Effects of Problem-Based Learning on University Students’ Epistemological Beliefs About Physics and Physics Learning and Conceptual Understanding of Newtonian Mechanics

This study investigated the effects of problem-based learning on students’ beliefs about physics and physics learning and conceptual understanding of Newtonian mechanics. The study further examines the relationship between students’ beliefs about physics and their conceptual understanding of mechanics concepts. Participants were 124 Turkish university students (PBL = 55, traditional = 69) enrolled in a calculus-based introductory physics class. Students’ beliefs about physics and physics learning and their physics conceptual understanding were measured with the Colorado Learning Attitudes about Science Survey (CLASS) and the Force Concept Inventory (FCI), respectively. Repeated measures analysis of variance of how PBL influence beliefs and conceptual understanding were performed. The PBL group showed significantly higher conceptual learning gains in FCI than the traditional group. PBL approach showed no influence on students’ beliefs about physics; both groups displayed similar beliefs. A significant positive correlation was found between beliefs and conceptual understanding. Students with more expert-like beliefs at the beginning of the semester were more likely to obtain higher conceptual understanding scores at the end of the semester. Suggestions are presented regarding the implementation of the PBL approach.     

Coherence of Pre-service Physics Teachers’ Views of the Relatedness of Physics Concepts

In physics teacher education, one of the recurrent themes is the importance of fostering the formation of organised and coherent knowledge structures, but a simple shared understanding of what coherence actually means and how it can be recognised, is not easily found. This study suggests an approach in which the coherence of students’ views about the relatedness of physics concepts can be identified and evaluated. Six pre-service physics teachers presented their understanding of the relatedness of physics concepts in the form of specially designed concept maps in which experimental or modelling procedures were required as links between physics concepts. The acceptability of the links was evaluated by using four criteria for epistemic analysis introduced in this study. The weighted values describing the maps’ structural features were calculated, and finally, the cases were compared and the differences between them were discussed. The results show that the epistemic analysis of links affects remarkably to the acceptability of knowledge and thus also the coherence of such knowledge. The highest criterion set for acceptability seems to be very demanding to fulfil and even in the advanced level of studies only a fraction of students manage to reach it. The cases examined here show that the knowledge structures are partly fragmented and not as coherent as one would have expected them to be.     

Interest of Intermediate‐Level Secondary Students in Physics and Technology

Summaries

English

This article describes the results of an extensive study, which examined the interests of intermediate‐level secondary students, from the State of Hesse in the Federal Republic of Germany, in aspects of physics and technology.

Both boys and girls show greater interest in technological issues than in issues of pure physics. This distribution of interest is in contrast to the importance accorded to these subjects in school curricula. Children from rural areas seem to have a slightly better background of experiences involving knowledge of physics and technology than children from urban areas. A correlation was found to exist between out‐of‐school activities concerned with technology and the natural sciences, and academic achievement as measured by students’ physics grades. Girls display a general interest in natural phenomena which are not sufficiently covered by physics curricula.     

The Use of Different Simulations and Different Types of Feedback and Students’ Academic Performance in Physics

Research in Science Education - The aim of this study was to determine the impact of three different software simulations for studying Ohm’s law and connecting resistors on students’...     

Does Teaching Experience Matter? The Beliefs and Practices of Beginning and Experienced Physics Teachers

This study utilized multiple data sources to examine the beliefs about learning and teaching physics and the instructional practices of five beginning teachers and seven experienced teachers from Singapore. Our study was implemented in the unique context of teachers teaching the topic of electricity to students grouped according to academic abilities. The topic of electricity is one of the most difficult physics topics for students to understand and for teachers to teach. It was found that the experienced teachers, compared to the beginning teachers, tended to have beliefs about teaching and learning physics that are closer to constructivist views. The majority of the teachers, particularly the beginning teachers, espoused beliefs about learning physics that were incongruent with their beliefs about teaching physics. Although transmission-oriented and teacher-directed practices dominated the classroom lessons of both groups of teachers, more elements of constructivist instruction were found in the classroom lessons of the experienced teachers. It was also found that the classroom practices of the teachers, especially those in their inductive years of teaching, were more aligned with their beliefs about learning physics than their beliefs about teaching physics.     

Finnish Cooperating Physics Teachers’ Conceptions of Physics Teachers’ Teacher Knowledge

This article examines Finnish cooperating physics teachers’ conceptions of teacher knowledge in physics. Six experienced teachers were interviewed. The data was analyzed to form categories concerning the basis of teacher knowledge, and the tradition of German Didaktik and Shulman’s theory of teacher knowledge were used in order to understand the results. The results show that the teachers strongly emphasize knowledge related to day-to-day teaching practice. In German Didaktik, this means knowledge of the best instructional methods, while in Shulman’s categorization it belongs to the category of representations, strategies, and methods. It was also found that the teachers appear to lack some of the essential key ideas of modern physics teacher education, such as a holistic view of instructional approaches.     

