Basic Teaching Methods in Physics and Social Science Classroom Jari Lavonen 1, Carl Angel 2, Reijo Byman 1, Ellen Henriksen 2 and Ismo Koponen 1 1 University of Helsinki, Finland, 2 University of Oslo, Norway Reality and upper secondary school students’ expectations

E S E R A What might affect on motivation to study science? Typically, answers are searched by investigating pupils’ interests or attitudes to 1 science (or domains of science) generally, 2 to school science subjects, 3 to studying science subjects or teaching methods used (Woolnough, 1994, Hoffman, 2002)

E S E R A E. L. Deci & R. M. Ryan: According to Motivaation theory … Students will learn if they are interested to learn (topic and teaching method) continuum: external motivation – intrinsic m. (≈ interest) It is possible to have an influence on students’ motivation for example by: - wake up students curiosity ( topic and method) - support students’ feeling of autonomy There are several attributes that have an influence on students motivation: genre, workload, easiness, …

E S E R A Research questions The purpose of the study was to determine 1. What is the students’ (physics as their specialisation subject) opinion about how often different teaching methods (categorised by the nature of social interaction) are used and should be used in physics classroom? 2. What kind of background variables (gender, nationality, student orientation to physics or social sciences and subject easiness, interestingness, …) explain how the students wish to study the subject they have selected as their specialisation subject?

E S E R A Method and sample In Norway a paper questionnaires and in Finland a web based questionnaire were used. A letter was send to headmasters of all upper secondary schools and they were asked to organise a survey at the second year of upper secondary school for 10 students in beginning of alphabetical list. Altogether 1349 response in Finland and 1487 in Norway were received

E S E R A Teaching method “Teaching method” (Joyce and Weil 1996: 7) is a ‘synonym’ to learning or instructional method, model, strategy or classroom practice, help students to acquire new concepts, ways of thinking, behaving, … and skills. include goal orientation and emphasise social interaction

E S E R A Teaching methods … can be classified from the point of view of social interaction: teacher leading – small group – individual working are discussed during teacher education from several point of view : goals and teaching methods motivation and teaching methods -> why to use versatile teaching methods?

E S E R A How often teaching methods are used now in physics 0 %20 %40 %60 %80 %100 % Discuss problems in small groups Project work in small groups Work on problems in small groups Teacher uses students' ideas Teacher leads discussion Work on problems/tasks individually Teacher presents problems Teacher presents new material on the blackboard neverrarely sometimes oftendaily Finland, now Norway, now  2 = 17.2**  2 = 52.5***  2 = 14.4** (n FIN = 398, n NOR = 173)

E S E R A How often teaching methods should be used in physics (FIN) 0 %20 %40 %60 %80 %100 % Discuss problems in small groups Project work in small groups Work on problems in small groups Teacher uses students' ideas Teacher leads discussion Work on problems/tasks individually Teacher presents problems Teacher presents new material on the blackboard neverrarely sometimes oftendaily Finland, now (n FIN = 398) Finland, wish Z = 9.2*’* Z = -3.8** Z = 9.9*’* Z = -2.9** Z = 9.7*’* Z = 11.9*’* Z = 5.8*’*

E S E R A How often teaching methods should be used in physics (N) 0 %20 %40 %60 %80 %100 % Discuss problems in small groups Project work in small groups Work on problems in small groups Teacher uses students' ideas Teacher leads discussion Work on problems/tasks individually Teacher presents problems Teacher presents new material on the blackboard neverrarely sometimes oftendaily (n NOR = 173) Norway, now Norway, wish Z = 9.5*’* Z = 6.7*’* Z = -3.5** Z = 8.7*’* Z = -3.1** Z = 7.8*’* Z = 7.5**’*

E S E R A Teaching methods in Social Science (N & FIN) 0 %20 %40 %60 %80 %100 % Discuss tasks in small groups Project work in small groups Work on tasks in small groups Teacher uses students' ideas Teacher leads discussion Work on problems/tasks individually Teacher presents examples/problems Teacher presents new material on the blackboard neverrarely sometimes oftendaily (n Sos.Sci = 629) How it is How it is in Phys Wish (social sci)

E S E R A Groupping teaching methods by factor analysis Component loadings F2:Teacher presentation F2I1:A teacher present/solve problems.668 F2I2:A teacher present new material F3:Teacher leading discussion F3I1: A teacher leads discussion aboutconcepts.677 % of total variance F4:Individual studying F4I1: Work with problems/tasksindividually Promax with Kaiser Normalization -Rotated factor loading matrix for Maximum Likelihood Factoring calculated for items measuring students' (n = 1216) opinions about how they wish to study during their lessons in Physics or Social sciences. F1:Studying in small groups F1I1:Work with problems/tasksin small groups.774 F1I2:Discuss about difficult conceptsin small group F1I3: Have project workin small groups

E S E R A Background variables Physics 0 %20 %40 %60 %80 %100 % Subject easiness (1=very easy) Subject interestingness (1=uninteresting) Quality of instruction (1=poor) Subject workload (1=small) Social science (n Phys = 570, n Sos.Sci = 629)

E S E R A Variables explaining how students wish to study Studyingin small groups Teacher presentation Teacher leading discussion Individual studying  t 1)  t  t  t *** ,.7 *** ns ns * ns ns *** *** ns ns ns ** ns *** ns ** ns ns ns ns *** * ns ** ns ns ns Specialisation subject (1 =phys, 2 =soc.sc.) Nationality (1=Norwegian, 2=Finnish) Subject interestingness (1=uninteresting) Student sex (1=girl, 2=boy) Quality of instruction (1= poor) Workload of the subject (1= small) Subject easiness (1= difficult) R R 2 F ns *** 23.7*** ) p > 0,05, * p < 0,05, ** p < 0,01, *** p < 0,001

E S E R A Conclusions and Implications 1 It is typical that in Physics teacher present new material or solve problems on the blackboard. This is also students’ wish. The students would like to discuss more about concepts and problems as well as work with them in small groups. The teacher should support autonomy! The differences between Finnish and Norwegian students are dealing with how students work with problems: in Finland teacher should present or solve problems - in Norway the students like to work individually

E S E R A Conclusions and Implications 2 Student gender as well as other predictors, except nationality and subject of specialisation, explain only little about students wishes how they like to study their specialisation subject. The students preferred more versatile teaching methods than it is in present used and, therefore, the teacher should also think about models when (s)he plan instruction

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