Training of The Physics Teachers’ Handbook and Laboratory Manual (Grades 5-8)

1. Training of The Physics Teachers’ Handbook and Laboratory Manual(Grades 5-8) Debretabor Feb 23-26/2004 USAID/IQPEP Dawit Tesfaye( Lecturer)

2. Active LearningStrategies

3. Status of Science Education • How the conditions are very serious concerning students achievement • The National Composite mean score (the average of what the students scored) in the five subjects was 35.6% including AA (USAID/IQPEP II 2008) • Comparison of mean scores among the three National assessment Years

4. Overview • As a teacher, we must now ask ourselves, How successfully are we educating all students in physics? The introduction of active learning (AL) for teaching physics in Ethiopia is especially encouraged: • To fosters hands-on laboratory work, • To promote conceptual learning and • To aware teachers to strive for significant improvement in their students’ learning.

5. Objectives of AL The goal of active learning strategy is to: • Promote the implementation of student-centered, minds-on, hands-on learning as much as possible in school physics.

6. Why the bulb give light even if there is no source (battery)? Discus in group and develop your own conceptual explanation. Try to put your conceptual understanding into practice in Lab room

7. Models of teaching • Transmissionist Model – teaching by telling – lecture model – highly efficient from the teacher’s perspective – research shows it is grossly ineffective from the student’s perspective

8. Models of teaching – contd. • Constructivist model (active engagement) – student-centered – recognize the students preconceptions and work deliberately to replace them with correct concepts – teacher as facilitator – provide activities for students to construct their own learning – scientific constructivism

9. What’s wrong with lectures? • Listeners to serious information have an attention span – at best – of 10 to 15 minutes • Information passes too quickly for contemplative thought and is thus lost • Students don’t know how to listen to a lecture • Most lectures just reiterate what is in the book • Lectures focus on formal issues rather than physical phenomena or concepts.

10. Why Active Learning? • The cornerstone of a constructivist teaching philosophy is that students must construct their knowledge, through interaction with the ideas and materials, rather than simply receive knowledge • Effective learning requires the students to be active participants in the process ,not passive listeners ..

11. Characteristics of AL All successful implementations of active learning strategies have the following characteristics: • students spend much of class time actively engaged in doing /thinking/talking physics –not listening to someone else talk about physics • Students interact with their peers.

12. Characteristics of AL Contd. • Students receive immediate feedback on their work. • The teacher is more a facilitator, less a conveyor of knowledge. • Students take responsibility for their knowledge. This includes participating in activities, studying the text, and completing the assignments.

13. Cont. • In this learning strategy, students are guided to construct their knowledge of physics concepts by direct observations of the physical world.

14. Learning cycle • The learning cycle can also be represented as PODS— • Prediction, • Observation, • Discussion and • Synthesis

15. Passive vs active learning environment

16. Passive vs active learningenvironment

17. Desired Student Out Come of Active Learning Properly implemented active learning can lead to: • increased motivation to learn, • greater retention of knowledge, • deeper understanding and more positive attitude towards the subject being taught

18. Con. • reason qualitatively and logically about physics phenomena, • express their knowledge in multiple forms(verbal, pictorial, graphical and mathematical ), • Develop problem –solving skills and strategies

19. Identifying common misconceptions • Misconceptions/Alternative conceptions are scientifically faulty views of the world which have significant explanatory power for their holders • Misconceptions, in general are never “good ideas” to hold;

20. Identifying common misconceptions • research indicates they can significantly interfere with learning. • Some misconceptions on topics as how disease is spread and treated, or how carbon emissions can contribute to climate change and global warming can be harmful and downright deadly.

21. Common Sense Concepts about Motion: • Terms like “force”, “energy” and “power” are often used interchangeably, as are the terms “velocity” and “acceleration. • The greater mass exerts the greater force, or more frequently, heavier things fall faster • gravity increases as objects fall

22. Common Misconceptions about Electric circuits • Current is “used up “ as it moves through a circuit; • A battery is a source of constant and unchanging current; • Current divides equally when it reaches a junction.

