International Portal of Teacher Education
The online resource of academic content on teacher training and teacher education
Search results for: Physics
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13 items
1
This investigation of physics teacher education in Ethiopia reveals a significant gap between the physics knowledge of pre-service teachers (PSTs) attained during training and that of the intended curriculum setting out expectations for their knowledge.
Data were obtained by a test probing PSTs’ physics knowledge (attained curriculum); analysis of teacher education curriculum documents (intended); and video-recording, observation and analysis of lectures delivered to pre-service teachers at four Colleges of Teacher Education (implemented).
These illustrate that implementation focuses on high-level, abstract knowledge delivered mainly via mathematical approaches, offering limited opportunities for learning basic concepts by debate.
An outcome of current practice is that physics teachers lack the necessary subject knowledge to teach effectively, leading successive generations of Ethiopian students to under-achieve.
The paper argues for change to enable Ethiopia to achieve its aim of raising educational achievement and societal productivity to become a low-middle income nation by 2025.
Published: 2021
Updated: Oct. 13, 2021
2
The aim of this study was to investigate the effect of the ‘teacher-led PD for teachers’ program, developed by the researchers, on students’ achievements.
The study was conducted with six high school physics teachers and 306 students in Turkey.
The professional development intervention lasted for seven weeks, and teachers had 21 hours of professional development regarding modern physics at high school level.
The results of ANCOVA showed that there was a significant effect of the teacher-led PD for teachers program on students’ achievements.
The successful implementation indicated that the teacher-led PD for teachers program possesses effective characteristics of professional development and can improve student achievement.
Published: 2019
Updated: Aug. 17, 2020
3
In this paper, the authors argue that the link between intentional decision making and actual teaching practice are teacher’s habits (spontaneous responses to situational cues).
Teachers unavoidably develop habits with practical experience and under the influence of knowledge and belief structures that in many ways condition the responses of teachers in their practical work.
To steer new teachers away from developing unproductive habits directed towards “survival” instead of student learning, the authors propose that teacher preparation programs (e.g., in physics) strive to develop in preservice teachers strong habits of mind and practice that will serve as an underlying support structure for beginning teachers.
They provide examples of physics teacher habits that are to be developed during the program, propose mechanisms for the development of such habits, and outline possible future research agendas around habits.
Published: 2017
Updated: Sep. 12, 2019
4
This study aimed to explore changes in preservice elementary teachers’ technology self-efficacy during their participation in a specialized science content course that utilized a mobile technology-based physics curriculum, Exploring Physics. The findings reveal that learning science via iPads and the Exploring Physics curriculum app helped increase preservice elementary teachers’ self-efficacy for integrating mobile-technologies in their future science teaching. The data suggest that preservice teachers showed positive changes in their views, perceptions, and confidence to integrate mobile technologies into their future science teaching. The authors argue that the integration of iPads in ways for preservice teachers to learn science content allowed the participants to see benefits of using mobile technologies in science teaching, which positively contributed toward their technology self-efficacy.
Published: 2017
Updated: Jun. 10, 2018
5
This study examined how prospective teachers used physics content knowledge when analyzing the talk of elementary children during special activities in an undergraduate physics content course designed for prospective teachers.
The findings reveal that prospective elementary teachers in an undergraduate physics course
(1) reflected on their own learning and
(2) identified and restated the science ideas in the talk of children in using scientific discourse while analyzing videos of elementary school children talking about science.
Published: 2014
Updated: Aug. 31, 2016
6
This study focused on comparison between preservice physics teachers’ quality of reflections in their teaching portfolios and their perceived reflections. Findings demonstrated that preservice physics teachers were aware of how much they could reflect their teaching profession to their portfolios. The participants realized which products reflected them better and what else they could have put into their portfolios to be more reflective. Furthermore, the participants whose portfolios needed improvement to be more reflective knew that the instructor’s evaluation about their portfolios was in the same line.
Published: 2014
Updated: Jul. 26, 2016
7
This study examines science learning experiences within a formal course structure that reaches out to informal learning environments. The six strands of science learning provide a framework for interpreting the prospective teachers’ responses to the friends and family assignments. The findings reveal that aspects of all six strands were evident in the responses, showing that the prospective teachers experienced increased interest and motivation, remembered and used scientific concepts and explanations, reflected on the process of learning for themselves and others, and actively participated in science activities. Involving friends and family outside of the class created ways for learners to think about and use their science knowledge across contexts.
Published: 2013
Updated: Oct. 05, 2014
8
In this article, the authors aimed to document how they are teaching the course and to share examples of what students are learning. They describe a course, involving collaboration among physics, science education, and literacy faculty members and two graduate assistants. The course emphasized questioning, predicting, exploring, observing, discussing, writing, and reading in physical science contexts. The authors conclude that integrating physics and literacy learning can help students perceive science to be an ideal context to foster learning across the disciplines.
Published: 2013
Updated: Sep. 09, 2014
9
This study has investigated the use of an open guided inquiry laboratory course in which a group of pre-service teachers planned and implemented practical work for school purposes. The results show that peer discussions about content and instructional decisions within active designing teaching sequences have enabled the participants to become aware of several aspects of a physics teacher’s teacher knowledge. Furthermore, the pre-service teachers who participated in this project suggested that they had learnt subject matter knowledge during the Course of Laboratory Practice for Physics Teachers (CLP). In light of the results, the authors would warmly suggest including the early use of the open guided inquiry laboratory, as part of the bachelor degree studies, for preservice physics teachers.
Published: 2013
Updated: May. 25, 2014
10
In this study, the authors investigated the pedagogical content knowledge that physics graduate teaching assistants developed in the context of teaching a new introductory physics curriculum, Matter and Interactions. This study shows the complexity of adopting curriculum reforms and the necessity to support the faculty’s and teaching assistants’ knowledge development when a novel science curriculum is adopted.
Published: 2012
Updated: Feb. 27, 2013