Teacher Education in Physics

Experiment

Draw a picture

of the situation.

List objects

interacting

with the object

of interest.

Draw a

force diagram

for the object.

Discuss what objects

exert forces balancing

the force that

Earth exerts on

the object.

What is
are

the direction of

the balancing

force
forces?

Write a

mathematical

expression

for the forces

exerted on the

object. Specify

your axis.

aHang an object
from a spring
scale. Record the
reading of the
scale here __

bLower the object
onto a platform
scale so it touches
the scale.
Record the new
reading of the
spring scale ____

cYou place the
object on a tabletop.
Record what happens

dYou place the
block on the
platform scale and
then tilt the scale at a
small angle.
Record what happens

b. Test an Idea. A book rests on top of a table. Jim says
that the force exerted by the table on the book is always the
same in magnitude as the force exerted by Earth on the book.
Why would Jim say this? Do you agree or disagree with Jim?
If you disagree, how can you argue your case?
Class 4 quiz: Notice that the letterCnext to the questions
below indicates content knowledge. The numbers show the
addressed dimensions of PCK
1-orientation to teaching;
2-knowledge of curriculum; 3-knowledge of student prior
knowledge and difficulties; 4-knowledge of instructional
strategies; 5-knowledge of assessment.
c. Quiz. Your students are learning Newtonian dynamics
and are solving the following problem: An unlabeled force
diagram for an object on a horizontal table is shown in
Fig.3. Sketch and describe in words a process for which the
diagram might represent the forces that other objects exert on
an object of interest.
You hear one of the students say: “There is a mistake in
the diagram, the upward vertical force should always be the
same as the downward arrow.”

1 Do you agree with the student? Explain your answer

C.


 2 Why do you think the student made this comment?
 3 


 3 What activities done in class could have contributed to

his opinion?
3, 4, 5


 4 How would you respond to this comment in class?
1,

3, 4.


 5 If you were to test the student’s idea, what experi-

ments would you design?
C,5

d. Individual work outside of class. Every week after a

class session preservice teachers read a chapter in “Five Easy

Lessons” by Knight 32 , as well as reading the side notes


comments for teachersin the ALG that are related to the

class work. They also read the relevant physics education

research papers
see the list in Appendix B. They then com-

bine this information with the activities in class; they are told

to “write a lesson plan for a lesson that will help your stu-

dents master concept X. In this lesson plan make sure that

you list student ideas related to concept X
use the ALG and

“5 Easy Lessons” and the assigned readingsand provide

questions that will allow you to assess the progress in student

learning of the concept, provide possible student answers and

EUGENIA ETKINA PHYS. REV. ST PHYS. EDUC. RES. 6 , 020110
2010 

020110-14