a research study concerning an approach to pre-service teacher preparation strictly correlated with an approach to physics teaching at secondary school level focused on the process of constructing predictive conceptual models of physical phenomena (Gentner & Stevens 1983; Hestenes 1987; Gilbert et al. 1998; Aiello-Nicosia & Sperandeo-Mineo 2000). On the framework of constructivist epistemology (von Glasersfeld 1993), the approach involves a construction of the physics content structure to be taught not mainly, nor even solely, oriented to physics issues, but including educational issues and pupils’ conceptions as well. Our main idea is that an educational reconstruction of the physics content to be taught needs a parallel reconstruction of teachers’ education. This paper describes a Case Study about the teaching of physics modelling in a pre-service teacher training Workshop (W) “Pro-Term (Thermal processes)” tried out in courses of Thermodynamics of the schools of Pre-Service Teacher Formation (SSIS) of Palermo and Naples Universities; we here analyse how the learning activities modified prospective teachers’ abilities in finding adequate explanations and scientific models. Methodology The focus of pedagogical materials and tools is in the development of PCK of some chosen physical fields. The supporting hypothesis is that PCK need the development of high level competencies of prospective teachers, that is competencies that can emphasize those procedures that are mainly involved in the development of formal thinking, in a form that can be transferred to other contexts. Our hypothesis is that these competencies can be developed through training starting with linking formal representations of physics phenomena and the naive and interpretative descriptions students give, using ordinary language, intuitive images, spontaneous metaphors, etc.. (A point that, both researchers and experienced teachers know as a difficult learning point). Moreover, it is important to acknowledge that: • it is not easy to help the students in becoming aware of the various levels of formalisation, which are required in the process of building an integrated physics knowledge; • often problems are encountered in acquiring the capability of understanding and using multiplerepresentations of the same data and of choosing the most suitable one according to the proposed objectives; • last but not the least, many students find obstacles in becoming familiar with the interplay of experimental activities and modelling activities and therefore, miss a royal way toward better understanding of physics laws describing ideal cases. The methodological approach of the W focuses on Real Time Experiments (RTE) and modelling. Some of the main reasons which stimulated us to use Real-Time approaches as key tools are: • the fact that they can be used, in an easy way, in direct connection with the observation of real processes, by constituting the ground basis in the path aiming at understanding the role of formalisation in physics; • the possibility offered by them to allow a common-sense knowledge interpretation of such phenomena and through the analysis of graphs representing experimental data, students can find a natural way to make a bridge between the qualitative descriptions of data trends, based on common-sense knowledge, and one or more of the possible abstract representations; • the procedures of data fitting supplied by the apparatus give a useful first step toward the development of quantitative, descriptive and explanatory models. Procedures relating to modelling have been developed in a twofold prospective: 1) Models as description of real phenomena (how things behave): qualitative descriptions (using language) and quantitative descriptions (using Maths through qualitative or best fitting of data); 2) Models to interpret real phenomena , to explain them in the light of some theory (why things

