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This study describes students' perceptions of their physics classroom learning environments and their interactions with their teachers in upper secondary school classes in Thailand. Associations between these perceptions and students' attitudes toward physics were also determined. The learning environment perceptions were obtained using the 35-item Physics Laboratory Environment Inventory (PLEI) modified from the original Science Laboratory Environment Inventory (Fraser, McRobbie, & Giddings, 1993). Teacher-student interactions were assessed with the 48-item Questionnaires on Teacher Interaction (QTI) (Wubbels & Levy, 1993). Both these questionnaires have an Actual Form (assesses the class as it actually is) and a Preferred Form (asks the students what they would prefer their class to be like - the ideal situation). Students' attitudes were assessed with a short Attitude scale. The questionnaires were translated into the Thai language and administered to a sample of 4,576 students in 245 physics classes at the grade 12 level. Statistically significant differences were found between the students' perceptions of actual and preferred environments and teacher interpersonal behaviour in Thailand. Associations between students' perceptions of their learning environments and teachers' interpersonal behaviour with their attitudes to their physics classes also were found. It was found from interviews with a sub-sample that particular categories of comments could be identified, physics being a difficult subject, evaluation and assessments not being related to the tertiary entrance examination, and teachers' plans. These factors appear to be affecting student achievement in physics. Based on all the findings, suggestions for improving the physics laboratory classroom environment and teacher interpersonal behaviour with students' perceptions are provided.

The purpose of this study was to investigate four in-service physics teachers&rsquo / beliefs related to Turkish High School Physics Curriculum (THSPC) and to what extent these beliefs are reflected in their instructional practices. Data were collected through interviews, classroom observations and an open-ended questionnaire. Teachers&rsquo / responses to interview questions showed that they believed that teaching physics according to the THSPC helped students use their skills, become interested in physics lessons, relate physics to their daily life and have a permanent knowledge. Besides, teachers believe that they can teach physics according to the THSPC generally by giving examples from daily life and creating a discussion environment. The data obtained from classroom observations showed that the beliefs of teachers about how to teach physics according to the THSPC were reflected in their instructional practices. Teachers&rsquo / responses to open-ended questionnaire showed that teachers believed the necessity of attainment of majority of the skill objectives in the THSPC by students. However, they do not consider that students can attain many of the problem solving and information and communication skills. The data obtained from classroom observations showed that they seldom attempted to help students attain them or they never attempted. The data gathered from interviews and an open questionnaire showed that there were some factors that influence teachers&rsquo / instructional practices according to the THSPC. For example, they believe that students&rsquo / interest in physics lessons and teacher&rsquo / s opportunity to give more examples about daily life made their teaching physics according to the THSPC easy. However, they believe that university entrance exam, inadequacy of laboratory environment and lesson hours, students&rsquo / low economic status and lack of information and communication technologies affected their teaching physics according to the THSPC negatively.

The problem of this study is twofold. The first is to discover in what ways are physics teachers and counselors in large Texas public secondary schools encouraging students to take physics, and second, what are their perceptions of reasons for student avoidance of physics. The population consisted of physics teachers and counselors in large (1,310 minimum enrollment) high and low percentage physics enrollment schools. Percentage enrollment in physics is defined as the number of students enrolled in physics compared to total twelfth grade enrollment. Thirty high (above 8.9) and thirty low (below 8.0) percentage enrollment schools comprise the sample population. Data were collected using separate questionnaires that related to (a) school, (b) physics teacher, and (c) counselor variables that could affect physics enrollments. The questionnaires addressed to perceptions of both physics teachers and counselors covered (a) the exchange of physics course information between students, teachers, and counselors, (b) the method of exchange of physics course information, and (c) the extent to which the physics program is sold to the student body. Also elicited were eleven responses from both physics teachers and counselors that pertain to perceived reasons for student avoidance of physics courses. A statistical analysis was made between physics teachers and counselors perceptions pairing high and low percentage enrollment groups by chi square analysis of each item of the questionnaire, using a .05 level for significance.

