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Teacher Education and Professional Development

Physics

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Full-Text Articles in Education

Strongly And Weakly Directed Approaches To Teaching Multiple Representation Use In Physics, Patrick B. Kohl, David Rosengrant, Noah D. Finkelstein Jul 2017

Strongly And Weakly Directed Approaches To Teaching Multiple Representation Use In Physics, Patrick B. Kohl, David Rosengrant, Noah D. Finkelstein

David Rosengrant

Good use of multiple representations is considered key to learning physics, and so there is considerable motivation both to learn how students use multiple representations when solving problems and to learn how best to teach problem solving using multiple representations. In this study of two large-lecture algebra-based physics courses at the University of Colorado (CU) and Rutgers, the State University of New Jersey, we address both issues. Students in each of the two courses solved five common electrostatics problems of varying difficulty, and we examine their solutions to clarify the relationship between multiple representation use and performance on problems involving …


Pre-Service Physics Teachers And Physics Education Research, David Rosengrant Jul 2017

Pre-Service Physics Teachers And Physics Education Research, David Rosengrant

David Rosengrant

Training pre-service teachers requires, among other things, content knowledge, pedagogical skills and pedagogical content knowledge. Teacher preparation programs have little, if any spare time to add more courses/activities to their program. However, I argue in this paper that we, as educators, must enhance the amount of physics education research in our pre-service physics teacher training programs. In this study, I analyze the results of two different types of exposure to physics education research (PER) from two different groups of pre-service physics teachers in our masters of arts and teaching program. The preliminary results show, for example that the PER helped …


Driven By Beliefs: Understanding Challenges Physical Science Teachers Face When Integrating Engineering And Physics, Emily A. Dare, Joshua A. Ellis, Gillian H. Roehrig Jun 2017

Driven By Beliefs: Understanding Challenges Physical Science Teachers Face When Integrating Engineering And Physics, Emily A. Dare, Joshua A. Ellis, Gillian H. Roehrig

Joshua A. Ellis

It is difficult to ignore the increased use of technological innovations in today’s world, which has led to various calls for the integration of engineering into K-12 science standards. The need to understand how engineering is currently being brought to science classrooms is apparent and necessary in order to address these calls for integration. This multiphase, mixed-methods study investigated the classroom practices and beliefs of high school physical science teachers following an intensive professional development on physics and engineering integration. Classroom observations showed that teachers new to incorporating engineering into their physical science classrooms often struggled to maintain focus on …


Fostering Preservice Teachers' "Nature Of Science" Understandings In A Physics Course, Ehsan Kattoula, Geeta Verma, Lisa Martin-Hansen Nov 2015

Fostering Preservice Teachers' "Nature Of Science" Understandings In A Physics Course, Ehsan Kattoula, Geeta Verma, Lisa Martin-Hansen

Geeta Verma

In this paper, the authors examine an algebra-based physics course designed for preservice teachers and explore how the course integrated two pedagogical strategies to bridge the gap between inquiry-learning experiences and the teachers' nature of science (NOS) understandings. The results of this research show that the explicit, reflective process allowed participants to examine their NOS understandings, which thereby fostered changes in their understanding.


Does It Matter Which Citation Tool Is Used To Compare The H-Index Of A Group Of Highly Cited Researchers?, Nader Ale Ebrahim, Hadi Farhadi, Hadi Salehi, Melor Md Yunus, Arezoo Aghaei Chadegani, Maryam Farhadi, Masood Fooladi Mar 2013

Does It Matter Which Citation Tool Is Used To Compare The H-Index Of A Group Of Highly Cited Researchers?, Nader Ale Ebrahim, Hadi Farhadi, Hadi Salehi, Melor Md Yunus, Arezoo Aghaei Chadegani, Maryam Farhadi, Masood Fooladi

Nader Ale Ebrahim

h-index retrieved by citation indexes (Scopus, Google scholar, and Web of Science) is used to measure the scientific performance and the research impact studies based on the number of publications and citations of a scientist. It also is easily available and may be used for performance measures of scientists, and for recruitment decisions. The aim of this study is to investigate the difference between the outputs and results from these three citation databases namely Scopus, Google Scholar, and Web of Science based upon the h-index of a group of highly cited researchers (Nobel Prize winner scientist). The purposive sampling method …


Dr. Skateboard’S Action Science: Increasing Science Knowledge And Skills For Middle School Teachers, William H. Robertson Mar 2010

Dr. Skateboard’S Action Science: Increasing Science Knowledge And Skills For Middle School Teachers, William H. Robertson

William H. Robertson

Dr. Skateboard’s Action Science maps to the physical science Texas Essential Knowledge & Skills (TEKS) standards that all middle school students need to learn. Dr. Skateboard’s Action Science explores scientific concepts in a curriculum supplement that is designed to address both physical science content and process skills. The video instruction focuses on fundamental concepts found in the areas of motion, forces, Newton’s Laws of Motion, and simple machines. The use of familiar activities, situations and objects, such as skateboarding and bicycle motocross (BMX), around which students can explore and explain scientific concepts can be defined as action science. The main …


Dr. Skateboard’S Action Science, William Robertson Aug 2008

Dr. Skateboard’S Action Science, William Robertson

William H. Robertson

Dr. Skateboard’s Action Science is designed to incorporate both a four part Video Series and an accompanying activity booklet that focuses on concepts in physical science that integrates both skateboarding and BMX. Dr. Skateboard’s Action Science explores concepts suitable for middle grade (4-8) students in a curriculum that is designed to address both the objectives and enduring knowledge of physical science in content and process skills for both the National Science Standards and Texas Essential Knowledge and Skills (TEKS). The video instruction provides the teacher with a series of instructional hooks and content information that can be used to explore …