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

Teacher education: solar energy
courses in school and they know something of contemporary apparatus and materials from their
own experience. Nevertheless, in terms of developing the interest of students in unfamiliar
subject matter and teaching styles, organizers of initial training programmes have an easier job
than organizers of in-service work. Much that is old hat to an experienced teacher is new and
intriguing to a newcomer - and hopes are high on initial training courses. A productive way of
capitalizing on the optimism and up-to-date knowledge of newcomers and at the same time
using the wisdom of more experienced teachers is to bring the two together. No better way
exists than to ask them to devise something new which is an improvement on existing practice.
A lecturer in a college or department of education now has the chance to influence physics
teaching in three ways: (i) by recognizing the need for curriculum change and facilitating
curriculum development at a local level, (ii) by arranging meetings of experienced teachers and
(iii) by stimulating intending teachers to create new materials and approaches. Many teacher
trainers do attempt all three of these tasks but it is not usual for the three to be tackled simultaneously,
as part of a co-ordinated curriculum development/teacher training programme. And yet
some of the mistrust which teachers have of lecturers working cosily in their colleges away from
the realities of school would be reduced if a working partnership were developed between lecturer,
students and teachers. At the present time, good relationships exist between many colleges and
their neighbouring schools. It is usually focused on students undergoing initial training, but an
opportunity is often lost. The students practise teaching in school, they prepare their lessons,
learn to handle apparatus, computers and audio-visual materials. Much of what the students do
is ephemeral; they do not make a long-lasting input either to the education system as a whole
or to their practice school. What is lacking is an expectation by experienced teachers that students
(supported by their lecturers) can provide curriculum materials which improve and expand
existing resources and which are worth retaining. The lecturers too are reluctant to suggest to
teachers better ways of tackling themes in physics. They fear that they wil be accused of interference
or of making unrealistic proposals. If the latter accusation is thought to be valid, then it
needs to be put to the test.
In the past ten years, even the newest curricula in physics have been rendered out of date by
the appearance of two items which have only become prominent in the last few years. One is a
piece of equipment, the microcomputer; the other is a quite sudden awareness of the overwhelming
importance of energy to our present and future well-being. The microcomputer merits an
article of its own, but let it be said that newly qualified physics teachers from Southampton
University and many other training institutions leave with copies of programs which have been
developed during the year. In this instance the ‘teacher-trainers-influencing-practice’ ideas are
restricted to students taking into their first teaching post programs which they have helped to
create and which are needed in schools. This is a simple and painless way in which in-school
developments can be stimulated by teacher-trainers via their students.
ENERGY AND THE SCIENCE CURRICULUM
Questions of the supply, conversion and use of energy in the last quarter of the twentieth century
offer perhaps greater opportunities for curriculum development than even the microcomputer.
Energy can be studied in very many ways, not only in physics courses but also in other science
courses, in ‘science and society’ options and in history, geography, economics, politics and a
whole range of school subjects. Historically however, the study of energy has rested firmly in
the sciences and nowhere more securely than in physics. An economist or geographer wil speak
more convincingly if he understands the laws of thermodynamics and the nature of energy
changes and losses. On the other hand, it is becoming clear that a physics programme which
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