原版教材Fundamentals of Physics使用体会

ＨａｌｌｉｄａｙＲｅｓｎｉｃｋ的基础物理学ＦｕｎｄａｍｅｎｔａｌｓｏｆＰｈｙｓｉｃｓ至２００１年已经出了第六版。我们从２０世纪７０年代接触Ｐｈｙｓｉｃｓ和８０年代后使用ＦｕｎｄａｍｅｎｔａｌｓｏｆＰｈｙｓｉｃｓ ,特别是近三年来在教学中使用该书 ,深感这是一本比较好的教材 ,也容易为我国的教师和学生所接受。下面是我们在使用该书过程中的几点认识和该书的内容简介。(１)该书近２０年来有不少改进 ,如加大了近代物理部分 ;且涉及到比较前沿的问题 ,如夸克、大爆炸等。前几版在光学中也未讲偏振 ,现在已在电磁波（第３４章…     

Pre-service Physics Teachers＇ Conceptions of Nature of Science

Understanding of NOS （nature of science） appears as a prerequisite of a scientifically literate person. Promoting adequate understanding of NOS in pre-service physics teachers is, therefore, an important task of science educators. Before doing that, science educators must have information concerning their pre-service teachers＇ conceptions of NOS. This study used the MOSQ （myths of science questionnaire） to explore 17 pre-service physics teachers＇ conceptions of NOS. Commonly, these pre-service teachers expressed misunderstandings about NOS with respect to： （1） the relationship between theory and law; （2） science as cumulative; （3） subjectivity in science; （4） the scientific method; and （5） the relationship between science and technology. Science educators should consider and utilize these common misunderstandings as a basis of curricular framework for further improving pre-service physics teachers＇ understanding of NOS.     

Physics Teachers’ Perceptions of the Difficulty of Teaching Electricity

As part of a project concerned with developing a better understanding of the detail of appropriate teaching of direct current (DC) electricity concepts, extensive individual interviews were conducted with a number of experienced senior high school physics teachers. These interviews explored teachers’ perceptions of difficulties in student learning and their own teaching of DC electricity, their uses of models and analogies in this teaching, and their own understandings of the concepts of DC electricity. Eight high school physics teachers from the Australian state of Victoria were interviewed: three who had a strong focus on student understanding in their classrooms and five who used more traditional approaches. We also interviewed three authors of textbooks then currently used in senior high school physics in Victoria, all of whom were also teachers of high school physics. All but one of these eleven interviewees was a very experienced teacher of DC electricity at the senior high school level. The interview data are summarized and implications for curriculum and teaching/learning of electricity are considered. There was a wide range of views among the teachers about the difficulties of both the concepts of DC electricity and the teaching of these concepts, and about the nature of physics knowledge. A number of the interviewees revealed levels of conceptual understanding that we see as of concern. Some of the teachers whose understanding causes us concern made clear early in the interview their view that the concepts of DC electricity were essentially straight forward; in all cases these interviewees had by the end of the interview reconsidered this position.     

Language in Science Classrooms: An Analysis of Physics Teachers’ Use of and Beliefs About Language

The world over, secondary school science is viewed mainly as a practical subject. This may be one reason why effectiveness of teaching approaches in science education has often been judged on the kinds of practical activity with which teachers and students engage. In addition to practical work, language??often written (as in science texts) or oral (as in the form of teacher and student talk)??is unavoidable in effective teaching and learning of science. Generally however, the role of (instructional) language in quality of learning of school science has remained out of focus in science education research. This has been in spite of findings in empirical research on difficulties science students encounter with words of the instructional language used in science. The findings have suggested that use of (instructional) language in science texts and classrooms can be a major influence on the level of students?? understandings and retention of science concepts. This article reports and discusses findings in an investigation of physics teachers?? approaches to use of and their beliefs about classroom instructional language. Direct classroom observations of, interviews with, as well as content analyses of the participant teachers?? verbatim classroom talk, were used as the methods of data collection. Evidence is presented of participant physics teachers?? lack of explicit awareness of the difficulty, nature, and functional value of different categories of words in the instructional language. In conclusion, the implications of this lack of explicit awareness on the general education (initial and in-service) of school physics teachers are considered.     

Preservice and Inservice Teachers’ Challenges in the Planning of Practical Work in Physics

Practical work in school science plays many essential roles that have been discussed in the literature. However, less attention has been paid to how teachers learn the different roles of practical work and to the kind of challenges they face in their learning during laboratory courses designed for teachers. In the present study we applied the principles of grounded theory to frame a set of factors that seem to set major challenges concerning both successful work in the school physics laboratory and also in the preparation of lessons that exploit practical work. The subject groups of the study were preservice and inservice physics teachers who participated in a school laboratory course. Our results derived from a detailed analysis of tutoring discussions between the instructor and the participants in the course, which revealed that the challenges in practical or laboratory work consisted of the limitations of the laboratory facilities, an insufficient knowledge of physics, problems in understanding instructional approaches, and the general organization of practical work. Based on these findings, we present our recommendations on the preparation of preservice and inservice teachers for the more effective use of practical work in school science and in school physics.     

