Newton's First Law: Text,Translations, Interpretations and Physics Education

The translation from Latin of Newton's First Law (NFL) was considered in a historical perspective. The study showed that Newton's original yields two versions of complementary meanings, one temporal and the other quantitative. The latter is especially important in presenting the idea of inertia of massive bodies, and a new paradigm of understanding motion. The presentation of NFL in physics textbooks was reviewed and a decline in the status of NFL in the physics curriculum was noted. As a rule, if quoted at all, NFL is presented in its temporal form, while the quantitative form does not appear. Normally, NFL is interpreted as a special case: a trivial deduction from Newton's Second Law. Some advanced textbooks replace NFL by a modernized claim, which abandons its original meaning. We advocate the importance and nontrivial meaning of NFL, and call for its `rehabilitation' in physics instruction within the discourse mode of education.     

Learning novel words by ear or by eye? An advantage for lexical inferencing in listening versus reading narratives in fourth grade

This study examined the ability to infer the meaning of novel made-up words that appeared in 16 short narrative texts, presented in two modalities—reading and listening. Hebrew-speaking 4th grade students (N = 54) were asked to infer the meanings of the made-up words in both modality conditions. In this cross-group design, students were randomly assigned to one of two order conditions: reading first or listening first. Regardless of condition, participants were better able to infer the meaning of the made-up words in the listening condition than in the reading condition. Individual differences in word reading, vocabulary, and reading comprehension mediated novel word learning but working memory did not. Results are discussed in relation to the challenges faced by 4th grade Hebrew readers in the transition from reading a fully pointed (vowelized) shallow orthography to an unpointed, deep orthography. The ability of 4th grade readers to infer novel words appears to be enhanced when listening to animated narration, and is mediated by extant vocabulary knowledge and higher-order comprehension processes, but also by basic decoding skills.     

Physics and Art – A Cultural Symbiosis in Physics Education

This paper presents and discusses examples of works of art which, if included in science curricula, could prompt an understanding by students of some concepts in optics through a discussion of the context in which they were created. Such discussion would elucidate the meaning of the artworks and, at the same time, challenge students’ misconceptions, attracting their attention to the scientific aspects of the art works concerned. This type of learning represents a culturally rich approach to modern science curricula. The simplified contrasting of science and humanities is criticized.     

Interpretation of students' understanding of the concept of weightlessness

This study reports on an investigation of students' understanding of the concept of weightlessness among intermediate, high school and college students. It appears possible to interpret this knowledge as being highly influenced by the confusion between two basic physics concepts, weight and gravitational force, which are often equated in a standard physics curriculum. The proposed causal structure of students' knowledge presents a platform for interpreting a cluster of students' alternative ideas about weight and related physical concepts. This platform could guide physics educators in their considerations of appropriate strategies for presenting weight and gravity topics in the classroom.     

Weight versus gravitational force: Historical and educational perspectives

This paper discusses the existing dichotomy regarding the definition of weight and its implications in science education. The history and epistemology of the weight concept and its present status in instruction and students' knowledge about weight are reviewed. The rationale of the concept of gravitational weight, currently accepted in many textbooks, is critiqued. Two mutually related implications stem from this study in science teaching: a conceptual distinction between weight and gravitational force; and replacement of the gravitational definition of weight by the operational one. Both innovations may improve the quality of science education.     

Physics and Mathematics as Interwoven Disciplines in Science Education

The relationship between physics and mathematics is reviewed upgrading the common in physics classes’ perspective of mathematics as a toolkit for physics. The nature of the physics-mathematics relationship is considered along a certain historical path. The triadic hierarchical structure of discipline-culture helps to identify different ways in which mathematics is used in physics and to appreciate its contribution, to recognize the difference between mathematics and physics as disciplines in approaches, values, methods, and forms. We mentioned certain forms of mathematical knowledge important for physics but often missing in school curricula. The geometrical mode of codification of mathematical knowledge is compared with the analytical one in context of teaching school physics and mathematics; their complementarity is exemplified. Teaching may adopt the examples facilitating the claims of the study to reach science literacy and meaningful learning.     

From Comparison Between Scientists to Gaining Cultural Scientific Knowledge

Physics textbooks often present items of disciplinary knowledge in a sequential order of topics of the theory under instruction. Such presentation is usually univocal, that is, isolated from alternative claims and contributions regarding the subject matter in the pertinent scientific discourse. We argue that comparing and contrasting the contributions of scientists addressing similar or the same subject could not only enrich the picture of scientific enterprise, but also possess a special appealing power promoting genuine understanding of the concept considered. This approach draws on the historical tradition from Plutarch in distant past and Koyré in the recent history and philosophy of science. It gains a new support in the discipline–culture structuring of the physics curriculum, seeking cultural content knowledge (CCK) of the subject matter. Here, we address two prominent individuals of Italian Renaissance, Leonardo and Galileo, in their dealing with issues relevant for introductory science courses. Although both figures addressed similar subjects of scientific content, their products were essentially different. Considering this difference is educationally valuable, illustrating the meaning of what students presently learn in the content knowledge of mechanics, optics and astronomy, as well as the nature of science and scientific knowledge.     

Meeting the Discipline-Culture Framework of Physics Knowledge: A Teaching Experience in Italian Secondary School

The paper deals with physics teaching/learning in high school. An investigation in three upper secondary school classes in Italy explored the reactions of students to a structuring lecture on optics within the discipline-culture (DC) framework that organises physics knowledge around four interrelated fundamental theories of light. The lecture presented optics as an unfolding conceptual discourse of physicists regarding the nature of light. Along with the knowledge constructed in a school course of a scientific lyceum, the students provided epistemological comments, displaying their perception of physics knowledge presented in the classroom. Students’ views and knowledge were investigated by questionnaires prior to and after the lecture and in special discussions held in each class. They revealed a variety of attitudes and views which allowed inferences about the potential of the DC framework in an educational context. The findings and interpretation indicate the positive and stimulating impact of the lecture and the way in which DC-based approach to knowledge organization makes physics at school cultural and attractive.     

Thought Experiments: Determining Their Meaning

This paper considers thought experiment as a special scientific tool that mediates between theory and experiment by mental simulation. To clarify the meaning of thought experiment, as required in teaching science, we followed the relevant episodes throughout the history of science paying attention to the epistemological status of the performed activity. A definition of thought experiment is suggested and its meaning is analyzed using two-dimensional conceptual variation. This method allows one to represent thought experiment in comparison with the congenerous conceptual constructs also defined. A similar approach is used to classify the uses of thought experiments, mainly for the purpose of science curriculum.

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Physics Teaching in the Search for Its Self

The crisis in physics education necessitates searching for new relevant meanings of physics knowledge. This paper advocates regarding physics as the dialogue among discipline-cultures, rather than as a cluster of disciplines to be an appropriate subject of science education. In a discipline-culture one can distinguish elements of knowledge as belonging to either (1) central principles and paradigms – nucleus, (2) normal disciplinary area – body of knowledge or (3) rival knowledge of the subject – periphery. It appears that Physics cannot be represented as a simple dynamic wholeness, that is, cannot be arranged in a single tripartite (triadic) structure (this result presents a deconstruction), but incorporates several discipline-cultures. Bound together by family similarity, they maintain a conceptual discourse. Teaching physics as a culture is performed in polyphonic space of different worldviews; in other words, it is performed in a Kontrapunkt. Implications of the tripartite code are suggested with regard to representation of scientific revolutions, individual conceptual change, physics curricula and the typology of students learning science.