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behave in some way). Then, models from ideas or hints about aspects or nature of the phenomenon which is to be modelled. Quite often the fitting of experimental data is the first type of modelling. But different steps are necessary in order to construct explicative models: these steps involve procedure of abstraction searching for the meaning of qualitative trends, to disregards local details, to find correlations with other fields of physics and to search for analogies and so on… This points out ideas about aspects or nature of the phenomena and serves to find connections with other well known target phenomena. Our approach is aimed to point out that there is an ontological difference in these two categories of models. Both the procedures RTE and modelling allows and fosters an easy implementation of the PEC learning cycle (that is a learning strategy that involves the procedures of Prediction Experiment and Comparison) that is widely considered of educational usefulness. The Prevision phase elicits students’ ideas which might conflict with acknowledged physics, to point out possible differences amongst verbal expressions and graphs, schema, diagrams , and so on.. The phase “Experiment” helps in acquiring operative skills in assembling and optimising the experimental set-up and in using the modelling tools by pointing out some possible confusion between phenomenology and explanatory models. In the phase “Comparison” the students’ reasoning strategies play important roles. If there are both discrepancies between the prevision and the results of the experiment, it is needed to identify plausible factors for them and to decide what has to be changed in the next run of the cycle. If prevision and results agree, this convergence needs to be considered. The iteration of PEC cycle is a powerful opportunity, not only to address conflicts between prevision and results, but also to become aware of the fact that the existence of various (disciplinary correct) viewpoints is a resource to be exploited, not only in order to become capable of choosing the most suitable solution for a given problem, but also that different ways to look to a given phenomenon are possible. Our research hypothesis concerns the teaching methods to be implemented in the W in order to make the prospective teachers, from now on called Trainee Teachers (TTs), aware of the strategies to put into action in filling the gap between the physics content to be taught and the pupils’ knowledge relevant to find explanations for the involved natural phenomena. This suggests letting TTs experience the same learning environments they are supposed to realise in their future classrooms and to stimulate hands-on learning and metareflection. The main research questions involved in this study are the following: • Is physics knowledge of TTs adequate to perform the scientific explanations involved in modelling of natural world? • Is the proposed learning environment able to stimulate modifications in the types of explanation performed by TTs in order to model physical phenomena? Methods 28 TTs attended the Workshop. They were mathematics graduates and their university curricula included two physics courses. Data were collected from a variety of sources; we here report the results of two open answer tests (pre-test and post-test) administered to TTs at the beginning and at the end of the W; each test presented 3 experimental situations where TTs were requested to explain the evolution of the involved thermal processes. The TTs’ written descriptions were analysed qualitatively with the help of descriptive categories arising from the data. The construction of the analytic categories was based on a close reading of the students’ explanations within a framework provided by domain-specific expertise. The specific categories where students’ responses were coded are, a)-everyday or practical explanation, b)descriptive explanation and c)-interpretative explanation. The pre- and post-test data have been analysed by two independent researchers. Each TT response was coded in only one of the reported analytic categories, as guided by domain-specific knowledge. The inter-rating agreement between the coders was 94.5%. Disagreements have been negotiated to construct a consensus

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Results Our TT sample was divided into two sub-samples on the basis of the Admission Test (AT) achievement scores: (H) high and (L) achievement levels, grouping TTs whose scores S were respectively: S ≥ MAT , S < MAT (with MAT the mean score of the AT, administered to the whole group of 120 TTs admitted to the Graduate School for Mathematics and Physics Teacher preparation). Table #1 summarizes the three categories of explanation and reports the percentages of different types of explanations given by the two sub-samples in the pre and post-tests. The data show that the TTs’ explanations for thermal behaviours of materials were mainly descriptive and practical in nature for L-group as well as for H-group. This finding could be explained by the fact that even if thermodynamics was a familiar topic for TTs, they had not been involved in elaborating and investigating the topic in a context focused on the direct analysis of experimental facts (or phenomena) without any direct reference to formulas and/or laws to apply. This result gives an answer to our first research question by showing the inadequacy of TTs’ subject matter understanding. The quantitative analysis of data shows a significant difference in the distribution patterns of the categories of explanations for the two groups; moreover, most of the TTs’ explanations were also explanatory in nature in the post-test condition, including explanations, which proposed cause/effect relationships, as well as more formal scientific explanations. This result gives a positive answer to our second research question. Table 1 - Categories describing the nature of the TTs’ explanations and their frequencies of occurrence in the preand post-tests



  

  

Explains thermal processes with practical, everyday examples. Describes thermal processes summarising the perceived patterns in observation but does not explain specifically the causal relationships of the physics parameters involved.

 

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Conclusion and implications The test results, together with the data analysis concerning the class discussions and observations, of TTs behaviour during laboratory work, evidenced the mismatch between their theoretical subject matter knowledge and their ability to analyse and explain thermal phenomena: their university courses supplied some sets of formulas that they were able to superficially manipulate, without a deeper understanding of the fundamental concepts involved. On the basis of the qualitative and quantitative findings, we can draw some conclusions about our research hypotheses aimed at implementing useful and formative strategies for teacher preparation. • To allow TTs to experience the same learning environments they are going to implement in their future classrooms has a two-fold advantage: they can directly verify their pedagogical validity and, at the same time, make use of them to master the physics subject.