Esta pesquisa investiga dois professores de Física do ensino médio com grande experiência em sala de aula e frequentadores dos cursos de formação continuada da USP ministrado pelo Instituto de Física no período das férias. Estes professores participam ativamente das atividades mensais propostas pelo grupo de trabalho desses cursos e são profissionais de certo modo implicados com seu processo de aprendizagem e formação. Eles foram acompanhados em um curso ministrado durante o período de férias e em reuniões mensais no Instituto de Física da USP de São Paulo. Utilizamos a metodologia da pesquisa qualitativa, coletando os dados a partir de observações destes professores em diversos contextos e de entrevistas semiestruturadas baseadas em suas histórias de vida. Um dos objetivos da pesquisa foi, à luz da psicanálise, utilizando o autor Wilfred Ruprecht Bion como referencial teórico, compreender as relações que os professores estabelecem com as atividades experimentais e como lidam com as frustrações que estas atividades evocam. Compreendendo esta relação, investigamos qual seria o papel da formação continuada nesta relação dos professores com as atividades experimentais. Propusemos uma organização em categorias para descrever as trajetórias destes dois professores, mostrando de um modo geral como eles lidam com as frustrações, ora enfrentando-as, ora fugindo delas. A partir da observação e entrevistas em ambiente de formação continuada, nosso segundo objetivo foi fazer uma reflexão de como os cursos de formação continuada estão atuando para dar suporte ao professor que busca os cursos e que na maioria das vezes está em um estado de dependência ao invés de ter a autonomia pressuposta pelos formadores. Percebemos que os formadores de uma maneira geral não estão servindo de continentes para as frustrações e angústias provenientes das experiências emocionais dos professores que surgem do contato com as atividades experimentais. Desta forma concluímos que devemos repensar os cursos de formação continuada para que possam contemplar as subjetividades do professor. / This research investigates two physics\' teachers participants in continuing education courses offered by the Physics Institute of the São Paulo University (USP). The chosen teachers have a great experience in the classroom, they are regulars participants of continuing education courses at USP during the holidays, they actively participate in monthly activities proposed by the working group of these courses and they are professionals somehow involved with their learning process. They were followed in a course taught during the holiday period and in monthly meetings at the Physics Institute of USP in São Paulo. We use the qualitative research methodology, collecting data from observations of these teachers in different contexts and from semistructured interviews based on their life histories. One goal of the research was, in the light of psychoanalysis, using the author Wilfred Ruprecht Bion as a theoretical framework, to understand the relationships that teachers establish with the experimental activities and how to deal with the frustrations that these activities generate. We propose an organization into categories to describe the trajectories of these two teachers, showing generally how they deal with frustrations, sometimes confronting them, sometimes avoiding them. From observation and interviews in continuing education environment, our second goal was to reflect on how the continuing education courses are acting to support the teacher who seeks these courses and most of the time is in a state of dependence rather than having the autonomy presupposed by the formers. We realize that formers generally are not serving as containers to the frustrations and anxieties arising from emotional experiences of the teachers that emerge from contact with the experimental activities. Thus we conclude that we should rethink the continuing education courses so that they address the subjectivity of the teacher.

