IDIFO6 MQ_P: A Course for In-Service Secondary School Teachers Education on Modern Physics

Answering to physics teachers’ needs in professional development

“…In the following the characteristic of the main formative laboratories, each of which was framed as a module of 2 cts (equal to no less than 10 hours per cts), in the institutional and scientific framework of the IDIFO master, briefly described in section 3. For each laboratory, role / strength and weaknesses are discussed, supporting the argumentation with only a few summary data, more extensively presented in previous works [10,16,19,[20][21][22][23][24][25][26][27][28]45].…”

“…The combination of the two modalities provides teachers with mastery of the single key steps of the educational path, without losing sight of the logical coherence of the development of the entire path. This kind of lab was offered concerning: electrical phenomena [56,58], electromagnetism and superconductivity [21,65,67,71], optics [51], thermal phenomena [52][53], modern physics proposals for a global vision [21,46,46], quantum mechanics [26][27][28]64], mass-energy and relativistic dynamics [74][75], optical spectroscopy [76], RBS and gamma spectroscopy [77][78].…”

“…The aspects that obtained the highest evaluations were the acquisition of innovative teaching methodologies (score 4.8/5) and cultural enrichment of the contents (score 4.5/5), motivated by comments such as: "I found it very useful for my cultural education", "The course provided useful information for teaching and clarified important aspects of the contents [the list of specific contents learned follows]", "Access to tools and methodologies not available at the school". From the PCK questionnaires and the didactic projects designed by the trainees teachers it was possible to identify the main role of this type of laboratory [24,28,51,66]: to promote research-based educational innovation in schools, both at the content level (more traditional but still current for physical research and above all linked to modern physics) and at a methodological level (promoting IBL, problem solving, analysis of artefact approaches, use of tools and methodologies typical of research both to monitor learning and to analyze it. This type of laboratory is the ideal context to enable trainee teachers to become researchers themselves in carrying out action research activities.…”

“…The process requires an active and driving role of one or more referring teachers who act as promoters and of the principal who must endorse the action and support it Activity of action-research Improving the quality of teachers and of physics teaching/learning Some teachers are refractory to didactic innovation This type of laboratory is carried out where there are the conditions to create a strong collaboration between school and university, requiring a great commitment on the part of teachers to adopt innovative methodologies and approaches, the presence of a teacher who acts as a reference for the school, the availability of the school as an institution and of its principal so that the participation of teachers in formative activities is encouraged and organized, even during curricular hours. In addition to the maximum evaluation attributed to this type of laboratory (4.9/5), from teacher educational projects, from the documentation of experimentation in school and from the PCK questionnaires, emerged effectiveness and value of this laboratory: the continuity of the collaboration over the years; the didactic projects developed and experimented by the teachers; the papers that the teachers themselves have produced to document the projects and activities carried out with their students [28,56,68].…”