23. . . .Common Misconceptions about Electric circuits • Example: Bulb B is removed from the circuit .After it is removed, the potential difference between points 1 and 2 is: A) 3V B) 1.5V c) Between 1.5V and 3.0V D) Between 0V and 1.5V E) 0V

24. A 1 B 3V 2 • + -

25. Virtual Simulation for the CKT mentioned above

26. Use concept/mind map to make connections between concepts • Concept maps are flow-chart-like or web-like diagrams that help students articulate ideas, identify and arrange key concepts, and see how ideas and concepts are connected to one another. • Connecting concepts and terms within a topic (within a chapter) • Connecting concepts between topics (across chapters

28. Jig-saw-groups methods • Let the class is divided into four groups ,with each group preparing on ‘definition of pressure’ ,’pressure due to solids’, air pressure/atmospheric pressure’ and ‘liquid pressure’. After an appropriate time, the class is regrouped with one member from each previous group. Now each student in the group can teach the rest of the group so that they can form the whole picture of the topic by connecting concepts together

29. Problem solving physics cannot be learned passively. • The ability to do physics comes from practice, repetition and struggling with the ideas until you ‘own’ them and can apply them yourself in new situations. • The ability to solve problems is the best proof of mastering the subject.

30. Classroom demonstration CR demonstrations have two important purposes: • to increase student understanding of the concepts demonstrated, • and to increase student enjoyment of class. Passive observation of demonstrations does not significantly improve student understanding of the associated concepts.

31. Classroom Demo We can make demonstrations more effective by : • asking students to predict outcomes before seeing the demonstration, thus forcing them to think about the physics and enhancing their interest in the demonstrations • discussing their predictions with one another before the demonstration, have opportunities to discover inconsistencies or weaknesses in their own thinking

32. Classroom demo A nice demonstration that distinguishes mass and weight is the massive ball suspended on the string, shown in Figure below

33. Classroom demo • Why will a slow continuous increase in downward force break the string above the massive ball, but a sudden increase breaks the lower string?

34. Peer instruction • Peer Instruction is an instructional strategy for engaging students during class through a structured questioning process that involves every student. • The goal of PI is to transform the lecture environment so that it actively engages students and focuses their attention on underlying concepts.

35. Peer instruction • Peer Instruction (PI) is a widely-used pedagogy in which lectures are interspersed with short conceptual questions—called ConcepTests*—designed to reveal common misunderstandings and to engage students actively in lecture courses

36. Conceptest • Question posed (1 minute ) • Students given time to think (1-2 minutes) • Students record/report individual answers • Neighboring students discuss their answers (2-4 minutes ) • Students record/report revised answers • Feedback to teacher: • Explanation of correct answer (2 minutes)

37. Concept test • During the discussion, which typically lasts two to four minutes, the instructor moves around the room listening and, when necessary, asking questions to help the students in their thinking. • During the periods of silence (when the students are thinking), the instructor has a break to breathe and think. During the convince-your-neighbors discussions, the instructor can participate in some of the discussions

38. Benefits of PI Upon implementing PI it has been observed that: • increased student mastery of both conceptual reasoning and quantitative problem solving and creating a cooperative atmosphere.

39. What makes a good ConcepTest? They should be designed to: • ex-pose students’ difficulties with the material, • and to give students a chance to explore important concepts; • they should not primarily test cleverness or memory

40. basic criteria of concepTest • Focus on a single important concept, ideally corresponding to a common student difficulty • Require thought, not just plugging numbers into equations   • Provide plausible incorrect answers • Be unambiguously worded • Be neither too easy nor too difficult

41. Writing good ConcepTests A good way to write questions is by looking at • students’ exam or homework solutions from previous years to identify common misunderstandings, • by examining the literature on student difficulties. • the incorrect answer choices should reflect students’ most common misconceptions

42. Writing good Concepts Test A permanent magnet is dropped through a long aluminum tube, as shown. As the magnet drops, electric currents are induced around the tube. Compared to a freely-falling magnet, the magnet through the tube drops 1. more slowly. 2. exactly the same way. 3. faster. 4. Need more information

43. Pre-class reading At the beginning of the class, they complete the short reading quiz shown below. • Note this quiz tests only whether or not the pre-class reading was done; • it does not test understanding of the material because doing so would penalize (and therefore discourage) the student who does the reading but is unable to master the concepts from the reading.

44. Reading quiz Which of these laws is not one of Newton’s? A) To every action there is an equal and opposite reaction B) F= ma C) All objects fall with equal acceleration D) In the absence of a net external force, objects at rest stay at rest and objects in uniform motion stay in uniform motion

45. Continuous Assessment • Assessment is fundamentally a way of finding out the extent to which learners have acquired knowledge, skills, and attitudes.

46. The information can be gathered from a variety of sources : • Assignments, Tests • Observation, Oral questions • Demonstrations, projects • performances and portfolio

47. Importance of continuous assessment • Implementing CA system at school level is useful to gather information about: • The present status of every student • The student’s motivation to participate actively in the T/L process • Student’s progress in his /her learning • Effectiveness of teaching methods • Student’s learning difficulties

48. Characteristics of CA • Comprehensiveness • Diagnostic • Guidance oriented • Systematic • cumulative

49. Thank you