Esta pesquisa investiga dois professores de Física do ensino médio com grande experiência em sala de aula e frequentadores dos cursos de formação continuada da USP ministrado pelo Instituto de Física no período das férias. Estes professores participam ativamente das atividades mensais propostas pelo grupo de trabalho desses cursos e são profissionais de certo modo implicados com seu processo de aprendizagem e formação. Eles foram acompanhados em um curso ministrado durante o período de férias e em reuniões mensais no Instituto de Física da USP de São Paulo. Utilizamos a metodologia da pesquisa qualitativa, coletando os dados a partir de observações destes professores em diversos contextos e de entrevistas semiestruturadas baseadas em suas histórias de vida. Um dos objetivos da pesquisa foi, à luz da psicanálise, utilizando o autor Wilfred Ruprecht Bion como referencial teórico, compreender as relações que os professores estabelecem com as atividades experimentais e como lidam com as frustrações que estas atividades evocam. Compreendendo esta relação, investigamos qual seria o papel da formação continuada nesta relação dos professores com as atividades experimentais. Propusemos uma organização em categorias para descrever as trajetórias destes dois professores, mostrando de um modo geral como eles lidam com as frustrações, ora enfrentando-as, ora fugindo delas. A partir da observação e entrevistas em ambiente de formação continuada, nosso segundo objetivo foi fazer uma reflexão de como os cursos de formação continuada estão atuando para dar suporte ao professor que busca os cursos e que na maioria das vezes está em um estado de dependência ao invés de ter a autonomia pressuposta pelos formadores. Percebemos que os formadores de uma maneira geral não estão servindo de continentes para as frustrações e angústias provenientes das experiências emocionais dos professores que surgem do contato com as atividades experimentais. Desta forma concluímos que devemos repensar os cursos de formação continuada para que possam contemplar as subjetividades do professor. / This research investigates two physics\' teachers participants in continuing education courses offered by the Physics Institute of the São Paulo University (USP). The chosen teachers have a great experience in the classroom, they are regulars participants of continuing education courses at USP during the holidays, they actively participate in monthly activities proposed by the working group of these courses and they are professionals somehow involved with their learning process. They were followed in a course taught during the holiday period and in monthly meetings at the Physics Institute of USP in São Paulo. We use the qualitative research methodology, collecting data from observations of these teachers in different contexts and from semistructured interviews based on their life histories. One goal of the research was, in the light of psychoanalysis, using the author Wilfred Ruprecht Bion as a theoretical framework, to understand the relationships that teachers establish with the experimental activities and how to deal with the frustrations that these activities generate. We propose an organization into categories to describe the trajectories of these two teachers, showing generally how they deal with frustrations, sometimes confronting them, sometimes avoiding them. From observation and interviews in continuing education environment, our second goal was to reflect on how the continuing education courses are acting to support the teacher who seeks these courses and most of the time is in a state of dependence rather than having the autonomy presupposed by the formers. We realize that formers generally are not serving as containers to the frustrations and anxieties arising from emotional experiences of the teachers that emerge from contact with the experimental activities. Thus we conclude that we should rethink the continuing education courses so that they address the subjectivity of the teacher.

Submitted by Bruna Rodrigues (bruna92rodrigues@yahoo.com.br) on 2016-09-28T12:01:40Z No. of bitstreams: 1 TeseLSM.pdf: 20309466 bytes, checksum: 5fc10c7fa885f36fd315fadc0a600181 (MD5) / Approved for entry into archive by Marina Freitas (marinapf@ufscar.br) on 2016-10-10T19:01:59Z (GMT) No. of bitstreams: 1 TeseLSM.pdf: 20309466 bytes, checksum: 5fc10c7fa885f36fd315fadc0a600181 (MD5) / Approved for entry into archive by Marina Freitas (marinapf@ufscar.br) on 2016-10-10T19:02:34Z (GMT) No. of bitstreams: 1 TeseLSM.pdf: 20309466 bytes, checksum: 5fc10c7fa885f36fd315fadc0a600181 (MD5) / Made available in DSpace on 2016-10-10T19:02:43Z (GMT). No. of bitstreams: 1 TeseLSM.pdf: 20309466 bytes, checksum: 5fc10c7fa885f36fd315fadc0a600181 (MD5) Previous issue date: 2016-02-24 / Fundação de Amparo à Pesquisa do Estado de São Paulo (FAPESP) / The purpose of this dissertation is to identify the elements that favor (or not) students’ engagement in learning physics based on the relation to knowledge theoretical framework proposed by the French philosopher Bernard Charlot. In order to that, we characterized students relation to physics knowledge