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• To focus the teaching/learning approach on “searching for explanations” highlights diversity in students’ explanations and helps reflecting the multi-dimensional nature of the learning situation, which gave place to the construction of different interpretations even from the scientific point of view (that is an important point of the PCK). References Aiello-Nicosia, M. L. and Sperandeo-Mineo, R. M. (2000) Educational reconstruction of the physics content to be taught and pre-service teacher training: A Case Study. International Journal of Science Education. 22 1085-1097 Gentner, D. and Stevens, A. L. (1983) Mental Models. London Lawrence Erlbaum Gilbert, J. K. Boulter, C. and Rutherford, M. (1998) Models in explanations: Part 1, Horses for courses? International Journal of Science Education. 20 83-97 Hestenes, D. (1987) A modeling theory of physics instruction. American Journal of Physics. 55 440-454 Mellado, V. (1998) The classroom practice of preservice teachers and their conceptions of teaching and learning science. Science Education 82 197–214 Shulman, L. S. (1986a) Paradigms and research programs in the study of teaching: A contemporary perspective in M C Wittrock (ed.) Handbook of research on teaching. NewYork Macmillan (3rd ed) 3 –36 Shulman, L. S. (1986b) Those who understand: Knowledge growth in teaching. Educational Researcher. (1) 4-14 Shulman, L. S. (1987) Knowledge and teaching: Foundations of the new reform. Harvard Educational Review. 57 (1) 1–22 Tiberghien, A. Jossem, E. L. and Barojas, J. (1998) Connecting Research in Physics Education with Teacher Education. ICPE Von Glasersfeld, E. (1993) Questions and answers about radical constructivism. In, K. Tobin (ed). The practice of Constructivism in Science Education. Hove Lawrence Erlbaum Zeidler, D. L. (2002) Dancing with Maggots. Journal of Science Teacher Education. 13 (1) 27-42 Zuckerman, J. T. (1999) Student science teachers constructing practical knowledge from inservice science supervisors’ stories. Journal of Science Teacher Education. 10 (3) 235–245

AN APPROACH TO PHYSICS OF EVERYDAYLIFE EVENTS WITH PORTABLE SENSORS AND A GRAPHIC CALCULATOR IN A LAB COURSE FOR THE FORMATION OF PHYSICS TEACHERS Antonella Cuppari, Liceo Scientifico Galileo Ferraris, Turin, Italy Tommaso Marino, Istituto Tecnico Industriale Edoardo Amaldi, Orbassano, Turin, Italy Giuseppina Rinaudo, Gianna Rovero, Department of Experimental Physics of the University of Turin, Italy [email protected] Introduction In Italy the “Scuola di Specializzazione per l’Insegnamento Secondario” (SIS) for the preparation of future secondary school teachers has a duration of two years and consists in courses, didactical labs and practical training. With regards to physics, an important aim is to help the future teacher to “rethink” the physics that he calculator has learned in his university courses, which very often are formal and abstract, by approaching it from a different point of view, more suitable for the transfer at the level of a secondary school. We found that a powerful support in this direction is given by the use of a graphic calculator connected with portable sensors (Fig.1) to obtain a simple, portable, low cost “Real Time Laboratory” (RTL), not only because the system allows a rapid collection of a large amount of high quality data from different sonar experiments and the immediate analysis and graphical representation of data, but also because it favors the operation of rethinking basic physics concepts by exploring aspects of real life Fig. 1 Example of graphic calculator events which are not accessible with conventional means, while and portable sensor utilised in the real time laboratory. being very rich of hints to reflect on the underlying physics [1].

