Alberto Stefanel

Disciplinary knots and learning problems in electromagnetism

The concept of field acquire the ontological status of a physical entity when we consider dynamic situations. In this context rise up typical disciplinary knots that are source of learning problems for students, connected to: the sources of time depending fields, the electrodynamic of moving conductors, the nature of electric and magnetic fields as components of the electromagnetic field. A discussion of these principal knots on electromagnetism, and an analysis of the related learning problems provide one of the tree vertex of the triangle founding a research aimed to design a teaching/learning path on electromagnetic field.

Preliminary Data Analysis of SSQ-HOPE Questionnaire on Factors Inspiring Secondary Students to Study Physics

SSQ (Secondary School Student Questionnaire)-HOPE questionnaire is one of the actions of the EU HOPE-Project (Horizons in physics education), a cooperation project of 71 European partners. The HOPE-project is striving to find ways to inspire young people to study physics (Working Group 1—WG1). SSQ is part of it in concentrating on the transition school-university with a focus on the factors motivating secondary school students which are talented in physics to study physics. In order to reach the pre-defined target group the questionnaire was distributed in events with physics content mostly taking place at universities, research institutions or at similar occasions. In order to identify promising activities information on the type of event, its characteristics and the process of selection of students were collected. From the preliminary administrations the role of open questions emerged which are necessary to get a quite precise impression of the reasons inducing students to study physics and the role of the school in relation to outreach activities. A preliminary analysis of the data collected with a restricted sample of 139 students participating in the International IPPOG-Masterclasses in the universities of Udine and Dresden is presented here. From the data emerged that a positive decision to study physics seams highly correlated to existing deep interest and perceived traits of a physicist.

Conceptual Labs for operative Exploration

In the perspective of the Model of Educational Reconstruction, designing new educational path require to gain new information on how students face the specific subject explored. At the PERG of Udine the main steps of the new educational paths were explored with pupils engaged in Conceptual Laboratory of Operative Exploration (CLOE) in informal learning contexts, where using different monitoring tools student spontaneous ideas as well their learning paths were explored and stimulated. In CLOE pupils discuss everyday life scenarios, recover their everyday and sensorial knowledge, as well as involve them in the challenges of explorations according to an IBL strategies. The CLOE lab are research based proposals of learning where explore how pupils build formal thinking, reflect on phenomena and construct models, reinterpret common everyday knowledge. The research focus is on the reasoning sequence, the ways in which knowledge is structured, the development of interpretative representations. The design characteristic of the CLOE labs are presented exemplifying it in the case of the CLOE on energy.

Teaching modern physics in secondary school

E-mail: lorenzo.santi@uniud.it, alberto.stefanel@uniud.it The physics of the last century is now included in all EU secondary school curricula and textbooks, even if in not organic way. Nevertheless, there are very different positions as concern its introduction and students’ conceptual knots in classical physics are quoted to argue the exclusion of modern physics in secondary school. Aspects discussed in literature are goals, rationale, contents, target students, instruments and methods. Very different goals, i.e. the culture of citizens, popularization, guidance, education, build different perspectives and aspects to treat selection: fundament, technologies and applications. Methods used are story telling of the main results, argumentation of crucial problems, integrated or as a complementary part in the curriculum. Modern physics in secondary school is a challenge, which involves curriculum innovation, teacher education and physics education research to individuate ways that allows the students to face the interpretative problems and manage them in many contexts and in social decisions. In this perspective, modern physics is an integrated content in curricula involving the building of formal thinking. Our research focus on building of formal thinking is on three directions: 1) Learning processes and role of reasoning in operative hands-on and minds-on phenomena interpretation; 2) object models as tools to bridge common sense to physics ideas and ICT contribution focusing on real time labs and modelling; 3) building theoretical way of thinking: a path inspired of Dirac approach to quantum mechanics. We developed four different kind of proposals: 1) the physics of modern research analysis in material science: resistivity and Hall effect for electrical transport properties, Rutherford Backscattering Spectroscopy to look to structure characteristics, Time Resolved Resistivity for epitaxial growth; 2) Explorative approach to superconductivity phenomena (a coherent paths), 3) Discussion of some crucial / transversal concepts both in classical physics and modern physics: state, measure, cross section, 4) foundation of theoretical thinking in quantum mechanics.