identifying their conceptions about school physics, school, the act of learning, themselves as learners at school and understand how their life and school experiences give light to the phenomena under study. We collected information from a population of 142 high school students from public or private schools at São Carlos. This PhD research was executed in three steps which the previous one oriented the actions implemented of the next one. During the first step, we applied a questionnaire in order to characterize students’ relation to school knowledge in general and students’ relation to physics knowledge and we analyzed the information collected using content analysis (analysis of categories). During the second step, we elaborated profiles of relation to physics knowledge implementing cluster analysis to a set of categories created in the previous step. During the third step, we interviewed 15 students in order to identify the elements the favors or not students’ engagement in Physics learning. We analyzed interviews contents using content analysis (analysis of themes). We concluded that the elements that favors or not students’ engagement in learning physics are related to physics knowledge itself, to teaching actions in physics classrooms and the effects those actions produce, to others and the relation the subject maintains to his/herself. / Esta tese busca identificar os elementos da relação que estudantes do Ensino Médio mantêm com o saber da Física escolar que favorecem ou desfavorecem sua mobilização para aprendê-la, tendo como aporte teórico a teoria da relação com o saber proposta por Bernard Charlot. Para isso, procuramos caracterizar a relação com o saber da Física escolar dos sujeitos envolvidos nesta pesquisa identificando as concepções sobre a disciplina, a escola, ao estudo, a si mesmos como aprendizes e investigar os aspectos de suas experiências vivenciadas na escola e fora dela que dão inteligibilidade ao fenômeno em estudo. Ao todo, participaram da investigação 142 estudantes que cursavam o Ensino Médio ou que haviam concluído o 3º ano a pouco tempo oriundos de instituições de ensino públicas e privadas da cidade de São Carlos-SP. A dinâmica da pesquisa foi dividia em três movimentos, em que o anterior orientava as ações do posterior. No primeiro, aplicamos um questionário com o intuito de caracterizar a relação dos estudantes com o saber escolar, em geral, e com o saber da Física, em particular, e analisamos as informações coletadas por meio da análise categorial. No segundo movimento, construímos perfis de relação com o saber da Física por meio da análise de clusters a partir das categorias criadas na etapa anterior. No terceiro movimento, realizamos entrevistas com 15 estudantes a fim de efetuar uma análise em profundidade do sujeito para identificar os elementos que nutrem ou desviam sua mobilização na aprendizagem da Física. Utilizamos a análise temática para analisar o conteúdo das entrevistas. As análises realizadas nos levam a concluir que os elementos que favorecem e/ou desfavorecem a mobilização na disciplina, para este grupo, estão relacionados ao próprio saber da Física, às práticas pedagógicas nas aulas de Física, ao outro e à relação consigo.

Este trabalho, juntamente com outros dois nas áreas de Biologia e Química, tem como objetivo verificar a aproximação entre os conteúdos de ensino de Ciências Naturais, especificamente Física, dos livros da educação básica (fundamental e médio) e a Ciência de referência. Para representar a Ciência de referência, foram utilizados os livros dos cursos de graduação (licenciatura e bacharelado) em Física da Universidade de São Paulo. Nessa proposta também é possível avaliar os conteúdos de ensino dos livros didáticos de Ciências em função de seu distanciamento dos conteúdos da Ciência de referência, resultado da transposição didática. Para a análise foram selecionados alguns conteúdos centrais da Física, como os princípios em geral e os conceitos de energia, força e campo, e comuns aos ensinos fundamental e médio: peso e massa; calor e temperatura; carga. Esses conceitos foram analisados em seis coleções de livros didáticos de Ciências do ensino fundamental (duas das séries iniciais e quatro das séries finais) e em qua tro livros de Física para o ensino médio. O desenvolvimento desses conteúdos foi comparado com a abordagem realizada nos livros da Ciência de referência para verificar a correção conceitual na perspectiva de aproximação entre os conhecimentos escolares e científicos. Os resultados preliminares indicaram que os livros do ensino fundamental abordam os conteúdos numa perspectiva com o maior número de distanciamentos da Física de referência, reforçada pelo laxismo presente. Como a maioria dos professores do ensino fundamental não tem formação específica em Ciências, dificilmente identifica esses aspectos. Nos livros de Física do ensino médio, os resultados iniciais mostraram uma maior proximidade com os livros da Física de referência e com o rigorismo característico. No entanto, quando esses resultados foram comparados com as pesquisas apresentadas em artigos de ensino de Física, mesmo que essa