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We started to use the graphic calculator and the portable sensors in the didactical labs and in the practical training of the SIS-Piemonte only in 2001, as an experimental trial restricted to a few SIS students who followed a training course for in-service teachers. The reasons of the initial mistrust were mostly due to technical difficulties, in particular the insufficient number of available instruments and the short time allowed to become familiar with the new technology and with the new didactical strategy. However, at the same time, we were sure that this system would be very useful for the formation of our future physics teachers, who, having a prevalent mathematical formation, tend to give more importance to the mathematical aspects rather than to the physics of the event. Some of the SIS students applied what they had learned in the course during their practical training experience in secondary school classes and this gave us a direct feedback of the potentiality of the approach not only for the formation of our SIS students, that is of the future teachers, but also for its transfer to secondary school students. Essentially, the major discovery was that it became evident to the SIS student that real events do not follow exactly the mathematical laws that they studied in their university course and that the deviations from the law are not indication of a “poor approximation” of the real phenomenon to the “perfect mathematical law” but rather are hints of a rich underlying physics, which might be even more interesting to study than the expected law. Of course, some difficulties were also found, that we will discuss below. After this encouraging experience, we introduced in the SIS programs a dedicated laboratory using graphic calculators, which was shared with the mathematicians: about half the time was dedicated to program and represent graphically mathematical functions and half the time to physics experiments with portable sensors. The common part concerned modeling with the help of the calculator, essentially relying on the possibility of the powerful and immediate graphical representation, with two complementary approaches, either learning to read the graphs in order to discover the features of the underlying mathematical/physical law or starting from the law and try to figure out the behavior of its graphical representation. A recent experience was the use of the graphic calculator and portable sensors during a three-days stage in a “Casa Alpina” in the Italian Alps of high school students, with the SIS students acting as tutors and entertainers. The stage was meant to be half way between a discovery experiment and a physics context; different labs were offered to the high school students with very large autonomy given to them for exploration and creative invention; one of the labs was about discoveries with portable sensors and graphic calculators. In the following section we will give some examples which we consider particularly interesting to show the potentiality of this approach to develop physics concepts and to model physical laws. Examples of modeling RTL experiments The simplest experiments involve studies of motion. Typical ideal motions are the uniform, the uniformly accelerated and the oscillatory motion, which are described, in space-time diagrams, respectively by a straight line, a parabola and a sinusoid. Let us examine instead a real “uniform” motion, such as a simple walk with constant speed. In figure 2 we show the plot obtained with a sonar and a graphic calculator – TI-83 plus – for a regular walk towards the position of the SONAR [2]. The first analysis of the collected data is done using the plot shown on the screen of the calculator to evaluate if the data are reasonable; the plot appears to be rather close to a straight line, time and distances appear to be as expected. The data are then transferred through the serial port to a personal computer and the subsequent analysis is done with a conventional work sheet (EXCEL), to allow an easier analysis with a familiar system. We always ask the SIS students to take note of the number of steps, in order to facilitate the hunt for deviations from the linear behaviour, which is the dream of a mathematician, in particular for indications of the step periodicity in the plots. In this plot there no evident variations indicating the different steps, but they become evident in the plot of the velocity (figure 3), calculated as the difference between subsequent positions divided by the time interval (the sign of the velocity was inverted to make the interpretation easier).

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posizione - tempo 5 4.5

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Fig. 3 Velocity versus time of the data shown in figure 1; the lighter line is the result of smoothing the values.

This plot now shows that there are clear deviations from a straight line and that the deviations are roughly periodical, with a period close to the value expected from the count of the number of steps. We can now build a more realistic model of a real walk, which will need many more parameters besides the average velocity, in particular – the initial acceleration, which is very clear and is practically concluded within the first step (about 0.6 s); – its value, which is about 0.7ms-1 / 0.6s = 1.1 ms-2, that is a significant fraction of the gravity acceleration; – the variations of velocity at each step, which are also very evident and appear as fluctuations about the average value, with a deceleration followed by an acceleration; – the values of the intermediate accelerations, which are about one half of the initial acceleration. It is thus evident that the walk is quite different from an uniform motion and that the deviations are not the indication of an “imperfect uniform motion”, which should be smoothed away to obtain the perfect motion, but, on the contrary, they carry the information on the rich physics that underlies the simple walk. Indeed, forces are continually needed, both at the beginning, to reach the average velocity, and at each intermediate step, for the deceleration when to foot hits the ground and for the subsequent acceleration to speed up again. The forces needed are a significant fraction

