Call number: LD2668 .T4 1938 G51

A Research Report submitted to Faculty of Science, University of the Witwatersrand, in partial fulfilment of the requirements for the degree of Masters of Science. Johannesburg July 2016. / The study reported in this research report was motivated by the continuous poor performance by South African learners in physical sciences. This poor performance is evidenced by the below expectations year in, year out grade 12 physical science final examinations results. Several factors may be contributing to this poor performance such as lack of resources (both financial and human resources), overcrowding, ineffective teaching methods, and the language of teaching and learning. The assertion for this study was that teacher’s oral classroom instructional language impacts on learning of classroom science. The study, hence investigated how South African physical science teachers use their oral instructional language to enhance the understanding of science concepts. The raw data was gathered through naturalistic observation and video recording of physical science lessons by two participant South African physical science teachers drawn from two different high schools located in the Gauteng Province. The two school were chosen on the basis of their matric results that are also below average. Follow up educator interviews were also conducted and video recorded. The videos of the lesson observations and educator interviews were transcribed verbatim and analysed. The study revealed that the participant educators were not explaining the meanings of all technical and non-technical words that were used in the observed lessons. Teachers did not distinguish between the everyday meanings and scientific meanings of non-technical words used. Participant educators did not seek and make use of the participant learners’ pre-instructional meanings of non-technical words to help learners understand better the new scientific meanings of these words. One of the participant educators did not engage learners in the ongoing lesson talk. The findings of this study will sensitise physical science teachers to important role of their oral instructional language to successful learning of science concepts in the classroom. This might help in ensuring science teachers use their oral instructional language effectively to enhance understanding of science concepts, by adopting teaching approaches that facilitate shared meanings of vocabulary used in science classrooms. Key words: technical and non-technical words, instructional language, science language. / LG2017

A research report submitted to the Faculty of Science, University of Witwatersrand, Johannesburg, in partial fulfilment of the requirements for the Master’s Degree in Science Education May 2016 / Studies have revealed that the teacher’s science classroom language plays a critical role in learners’ understanding of science concepts. The quality of the teacher’s science language impacts on the quality of learning. Learners encounter difficulties with the science classroom language irrespective of whether they are first or second language speakers of the language of instruction. The difficulty of the science language is mainly due to words having different meanings in science as compared to their everyday meanings, and also the foreignness of some science words (Oyoo, 2012). The language in science is therefore distinct from everyday language. In the South African context, the strategies to improve the quality of science education in secondary schools have not included the language. This study focus on the quality of the teachers’ science language in physical science classrooms. In this study data was collected by means of lesson observations of participant teachers followed by interview of one of the participant teacher. Two teachers participated in the study, and both teachers were from the same school. One teacher was teaching grade 10 physical science and the other teacher was teaching grade 11 physical science. Content analysis was used to analyse both lesson observation and interview transcripts. The findings from the lesson observation revealed that participant teachers overlooked explanation of some technical words as well as some non-technical words used in science context. The interview with one of the teachers showed an unawareness of the difficulty of the science language as he pointed that there was little difference between the science language and everyday language. The study recommends that there should be teacher development programmes dealing specifically with the language problem in science. / M T 2016

Orientador: Roberto Nardi / Banca: Dirceu da Silva / Banca: Aparecida Valquíria Pereira da Silva / Resumo: O objetivo desta pesquisa foi estudar como a evolução histórica dos modelos de atração entre corpos, tendo como pano de fundo a evolução dos modelos de mundo, pode auxiliar na formação continuada do docente de física. Para tanto, sugerimos um planejamento de curso sobre o tema atração gravitacional, destinado principalmente a docentes de física que atuam no ensino médio. O planejamento do curso foi baseado: em dados sobre a evolução dos modelos de mundo, buscando evidenciar como o conceito de atração gravitacional desenvolveu-se historicamente, nas concepções alternativas mais comuns encontradas na literatura, incluindo um breve esboço de noções diagnosticadas em uma amostra de docentes de física de ensino médio; e em sugestões de leituras de resultados de pesquisas recentes sobre os processos de ensino e aprendizagem de ciências. Pretende-se fornecer aos docentes elementos de reflexão que lhes proporcionem mudanças de postura, através do questionamento da visão de ciência enquanto processo de construção e sobre sua própria prática de ensino. Partindo privilegia o trabalho coletivo, com a realização de debates e sínteses. As atividades mencionadas são acompanhadas de justificativas sobre a escolha do tema e objetivos / Abstract: The main purpose of this research was to study how the attraction among bodies models' historical evolution, having as background the world models' evolution, can help in-service reachers' education. To reach this goal, we suggest a course plan on gravitational attraction, addressed mainly to high school physics teachers. This course was based: on data about the world models' evolution, searching to make clear how the concept of gravitational attraction was historically developed; on the most common alternative conceptions found in the literature, including a bried outline of notions found among in-service high school physics teachers, and on suggestions about science teaching and learning process' recent research outcomes. The sequence of activities aims to provide teachers with some reflections in order to change their attitudes, through the inquiry of their view of science as a construction process, and their own teaching practice. The methodology proposed considers the collective work through the realization of debates and synthesis. The subjects and objectives chosen are justified / Not available / Mestre

