- Docente: Olivia Levrini
- Credits: 6
- SSD: FIS/08
- Language: Italian
- Teaching Mode: Traditional lectures
- Campus: Bologna
- Corso: Second cycle degree programme (LM) in Physics (cod. 8025)
Learning outcomes
At the end of the course, the student will have competencies for
designing effective and meaningful paths for teaching physics at
the secondary school level. Particular attention will be paid to
the crictical passage from classical to modern physics
(relativity and quantum physics).
In more detail, the student will be provided with cultural and
professional tools for: - analysing and discussing results of the
research in Physics Education about how secondary and university
students cope with key-concepts; - analysing research
materials (audio- and video- recording) concerning emblematic
moments of learning; - using various texts and materials for
teaching (textbooks, original papers, historical and
epistemological texts, popular science books, web-sites, and so
on); - analyising innovative proposals for teaching physics at the
secondary school level and constructing criteria for desinging new
paths.
Course contents
- Physics Education as research field: the
origins, the constructist paradigm, the research on students'
frameworks, conceptual change;
- Images of physics and implication on the
teaching/learning processes: results from empirical studies;
- Presentation and discussion of a teaching path
on Relativity as example of “educational re-construction”: textbook
analysis, criteria for path design, analysis of experimentations
carried out with upper secondary students;
- Discussion of problems in teaching Quantum
Physics: analysis of results in History and Foundation of Physics
and of their “didactical transposition”;
- Discussion of problems in teaching
Thermodynamics: analysis of results in Physic Education and of
teaching paths implemented in school.
Readings/Bibliography
• Arons A. B. (1990), Guida all'insegnamento
della fisica, Zanichelli, Bologna.
• Grimellini Tomasini N. e Segrè G. (a cura di)
(1991), Conoscenze scientifiche: le rappresentazioni mentali degli
studenti, La Nuova Italia, Scandicci (Firenze).
• Vicentini M. e Mayer M. (a cura di) (1996),
Didattica della fisica, La Nuova Italia Editrice, Scandicci
(FI).
Materials will be distributed during the lessons or posted on the
Campus web-site.
Teaching methods
Lectures, working groups (analysis of textbooks and research
materials), seminars
Assessment methods
The exam consists of an oral task divided into two parts .
I part
- Presentation and discussion of the analysis of
a text concerning a topic of Modern Physics (textbooks, research
paper in Physics Education, original memories,
historical-epistemological essays, popular scientific books,
web-sites, and so on). The analysis must be carried out from an
educational perspective and the text will be decided on the basis
of a student proposal.
II part
- Discussion about topics and problems dealt with
during the course both from a disciplinary and an educational point
of view.
Teaching tools
Power-point presentaions, transparencies, educational movies,
web-sites
Links to further information
Office hours
See the website of Olivia Levrini