proximidade seja garantida, ainda há problemas no processo de ensino e aprendizagem que devem ser investigados, como a formação de professores de Ciências. / This work, together with two others in the areas of biology and chemistry, has the objective of verifying the approximation between teaching contents in the natural sciences, specifically physics, of grade school and high school textbooks and reference science. Representing reference science, textbooks from baccalaureate and licentiate degrees in physics at the University of São Paulo were used. It is also possible using this proposal to evaluate the teaching content of science texts as a function of their distance from the contents of reference science resulting from didactic transposition. Some central concepts of physics were selected for analysis, as well as general principles and the concepts of energy, force and field, common to both elementary and high school teaching: weight and mass, heat and temperature; load. These concepts were analyzed in six collections of grade school science teaching materials (two from primary series and four from junior high school materials). These contents were compared with the approach developed in reference science texts to verify the conceptual accuracy in the perspective of approximation between school and scientific knowledge. Preliminary results indicated that the texts used at the grade school and junior high school levels approach the contents from a perspective with the greatest number of distances from reference physics, reinforced by todays laxity. Because the majority of primary and secondary school teachers are not specifically trained in sciences, they have difficulty identifying these aspects. In high school texts, initial results showed a greater approximation with reference physics books and their characteristic rigor. However, when these results are compared with the research presented in articles on the teaching of physics, even guaranteeing this approximation, there are still problems in the teaching and learning process that should be investigated, like the development of professors in the sciences.

This qualitative study focused on four secondary school physics teachers in Bangladesh using semi-structured interviews and observations to explore their understanding about the relationship between practical work and developing students’ conceptual knowledge of physics. Recent studies indicate that practical work helps secondary science students easily and effectively learn the concepts and theories of physics. However, the secondary school physics teachers in Bangladesh in this study did not provide students with practical work during classroom teaching. Rather, they provided practical work in separate practical classes. Although the teachers believed that practical work made their teaching and also students’ learning easier and effective, they did not offer frequent practical demonstrations in teaching the contents of physics. The major findings of the study include that teachers used mostly transmissive pedagogy to assist students to understand physics concepts and theories. Even though there are clear and specific instructions for the teachers to do demonstrations in the secondary physics curriculum, there were constraints on teachers and on students trying to conduct practical work. Constraints included: a lack of sufficient equipment. Teachers and students in non-government schools faced comparatively more difficulties than those in government schools. Low teacher/student ratios and no positions for laboratory assistants were reasons given for teachers’ intense workloads. This study implies a need to provide government and non-government schools with necessary equipment for doing practical work; to appoint sufficient teachers with higher studies and training that includes practical work in physics; to create positions for laboratory assistants; to set up classrooms with a smaller number of students; and to develop awareness of the value of practical work among school administration and among physics teachers.

In its theoretical part, this thesis treats possibilities of using no-touch technology Leap Motion in elementary school lessons for operating interactive applications focused on physics education. The thesis investigates the ways in which it is possible to operate already published applications which are not programmed specifically for a no-touch technology and which are, however, intended for work with an interactive whiteboard or for a standard computer work. Their advantages and disadvantages are discussed as well. The thesis deals, among other things, with the availability of relevant applications and offers a summary of information about Leap Motion technology and of opportunities for replacing interactive whiteboards. The thesis also includes a description of the technology and of the potential for developing your own applications. The aim of the practical part is to create a new didactic application which will be tested in lessons. This part also includes a poll which will find out what is the interest in Leap Motion technology among teachers.