Pekka E. Hirvonen

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.

Open Guided Inquiry Laboratory in Physics Teacher Education

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. A total of 32 pre-service teachers (physics, mathematics, and chemistry majors) participated in the study. Each participant wrote a reflective essay after completing the course, and three pre-service teachers were interviewed four times during the course. The results show that the use of an open guided inquiry environment provides support for pre-service teachers to discover the limits of their understanding of subject matter knowledge, allowing them to construct knowledge in a different kind of environment from any they had possessed previously, and helping them to understand the possibilities of practical work in teaching. In the course of developing their competence in these aspects, pre-service teachers also gain an understanding of various aspects of teachers’ knowledge.

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.

Thought Experiments in Science and in Science Education

This chapter will discuss the role of thought experiments in science and in science teaching. The constructive and destructive roles played by thought experiments in the construction of scientific theories can be used in science teaching to help students to understand the processes of science. In addition, they have potential to be used as a teaching tool for developing students’ conceptual understanding. The use of thought experiments can also increase students’ interest in science and help them in understanding situations beyond their everyday experiences. It has been reported elsewhere that the use of thought experiments in science teaching may be challenging for both teachers and students. Despite the recent increase in research activities with respect to thought experiments in science education, further systematic research work is still needed for the most effective methods to be discovered of how best to use thought experiments in science teaching. Of particular importance will be studies that focus on science teachers’ understanding of thought experiments and their actual use in a classroom environment.

Explorations of Finnish mathematics students' beliefs about the nature of mathematics

According to certain surveys made in Germany, mathematics can be seen either as a stagnant structure (formalism-related orientation), a collection of rules, formulas and methods (scheme-related ori ...

Seventh-Grade Pupils’ Epistemic Views in the Context of Model-Based Instruction

This paper relates to the research of personal epistemology. Different frameworks of the research area are discussed and the theoretical framework for studying young pupils’ epistemic views is presented. The epistemic views deal with pupils’ conceptions related both to justification and to certainty of knowledge in a science learning context. The empirical aim of this study was to discover pupils’ views of their own knowledge, their physics teacher’s knowledge and the scientists’ knowledge. The context of the study were science 12 hours of science lessons during which the pupils were taught the modelling idea connected to the topic ‘structure of matter’. The subjects in this case study were eighteen 13-year-old secondary school pupils. The results show that pupils have different views concerning the justification of knowledge and the certainty of knowledge depending on the person: a pupil, a teacher or a scientist. The results have implications for the development of science curriculula and new teaching approaches.

Is an Iron Atom Made of Iron

The aim of this study was to investigate if students can make a distinction between the properties of a metal object and the properties of an atom inside the same object. We wanted also to study how students respond to different questions which from the physicists’ point of view are similar. The questionnaire was administrated for secondary school and high school pupils, physics students, physics and mathematics teacher trainees at a university, preservice elementary teachers and for engineering students. Data was collected in Finland and in Russian Karelia. We found that generally students have poor conceptions of the properties of matter. The result might be interpreted that the formulation of the questions affects students’ thinking.