In this dissertation, I investigate the effects of a grounded learning experience on college students' mental models of physics systems. The grounded learning experience consisted of a priming stage and an instruction stage, and within each stage, one of two different types of visuo-haptic representation was applied: visuo-gestural simulation (visual modality and gestures) and visuo-haptic simulation (visual modality, gestures, and somatosensory information). A pilot study involving N = 23 college students examined how using different types of visuo-haptic representation in instruction affected people's mental model construction for physics systems. Participants' abilities to construct mental models were operationalized through their pretest-to-posttest gain scores for a basic physics system and their performance on a transfer task involving an advanced physics system. Findings from this pilot study revealed that, while both simulations significantly improved participants' mental modal construction for physics systems, visuo-haptic simulation was significantly better than visuo-gestural simulation. In addition, clinical interviews suggested that participants' mental model construction for physics systems benefited from receiving visuo-haptic simulation in a tutorial prior to the instruction stage. A dissertation study involving N = 96 college students examined how types of visuo-haptic representation in different applications support participants' mental model construction for physics systems. Participant's abilities to construct mental models were again operationalized through their pretest-to-posttest gain scores for a basic physics system and their performance on a transfer task involving an advanced physics system. Participants' physics misconceptions were also measured before and after the grounded learning experience. Findings from this dissertation study not only revealed that visuo-haptic simulation was significantly more effective in promoting mental model construction and remedying participants' physics misconceptions than visuo-gestural simulation, they also revealed that visuo-haptic simulation was more effective during the priming stage than during the instruction stage. Interestingly, the effects of visuo-haptic simulation in priming and visuo-haptic simulation in instruction on participants' pretest-to-posttest gain scores for a basic physics system appeared additive. These results suggested that visuo-haptic simulation is effective in physics learning, especially when it is used during the priming stage.

Orientador: Leandro Londero da Silva / Banca: Fernanda Cátia Bozelli / Banca: Solange Aranha / Resumo: Vivemos em um mundo onde somos cercados por informações constantemente, sejam elas difundidas pelos meios de comunicação e até mesmo por meio do contato com outras pessoas com as quais convivemos. Algumas informações podem nos ser úteis e contribuir para nosso conhecimento, outras não. Para desenvolver a capacidade de processar as informações que são transmitidas e transformá-las em conhecimento, entendemos que, é necessário promover um ensino que forme cidadãos aptos a organizarem seus pensamentos de maneira lógica e a construírem seus raciocínios criticamente em relação ao ambiente em que se inserem. Nessa perspectiva, a promoção da Alfabetização Científica (AC) é fundamental para a formação de cidadãos críticos. As notícias científicas (NCs) veiculadas pela mídia constituem uma interessante forma de articular a AC, oferecendo diversos meios para tanto. A ciência presente nas notícias introduz informações em esfera pública, podendo contribuir com o debate e a tomada de decisões relacionadas com problemas sociocientíficos. Nesse contexto é que se insere esse estudo, tendo como objetivo investigar as contribuições e as limitações do uso de notícias científicas no processo de AC no ensino da Física de Partículas Elementares no Ensino Médio. Este trabalho justifica-se uma vez que é comum encontrarmos muitas informações sobre Partículas Elementares em notícias divulgadas em jornais, televisões e revistas semanais. Esses materiais surgem, então, como uma possibilidade para o... / Abstract: We live in a world where we are surrounded by information constantly, whether they are disseminated by the media and even through contact with other people with whom we live. Some information may be useful and contribute to our knowledge, others may not. In order to develop the capacity to process the information that is transmitted and transform it into knowledge, we understand that it is necessary to promote a teaching that will form citizens capable of organizing their thoughts in a logical way and constructing their reasonings critically by relation to the environment in which they inserted. In this perspective, the promotion of Scientific Literacy (AC) is fundamental for the critical citizens' formation. Scientific news (NCs) conveyed by the media is an interesting way to articulate the CA, offering several means to do so. The science present in the news introduces information in the public sphere, and can contribute to the debate and decision making related to socio-scientific problems. In this context, this study is inserted, aiming to investigate the contributions and limitations of the use of scientific news on CA process in the teaching of Elementary Particle Physics in High School. This work is justified since it is common to find much information on Elementary Particles in news published on newspapers, televisions and weekly magazines. These materials then appear as a possibility for the teaching of this curricular topic and to understand the functioning of this ... / Mestre

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The research presented in this thesis was motivated by the need to improve introductory physics courses. Introductory physics courses are generally the first courses in which students learn to create models to solve complex problems. However, many students taking introductory physics courses fail to acquire a command of the concepts, methods and tools presented in these courses. The reforms proposed by this thesis focus on altering the content of introductory courses rather than content delivery methods as most reforms do. This thesis explores how the performance on a widely used test of conceptual understanding in mechanics compares between students taking a course with updated and modified content and students taking a traditional course. Better performance by traditional students was found to stem from their additional practice on the types of items which appeared on the test. The results of this work brought into question the role of the introductory physics course for non-majors. One aspect of this new role is the teaching of new methods such as computation (the use of a computer to solve numerically, simulate and visualize physical problems). This thesis explores the potential benefits for students who learn computation as part of physics course. After students worked through a suite of computational homework problems, many were able to model a new physical situation with which they had no experience. The failure of some students to model this new situation might have stemmed from their unfavorable attitudes towards learning computation. In this thesis, we present the development of a new tool for characterizing students' attitudes. Preliminary measurements indicated significant differences between successful and unsuccessful students.

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