Students’ Expectations of Teaching in Undergraduate Physics

This article reports on a phenomenographic‐based study of the expectations of teaching among undergraduate physics students. Data are drawn from a range of course‐contexts at each of two quite different universities — one South African and one Swedish — and five qualitatively different expectations of physics teaching are identified and exemplified. These range from presenting knowledge to facilitating personal development and agency. Implications of possible mismatches between students’ and lecturers’ expectations of physics teaching are discussed in relation to students’ learning experiences.     

The Impact of Interactive Computer Simulations on the Nature and Quality of Postgraduate Science Teachers’ Explanations in Physics

This study investigated how individuals’ construction of explanations—a way of ascertaining how well an individual understands a concept—develops from an interactive simulation. Specifically, the purpose was to investigate the effect of interactive computer simulations or science textbook assignments on the nature and quality of postgraduate science teachers’ explanations regarding physical phenomena in Mechanics, Waves/Optics, and Thermal Physics. The use of simulations or science textbook assignments was implemented according to the Predict–Observe–Explain model and integrated into a one‐semester conceptual survey course in physics for practising science teachers who served as participants in the study. Data were collected through semi‐structured interviews and were analysed using a qualitative content analysis approach. Results indicate that the use of computer simulations along with the application of the Predict–Observe–Explain model had a positive impact on the nature and quality of science teachers’ explanations. They improved science teachers’ ability to generate scientifically accurate explanations and fostered in‐depth advancement in teachers’ search for explanatory scientific information regarding the physical phenomena under investigation. In addition, teachers’ explanations became more elaborate, reflecting cause‐effect reasoning and formal reasoning.     

Computer-Based Classification of Preservice Physics Teachers’ Written Reflections

Journal of Science Education and Technology - Reflecting in written form on one’s teaching enactments has been considered a facilitator for teachers’ professional growth in...     

What Factors Determine the Uptake of A-level Physics?

There has been much concern recently in the UK about the decline in the number of students studying physics beyond age 16. To investigate why this might be we used data from a national database of student qualifications and a multilevel modelling technique to investigate which factors had the greatest impact on the uptake of physics at Advanced Level (A-level) in a particular year. Each factor of interest was entered into a separate model, while accounting for prior attainment and gender (both well-known predictors of A-level uptake). We found that factors associated with greater probability of uptake included better attainment in physics (or combined science) and maths qualifications at age 16 in comparison to other subjects, and (for girls only) attending an independent or grammar school. While it is difficult to address these factors directly, the results imply that more needs to be done to improve relative performance at General Certificate of Secondary Education, perhaps by increasing the supply of specialist physics teachers at this level and to overcome the perception (especially among girls) that physics is a particularly difficult subject.     

SCI Cited Records and Top 10 DOIs of JZUS （Applied Physics ＆ Engineering）Articles

Since JZUS website linked to Engineering Village 2 (www.ei.org) and INSPEC (ISI Web of Knowledge) full-text platform in 2005 by DOI (Digital Object Identifier), many interesting articles on Applied Physics and Engineering have been frequently downloaded and cited in SCI source publications from all over the world. This list shows the citation information.I Author(s) Vol. No. Page Cited No.a Title Affiliation 4 1 1 4(1a) lTahr rpelea-tdei mine tnhseiromnaall eannvaliyrosnism oefn…     

Does Quantum Physics Refute Realism, Materialism and Determinism?

It is argued that the correct answer to the three questions in the title is ??no??: that the theses being denied derive from traditional philosophy, not from the way the quantum theories are used. For example, the calculation of the energy spectrum of an atom assumes the autonomous existence of the atom, rather than its dependence upon the observer. However, it is also suggested that the problem has been unnecessarily complicated by a careless use of the terms ??realism??, ??materialism??, and ??determinism??. Precise definitions of these words are proposed.     

Physics challenges for teachers and students介绍和选解

Ｐｈｙｓｉｃｓｃｈａｌｌｅｎｇｅｓｆｏｒｔｅａｃｈｅｒｓａｎｄｓｔｕｄｅｎｔｓ是美国中学物理教学刊物《物理教师》(Ｔｈｅｐｈｙｓｉｃｓｔｅａｃｈｅｒ)的一个专栏 ,它通过介绍物理问题 ,鼓励教师学生参与竞答 ,来促进教师的教学 ,提高学生的解题能力。每期有三到五个题目 ,教师(以及他们的学生 )可以向编辑部提交答案。正确的好的解答将会刊登于下一期。下面选出 2 0 0 1年 12月期的题目 ,并做解答和讨论。题目 1:打破记录　ｎ个大小和质量相同的弹性小球放在水平台面上 ,形成一排。左边的一个小球是红色的 ,其它的都是白色的。现…     

Physics challenges for teachers and students介绍和选解

Physics challenges for teachers and students是美国中学物理教学刊物<物理教师>(The physics teacher)的一个专栏,它通过介绍物理问题,鼓励教师学生参与竞答,来促进教师的教学,提高学生的解题能力.每期有三到五个题目,教师(以及他们的学生)可以向编辑部提交答案.正确的好的解答将会刊登于下一期.