1. Increasing the Confidence of Junior High School Teachers in Teaching Physics by Acquiring Qualitative Understanding Roni Mualem and Bat-Sheva Eylon Department of Science Teaching The Weizmann Institute of Science Rehovot, ISRAEL

2. Central Goal of Physics Teaching at the Junior High School Level Qualitative Understanding of Basic Concepts and Principles and Their Application in Everyday Phenomena

3. Everyday Phenomena

4. What do We Mean By What do We Mean By Qualitative Understanding? Operational Definition: Understanding Performances* *According to Perkins The ability to: Explain, Give Examples, Predict and Apply.

5. Science Teachers in Israel Have a background mainly in biology Their knowledge of physics is limited Have low confidence Don’t see the relevance of physics to everyday experience

6. A Part from an Interview with a Junior High School Science Teacher “ When I teach topics that are in the domain of biology, I can easily bring my students a large arsenal of examples that are extended far beyond the specific topic that is being discussed in class … This is not the case when I teach physics … I spend many hours in preparing myself for every single lesson throughout all the teaching of physics …

7. All these reasons make me feel very uncertain … my self confidence is low and I feel stressed and even nervous. When I'm forced to solve problems that are raised during instruction, that I have not solved in advance, I project uncertainty in my answer … that it may be incorrect … what makes me feel embarrassed and uncomfortable … I don't like to teach this domain!"

8. A New Approach Very successful with junior high school students Has a long-lasting effect

9. Results of content knowledge questionnaire (FCI + Additional Problems) *Posttest (Sd) Pretest (Sd) approachnGrade 0.48 P<0.001 67 (21.4)36 (18.6) Yes1069 th Graders 50 (14.9)No32Science Teachers 62 (17.3)No98High School Advanced * = (posttest score – pretest score)/(100 – pretest score)

10. Typical FCI Questions

11. Results of Two FCI Items (n=32) FCI item 15FCI item 4 AF1CorrectAR1Correct 69 (%)15.6 (%)59.3 (%)40.6 (%) AR1- action reaction 1: greater mass implies greater force AF1- active force 1: only active agents exert forces

12. Problems Content knowledge Confidence Motivation to Teach Implementation Views of relevance

13. How Can We Change Teachers ’ Ability to Teach?

14. Making a Change Enhancement in teachers' confidence in their knowledge of physics Change in teachers ’ views about relevance and interest in physics Provide a useful pedagogy to enable teachers to instruct for qualitative understanding (pedagogical content knowledge)

15. Prior (Naive) Knowledge Conceptual Framework Problem Solving Strategy Explain and Predict Real- Life Situations Constraint: Quantitative Knowledge is Not an Option

16. Conceptual Framework System approach Interaction Force Motion

17. Problem-Solving Strategy System Characterization Represent the situation by a block diagram Construct of a table of interactions From system to selected objects Add force arrows to the rectangle representation Isolate a chosen object and show all the forces acting on it Forces and Motion Construct a force diagram (adjust the arrow sizes) based on motion information

18. System Characterization Dog Rope Boy Ground Earth GroundBoyRopeDog ++ - + 0 + - + 0+ Rope ++ 0 + - Boy + 0 + - + Ground 0 ++++ Earth

19. Dog By the Earth By Ground (Friction) By Ground By Rope Dog Rope Boy Ground Earth From System to Selected Objects

20. Since the dog does not change its velocity, the net force must be zero. Forces and Motion Dog By the Earth By Ground (Friction) By Ground By Rope

21. If the dog is accelerating toward the boy.. Forces and Motion Dog By the Earth By Ground (Friction) By Ground By Rope

22. “ Who is Afraid of Physics? ” Three days special training intensive course of 20 hours – teachers as learners Implementation options: 5 (minimum), 10 or 15 (advanced) hours of instruction- feasibility Action research by the teachers, monthly meetings, a telephone “ hot line ” and e-mail- follow up

23. Changes in the Teachers ’ Views Before and After the Workshop (Likert scale : ) Changes in the Teachers ’ Views Before and After the Workshop (Likert scale : 1- 4, n=15, α Ch =0.95) Change in ability to instruct other teachers Change in ability to teach students Change in knowledge Concepts/Laws 0.25 (n.s.)0.39 (p<0.03) 0.52 (p<0.01) Focal concepts and principles 0.26 (n.s.)0.08 (n.s.)0.38 (p<0.03) Other concepts and principles

24. Spearman Correlation Coefficients in Teachers' Post Views (n=30, α=0.95) ability to instruct other teachers ability to teach Students Views 0.62 (p<0.0063) 0.46 (p<0.05) 0.87 (p<0.0001) 0.93 (p<0.0001) Knowledge of focal content Knowledge of other content

25. Few Teachers ’ Remarks “ The teaching skills that were presented in the workshop were very important to me …” “ The best thing in this workshop was its ’ simplicity ” “ Simplifying complex concepts was the essences of this workshop …” “ The simplicity of the use of the concept “ interaction ” allows me to provide the lower level students with the feeling of success …”

26. Summary  Students and teachers claim that they are empowered by the approach and it enables them to understand better the world around them.  Biology teachers who usually do not teach physics are more willing to, and are less afraid to teach physics with this method.  Students and teachers improve their views concerning the difficulty and interest of physics learning.