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of the body gravity force: this means that the leg and feet muscles are able to apply such forces. Also the minimum energy needed to reach and maintain the average velocity can be evaluated, as well as the power, since the time interval of the acceleration is recorded with sufficient precision [3]. What is the source of the forces? For the accelerations, it is the static friction with the floor, for the deceleration, the dynamical friction: both can be estimated from the data and the corresponding coefficients can be evaluated. Along a similar line are the data shown in figure 4. They were obtained with an accelerometer and the graphic calculator during the stage in the “Casa Alpina” while jumping from a stool. In this case the SIS students were the tutors and the experiment was performed by the high school students who took part in the stage. Of course the SIS students had tested the entire experiment before and had decided that they would focus on the meaning of “g”, that is on the gravity acceleration. The analysis was done directly on the screen of the calculator, because the idea was to discover first of all how the acceleration changes from the value of the free fall to zero. The two pictures in the figure refer to the same jump: at the left, the cursor is positioned during the “free fall” and one reads that the value of the acceleration is indeed close to g and the time of free fall corresponds to what expected on the basis of the height of the stool; at the right one reads the peak deceleration, which is about 2.5 g. The plot displays also the variation of the deceleration with time, which recalls qualitatively the variations of a spring force. Indeed there is a quite complicated “spring”, with a spring constant which depends on the type of jump, on the muscles of the jumper and on the type of floor. The indicator is the duration of the deceleration, and the students of all kind (high school and SIS) soon discovered how to jump in order to obtain a short duration and, as a consequence, a large peak deceleration!

Fig. 4 Acceleration as a function of time during a jump from a stool.

A completely different example was the analysis of a cooling down plot. The data were taken by the SIS students with the temperature sensor and the object which cooled was simply a thin aluminum foil heated with a phon. The students knew the law, they measured the room temperature around the foil and tried to fit the data to the exponential law. What happened was that they could not find a good fit to the very detailed data obtained with the online sensor, simply because there is no such thing as an ideal “room temperature”, but they discovered, on the basis of the data, the value of “effective room temperature”, which happened to be about 2 oC below the measured value. In Fig. 5 we show, at the left the data in logarithmic scale with the measured room temperature and, at the right, the data with the fitted room temperature. Again the students could appreciate the help to develop the feeling for physics that the richness of data of a graphic calculator can provide.

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5

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Conclusions Our experience of using graphic calculators and portable sensors with SIS students did show that there are positive but also negative aspects; however, on the overall average, the balance is positive. The main drawback is the time and effort needed to overcome the technical difficulties; the most positive aspect is the push to abandon the stereotyped mathematical modeling of the complex physical event and to look at the experimental data to extract their real meaning. References and notes [1] Preliminary results were presented at the GIREP 2002 conference in Lund ; for details on the experiment with the SONAR, see also Cuppari, A. Lombardi, S. Marino, T. Montel, V. Rinaudo, G. Sassi, E. e Testa, I. Contare i passi con RTL. In, the tutorial on graphic calculators in the meeting “TED 2002”. Genova February 2002. [2] Between the portable sensor and the graphic calculator an intermediate device is needed to convert the analog signal to a suitable digital form; a detailed description of the hardware and software needed is given in reference [1]. [3] Assuming, for example, a mass of 50 kg, the average energy needed for initial acceleration in this walk is about 150 J and the power about 300 W; for the intermediate accelerations at each step, the energy and the power are between 1/2 and 1/3 of the initial values.

MODELS IN PHYSICS: PERCEPTIONS HELD BY PROSPECTIVE PHYSICS TEACHERS R.M. Sperandeo, I. Guastella, Physics Department, University of Palermo, Italy C. Cerroni, Mathematics Department, University of Palermo, Italy Introduction Many new approaches to physics teaching presume a definition of science as a process of constructing predictive conceptual models (Giere 1990, Nersessian 1995). This definition unites both processes and products of science, and identifies model building as a superordinate process skill. As a consequence, the understanding of the nature of models and model building is an integral component of science literacy (Gilbert and Boulter 1998). It is therefore appropriate that teachers of physics have a sound knowledge of the origin and nature of these models, their functions and the role they play in the development of the discipline. Moreover, many research studies (Lederman 1992) have shown that meaningful learning in science appears to require that students’ worldviews are commensurable with that of science they