Content-Focused Research for Innovation in Teaching/Learning Electromagnetism: Approaches from GIREP Community

This paper summarises research presented in the symposium organised by the Groupe International de Recherche sur l’Enseignment de la Physique (GIREP) on content-focused research and research-based instruction. A specific topic area, electromagnetism, was chosen to provide focus and continuity. The interpretative ideas developed by physicists to account for electromagnetic phenomena and the mathematical formalism used to represent these ideas make the subject ideal for exploring issues in learning and teaching that include the impact of students’ prior real-world experiences, their understanding of the nature of the interpretative process and their ability to relate formalism to phenomena. Electromagnetism also offers the opportunity to explore the relationships between macroscopic and microscopic models, as well as the ‘field’ concept. Thus the research findings presented have implications that go beyond the nominal content of electricity and magnetism. The symposium addressed learning among primary, secondary and university students pursuing careers as engineers or scientists and pre-service teachers. The themes include the study of conceptual knots related to the content, the implications for teacher training and the persistence of difficulties at the university level. Instructional approaches motivated by research findings were discussed. Researchers from Belgium, Germany, Italy, Spain and the United States presented results from their own investigations. As shown in this paper, the perspectives vary with regard to research questions, methods, interpretative frameworks and the role of specific research findings in driving educational innovation.

Basic Concept of Superconductivity: A Path for High School

The need for renewed physics curricula, it suggests to include topics of modern physics. The phenomenology of superconductivity is interesting, because: macroscopic evidence of quantum processes; presentable with simple and motivating experiments; involving interesting technological applications. An approach designed to introduce superconductivity in the high school, based on experiments, aimed to recognize the change in electric and magnetic properties of an YBCO sample at phase transition is presented with some results about experimentations with students.

Magnetic Field as Pseudovector Entity in Physics Education

The analysis of the nature of the magnetic field offers the ideal framework in which students could address the mutual integration between mathematics and physical aspects facing experimentally the analysis of the phenomenology. Took look how students face experiments in which the phenomenology founds the theory and the mathematics offers its formalism as the best language to describe the explored phenomena, an activity concerning the pseudovectorial nature of the magnetic field was performed looking at the way in which the students’ reasoning evolve.

E-learning in teacher professional development in innovation and formative guidance on modern physics: the case of IDIFO Master’s Programs

The professional development of in-service teachers is becoming an increasingly “hot” research topic internationally. Innovations in both methodologies and content are a challenge for schools wishing to respond to the demands of the knowledge society. The second level biannual IDIFO Master’s Program, offered as project of the national plane for scientific degree (Piano Nazionale Lauree Scientifiche-PLS) by the Research Group in Physics Education of the University of Udine, in collaboration with 20 other Italian universities, provides teacher formation in modern physics and formative guidance to in-service teachers in Italian high schools and is now being run for the fourth time. Based on research into the teaching and learning of physics, it started in 2006 was activated in e-learning every second year. The course is wide-ranging (it is worth 165 CTS) and allows for customized study paths to suit the needs of individual participants, both regarding content and length of study period: single modules (worth 3 CTS) and an annual Specialization Course (15 CTS) are run alongside the Master’s. The organization of the e-learning formation, carried out using uPortal, is as follows: analysis of physics education research materials; web-forum discussions of content and methods; the compiling of teaching materials, both collaboratively and in personal project work; doing experimentations (teaching intervention modules) in high school students, analizing and discussing online with peers and with professors-tutors- experts. The program has undergone continual revisions - based on feed- back and reflection on the overall outcomes of the formation – while retaining its original structure. Analysis of project work and of the dissertations presented in the final exams has demonstrated the contribution of e-learning formation to capacity building through: access to research material and proposals; peer debate; a critical review of traditional approaches. The flexibility of the formative model is a key element for its implementation nationally in a wide variety of situations. The commitment required of the participants, particularly in the first two versions of the program, while resulting in an excellent preparation, also prompted the course designers to create more flexible study paths in order to allow participants to complete their training in a number of stages following coherent pathways. The educational research on the Master’s is not just a source of materials and training content, but also a context for what concern teacher formation. The analysis of participants’ learning processes in each module - like that on quantum mechanics – revealed both the characteristics of an effective educational innovation formative model, and the part played by peer interaction on web-forums in building participants’ integrated expertise both regarding content (CK) and its teaching/learning (PCK). An analysis of the school experiment written reports high-lighted the role of the Master formative path in the didactic design.

Secondary school teachers discussing the pedagogical and cultural aspects in teaching‐learning quantum physics

The instructional path and its tutorials of a teaching‐learning proposal for quantum mechanics based on a Dirac approach and focused on building the theoretical thinking were used in a Master blended module for in‐service teacher training. The proposal was discussed in a web laboratory and in a workshop proposed in‐presence, warranting the personal involvement of forming teachers in concept analysis. We document enhancement of the competencies in order to discuss the crucial point of quantum theory and design instructional path centered on them.

A round table as tool for getting in touch Science and School

The FFP9 symposium and the materials produced within the European project SUPERCOMET 2, for the development of teaching proposals on superconductivity in the secondary school, are linked to give an opportunity for formative guidance of secondary schools students in the scientific field. A path was organized to prepare students to meet scientists who won important prizes, like the Nobel one, during a Round Table. The activated process constitutes an effective action for guidance on scientific curricola.