Brasil Final Report - Department of Physics - The Ohio State University

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important element of the problem, especially in Brazil, where teachers do not receive adequate
remuneration for their work.
Initiatives to Foster the Use of New Technologies in the Teaching of Physics
Physics teachers face many difficulties in attempting to incorporate new technologies into
their teaching practice. Even when they consider it important, they rarely have the necessary
instructional support or material. In the majority of cases, schools have IT laboratories, but do not
have satisfactory educational software. We are encouraged to think that the use of new technologies
by physics teachers could be increased if they could rely on high-quality educational software and if
they had the opportunity to address this topic during their initial or in-service training. Two
projects being carried out at the Federal University of Rio de Janeiro - one concerning the
development of a hypermedia system for high school or introductory physics undergraduate
courses, the other being an in-service distance course that serves to support physics teachers in
conceiving technological innovations - are presented here as examples of steps aimed at stimulating
the use of new technologies by physics teachers.
A hypermedia system was developed to help student overcome conceptual difficulties
brought to light in a written test based on “Force Concept Inventory” (Hestenes et al., 1992) and sat
by 120 freshmen students on the Science (Physics, Chemistry and Mathematics) Teaching
Undergraduate Course. The hypermedia system, entitled “Force & Movement” (Rezende, 1996),
presents simulations of phenomena and provides two different types of navigation: one typically
non-linear, in which students choose the path, visiting pages which deal with physical situations,
concepts in Mechanics and Newton’s laws, and the second guided tours which discuss the students’
misconceptions revealed at the beginning of the tour. The instructional design of the guided tour
(Rezende, 1999) is based on the constructivist view of diSessa (1988), which tries to attribute a
productive role to student’s knowledge. The sequence of arguments aims at the restructuring of
students’ ideas regarding the concepts involved. In 1996, a group of 22 freshmen students used
“Force & Movement” as part of regular activities in an introductory physics undergraduate course
and it was possible to draw some conclusions about the kind of difficulties they had, the possible
benefits that the interaction with the system could bring to restructuring of students’ ideas and what
aspects of the system could be reviewed.
Based on these results, the interface design and other characteristics of the system are being
reviewed so that the latest version can be submitted to a group of students on the same course. It is
intended to continue the study into how students interact with the system and how they learn from
simulations.
A distance in-service training course run as a joint venture between Cefet-Campos and the
Federal University of Rio de Janeiro will be delivered via the internet for physics teachers from the
north of Rio de Janeiro State (Reis et al., 1999, Rezende, 2000a). Distance education is considered
adequate, as it can provide the necessary flexibility to keep teachers in service, while accommodating
individual needs. Six physics teachers of Cefet-Campos have been trained to work as tutors on the
course (Rezende et al., 2000b).
The development and evaluation of the course is proposed within a constructivist approach
(Jonassen, 1996) addressing the necessary relationship between theory and practice. Problem-based
learning is paramount for independent work, developing the capacity to solve problems
cooperatively and with the support of tutors and virtual communication. The proposal involves the
use of communication tools offered by the internet and available in a Commercial Course