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experience in classrooms: a conception of science that presumes the existence of a world with an internal order, predating human mental perception, give some kind of learning results, while, different results are obtained by students considering science as a process of knowledge construction from naturalistic and empirical perspectives (Songer & Linn, 1991). If students’ ontological and epistemological beliefs are developed in the classrooms, what kind of conceptions concerning the nature of science is communicated by the teachers? Teachers exercise a great influence on the student conceptions: it has been shown, for example, that if they do not stress the difference between observations and modelling, students tend to adopt a realistic conception of science, intending scientific knowledge as true, real, existing independently of personal experience, and where some scientific objects (for example atoms, light, electrons) have the same ontological status as ordinary objects( for example, table and chair) (Gutierrez 2000). Consequently the assessment of student teachers’ conceptions concerning the nature of scientific knowledge seems to be an important prerequisite for planning appropriate courses for physics teacher preparation. In recent years, researchers have shown a growing interest in the knowledge base of pre-service science teachers. Many studies have addressed fairly general aspects of teaching and learning science. For instance researchers have investigated: -pre-service teachers’ conceptions of teaching and learning science; - their views on teaching science to students from various cultures;- their subject matter knowledge in the context of learning to teach. Our study is focused on the pre-service teachers’ conceptions of science (and physics in particular) and on their knowledge of the processes and methods that ground the scientific description and interpretation of the physical world. It has been based on the following research questions: • What conceptualisations of scientific knowledge and what perceptions of physics models do Student Teachers (STs) hold? • Is their academic background (their degree) related to these conceptualisations? Samples This study is based on a sample of 41 STs at the beginning of their two years graduate course for physics teachers preparation. The sample has been divided in two sub-samples, according to the STs’ degree: 1)Mat_Grad. sample: 25 STs graduated in Mathematics. 2)Phys_Eng_Grad. sample: 16 STs graduated in Physics or Engeeneering. Data Sources. Data about STs’ beliefs and perceptions have been drawn from a questionnaire as well as from interviews administered on the base of an pre-defined protocol. The questionnaire: The questionnaire has been prepared in collaboration with two researchers of the GIREP1 and the research has been programmed during the first Girep Seminar (Smit, 1995). It consists of 23 statements on various aspects of the models used in physics. STs were requested to respond: – if they disagree with the statement, – if they partially disagree with the statement, – if they were unsure about the truth of the statement (the statement can be correct or wrong, but they do not know), – if they partially agree with the statement, – if they agree with the statement. They were also requested to justify their answers with argumentations or by giving some examples. 1

Jan J. A. Smit, Potchestroomse Universiteit vir CPO, Potchefstroom, South Africa Stella M. Islas, Departamento de Formacion Docente, Facultad de Ciencias Exactas, Universidad Nacional del Centro de la Provincia de Buenos Aires, Tandil, Argentina,

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The interviews: In order to gain more information about the questionnaire answers, 7 STs (4 of the sub-sample 1) and 3 of the sub-sample 2)) have been interviewed by one researcher, in order to discuss more in detail the answers supplied in the questionnaire. Each interview had been going on for 20-25 minutes. Data Analysis The 23 statements have been analysed using different methods. Here, we report some preliminary results aimed at giving a global idea about STs’ perceptions. In this analysis, the STs’ answers have been classified in 3 different groups: I- grouping all the answers “agree ” and “partially agree “; IIgrouping all the answers “disagree ” and “partially disagree“; III- grouping all the answers “ensure” (named “others”). The percentages of the three groups of answers have been calculated. The significance of differences between the groups on the base of the nature of their degree (Mathematics or Physics-Engeneering) has been also calculated. Here we report some answers concerning few items and the explanations supplied by STs interviewed. Statement N°1:All models are creations of the human intellect. 100

M_Grad. M-Grad. P_E_Grad.

Percentage

80 60 40 20 0 Agree

Disagree

Other

The χ test did indicate a difference between the groups at a level of p