1 Problems in teacher education Matilde Vicentini España, 2007

2 Teaching and learning models Suggestions from PER research on how to teach What Physics for teachers ?

3 The Teacher : A person who is in charge of the education of the young generation for what concerns general skills and the understanding/learning of the subject(s) of his/her competence

4 A model for teaching Teaching the communication of informations with the aim that students will understand / learn The teacher defines the Aims of the communication and choices the arguments and their organization the information contexts verbal communication recall of real life situation experiments Coding of the messageDidactical action

5 The students Collect the informations that are meaningful to their knowledge schemes choose the information context reference to already known personal memories Decoding of the message Interpretation Possibility of a gap of understanding

6 need to define the set of shared meanings The teacher information context The students information context Subjective meanings of the teacher Subjective meanings of the students need to refer to a learning model Shared meanings

7 A learning model Learning acquisition of knowledgeguided by motivation received through experience communication in the long term memory declarativeprocedural Different styles of Intelligence needed to understand thinking skills that use intuitive descriptive formal innatelearned

8 … about intelligence Sports : Winning coaches, for example, recognize the different learning styles of their players. Former Raiders coach John Madden says that for some players you simply tell them the play and they know it; others must be shown diagrams before they can form their own mental image of what to do; and still others won’t really grasp the play until they physically run through it so that they can feel the play as well as see and hear it. The same is true for the “coaches” of military recruits and corporate training programs. Neil A. Fiore, The Now Habit (Jeremy P. Tarcher, Inc., Los Angeles, 1989), p. 180

9 … about intelligence Physics : There are, as I have said, some minds which can go on contemplating with satisfaction pure quantities presented to the eye by symbols, and to the mind in a form which none but mathematicians can conceive. There are others who feel more enjoyment in following geometrical forms, which they draw on paper, or build up in the empty space before them. Others, again, are not content unless they can project their whole physical energies into the scene which they conjure up. … For the sake of persons of these different types, scientific truth should be presented in different forms, and should be regarded as equally scientific, whether it appears in the robust form and the vivid coloring of a physical illustration, or in the tenuity and paleness of a symbolic expression. James Clerk Maxwell, 1870.

10 The teacher should : be able to motivate the students devise methodological strategies for a successful communication understand that communication must be in the two directions of talking and listening be competent on his/her subject understand the structure of the subject matter be able to transform it into forms that are pedagogically powerful act as a bridge between the subject matter and the students be able to set the boundaries between different kinds of knowledge and beliefs shared / used in the society How to teach ? What Physics for a teacher ?

11 How to teach  take into account the ideas that students have about the phenomena of daily life  importance of interactivity with the students and among the students show experiments and problematic labwork or projects exploit the information technology group work and peer discussion historical considerations  explicit the relation phenomena-models-theories  reflect on their own understanding of the subject  stimulate the rephrasing of students of laws, principles, …

12 What Physics for teachers The seven “savoirs” for an education for the future (MORIN)  The character of human knowledge with the risk of errors and illusions  The principles of pertinent knowledge  Coping with uncertainty  the human condition  the terrestrial identity  understanding  the ethics of humans

13 Pertinent knowledge -The ability to place in the global and basic problems of today the partial and local knowledges -Avoid the fragmentation intradisciplinary and interdisciplinary -Place the information in a context and show the relations and influences between the parts and the whole Uncertainties We should learn to live in an ocean of uncertitude through islands of certitudes

14 Suggestions for avoiding the fragmentation  Reference to a discrete particle model  Consideration of advanced technologies  Communication of the epistemological context  Consideration of the social context

15 Conclusions Need of improving the communication in the two directions between Physics Researchers and PER Researchers Authentic Science Inquiry Modelling Simulation