Students' interest in physics seems to be decreasing at all levels of education in most countries including Thailand. This problem is likely to be influenced by physics teaching and learning processes. Instructors' beliefs influence teaching strategies whereas students' beliefs, goals and motivation influence learning strategies. The investigation of factors influencing teaching and learning will provide useful information for improving the teaching and learning of physics. This research aims to explore physics instructors' beliefs about teaching and learning physics, students' beliefs, goals and motivation for studying physics in Thai Rajabhat universities. A questionnaire was administered to instructors who teach introductory physics courses in Rajabhats throughout Thailand at the beginning of second semester in 2002. Questionnaires were administered to first year students who enrolled in introductory physics courses at two Rajabhat universities in the south of Thailand at the beginning and the end of that semester. Four case studies were conducted with instructors and students at the two Rajabhats during the semester.

The strategic goal of the research presented in this diploma thesis is to contribute to the improvement of the quality of physics teaching at secondary schools. During the research, we focused on the following two questions: Which quality parameters are typical for teaching led by physics teachers whose students continue their studies at MFF UK? How do teachers affect students gifted in physics and motivated for it? A case study was chosen as the research plan. Specifically, we focused on teaching of three teachers, whose students continue to study physics at university to an increased extent. The quantitative part, in which the pedagogical observation of teaching took place, was led as ex-post-facto research. This was followed by a qualitative part, in which semi-structured interviews were used to collect data. Thanks to them the obtained information was put in a broader context. The research results showed that fulfillment of several parameters is common for the teaching of all the teachers (e.g. physics expertise, mathematics model, abstraction, students' expressing), in other parameters their teaching differs (e.g. teaching aids, lecturing, students' interest, use of assessment) and some parameters are almost non-existent in teaching (e.g. work with text, heuristic method). Several research...

The main purpose of this diploma thesis is to obtain information on how Matfyz can improve its cooperation with high school students and their physics teachers to increase students' interest in physics. To obtain these information a questionnaire was sent to physics teachers, who had been mentioned by Matfyz students as teachers who had had a positive effect on them. The questionnaire itself consists of four parts - events for students, events for physics teachers, Mat- fyz activities, and teaching. The data was processed using both quantitative and qualitative methods, whereas larger part of research was build on quantitative methods. The collected data showed that according to respondents the most im- portant task is to focus on non-Prague students. Thus, organizers should organize events in various places in the Czech Republic or use modern technologies and organize events on-line (that also applies to events for physics teachers). High school students might also meet with scientists and university physics students, visit laboratories except for visitors' days (e. g. during excursions, internships) or have an opportunity to find out how physics in companies is used. Respondents expressed support for writing a new physics textbook on Matfyz, one containing more difficult parts for talented students.

To investigate how physics students perceived the sudden shift to online learning at the beginning of COVID-19 pandemic, 18 semistructured interviews were conducted with university students in Austria, Croatia, and Germany. Based on the interviews, a questionnaire was developed and data from N ¼ 578 physics students from five universities in Germany, Austria, and Croatia were gathered. In this paper, we report how students perceived synchronous and asynchronous physics lessons, how their perception correlates with their self-organization skills, which activities and teaching methods were perceived as helpful, and what are the implications for future physics courses. The most common advantages of synchronous course elements reported by students were the possibility to immediately ask questions, the feeling of community and interaction with other students, and the defined daily structure, whereas the most common advantages of asynchronous course elements reported were flexible time management and the possibility to watch videos at their own pace. The data indicate a correlation between preference for synchronous courses and their general self-organization, so instructors should be aware of this connection when planning future courses. Face-to-face lectures at university were perceived as the most helpful course element, followed by the recorded lectures from the instructor and the group work on the assignments, projects, and problems with other students. Furthermore, our results suggest that most students would in the future like to preserve the upload of learning materials and recorded video of the lectures in addition to classroom lectures. Overall, the results of this study suggest that both synchronous and asynchronous course elements should be combined in future online and in-person physics courses.