Multiple choice questions are a common teaching and evaluation tool in large-enrolment introductory physics classes across North-American universities. Unfortunately, they do not provide students with the opportunity to formulate their own ideas. Case studies developed for this project allow the students to collaborate on more open-ended scenarios that cover the most fundamental concepts of a...
To face the current environmental and technological challenges, it is necessary to support and reform teacher training (for primary and lower secondary school teachers) at academic institutions in matters concerning energy. In this context we present the Erasmus project 'eˆ4', which aims to (1) create a higher education course with innovative resources for teacher training in the field of...
Energy is both a concept of everyday life linked with strong societal issues and an abstract scientific concept particularly complex to teach. Teaching energy requires the use of scientific school models and is facilitated by the use of energy chains. Through guided interviews, models and associated chains proposed by academic trainers (in-service education) have been clarified. These models...
Pre-service physics teachers should be prepared for diagnosing students’ conceptions within the physics classroom. This demand is met by a seminar implemented in the teacher training program at the University College of Teacher Education Styria. Within this seminar, participants work with video vignettes and conduct micro-teaching sessions. The focus of this study is to investigate the impact...
This project aims to promote gender inclusion in STEM education at the University of Padova, Italy. The project has examined the level of awareness among secondary education students regarding gender disparities in STEM fields and attempts to develop new initiatives to improve academic guidance and challenge stereotypes and biases that may discourage students from pursuing Physics and other...
Despite a growing number of research on different types of non-classical learning methods and widely known benefits, implementation in the common school system is still rare.
Although there are studies identifying challenges, many of the learning methods seem to assume a specialized school system and they are not simply transferable to practice. Method “Learning using mentors” was designed...
Environmental, societal and economic trends due to climate change require the promotion of socioscientific decision-making (SSDM) in physics education. However, teachers have different attitudes and perceive multiple challenges about its implementation in their classroom. Goal of this project is the research-based development of an in-service teacher training module to change hindering beliefs...
Although the weather accompanies our students every day and the technical basics are taught in various subjects, their understanding of weather phenomena is poorly developed. The difficulties students have in applying their knowledge of mathematics and physics to weather are complex. We would like to explore these difficulties and the reasons for this lack of understanding through various...
The shortage of physics teachers is nowadays reality in many countries. It leads to the need for changes in pre-service teacher education. To support professional identity and building a professional community, a new experiential camp is offered to pre-service teachers. The contribution presents initial research focused on identifying students' expectations, relevance of content and applied...
Learning outcomes in engineering education, in addition to practical knowledge, include understanding concepts from natural sciences and mathematics as an important factor in strengthening engineering competencies and skills. The research was conducted using standardized conceptual tests in mechanics and electromagnetism among first-year undergraduate electrical and computer engineering...
ChatGPT, a recently released revolutionary AI chatbot based on deep learning and artificial neural networks, enables highly proficient human-like conversations, translations, and reasoning. Our ongoing research aims to investigate ChatGPT's potential in physics education, including its capabilities, limitations, and impact on students in real conditions. Employing an exploratory sequential...
Several studies have explored students' perspectives on understanding physics equations. This paper focuses on students' epistemological changes as they deal with the meaning of the wave equation. Prior to interventions, we assessed students' intuition about the wave equation and identified three epistemological beliefs related to this equation. We then designed tutorials that targeted...
We report on the results of a series of interviews conducted with some experts on quantum physics concerning aspects of its teaching at the secondary school level, specifically the overall appropriateness of this teaching, the historical approach, the needed mathematical background and the topics that should be included. Some foundational and controversial aspects of quantum physics, which...
