New trends in physics teaching, v.4; The ... - unesdoc - Unesco

New Trends in Physics Teaching IV
the quadrupole moment vanishes. The subject competence of a future physics teacher has from
the quantitative and from the qualitative point of view dimensions other than those for a future
physicist [ 191 .
The physics teacher educator must have a psychological competence.
Every teacher-learning process which is intended to contribute to the full development of the
human personality must take into consideration the psychological disposition of the individual
learner. The school teacher should know as much as possible about this disposition. Psychology
departments at universities offer many different courses. But psychologists normally do not
understand very much physics. If, for example, the psychology of cognition or developmental
psychology is taught independently of physics, without any relation to physics, and in a way that
has scarcely anything to do with the profession of a classroom physics teacher, then it is left to
the student to put together and to inter-relate what university teachers are unable to integrate.
In most cases, this does not work. Skills in physical experimentation and some psychological
competence make it possible to imagine what kinds of insight a pupil can get when an experiment
is done in the physics class. Only the knowledge of physics and a psychological background
can enable an instructor to sensitize teacher trainees to the important task of the analysis of
pupils’ reactions to physics phenomena.
Let me give another example: I have asked sixty-seven fifth graders (1 1 year-olds) about their
understanding of the phenomenon of free fall. If a lead ball falls from a window on the third
floor down to the ground, what can be said about the velocity as it passes the second and first
floor? The spectrum of answers was very wide.
Fifty per cent said that the ball would fall faster at the first floor because ‘it gets more and
more drive’; ‘it needs a take-off run’; ‘it does not yet have its right velocity at the second floor’;
‘it has not fallen long enough at the second floor’; or ‘at the second floor it is still getting drive’.
Twenty-five per cent of these pupils argued ‘more downwards as the earth attraction is
stronger’; or ‘whether the ball is heavy or light, the earth attraction is so strong that it pulls down
the ball anyway’.
Forty-seven per cent of the pupils believed that the velocity is the same at both levels, because
‘the ball keeps its weight constant’; ‘the earth attraction is the same at both levels, therefore the
velocities are the same’; or ‘a ball doesn’t have brakes or a throttle, so it can’t slow down or
speed up’.
Two of the pupils did assume that the ball ‘already starts slowing down at the first floor’
because it is about to land.
A knowledge of physics is required to analyse how correct statements were made following
wrong arguments and how sound arguments can lead to incorrect conclusions. A background
in cognitive psychology is required to understand how concrete reasoning schemata, obtained
and applied successfully by concrete interaction with the surroundings, are applied to an event
which the pupils were required to imagine. Both subject competence and psychological knowledge
are necessary to make student teachers aware of this important aspect of teaching.
The physics teacher educator must be able to create a stimulating learning atmosphere free of
fear in his own class.
A teacher can’t get information about the background of his pupils, about the cognitive structures
in the minds of children, about feelings, norms and values of young people, if these do not
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