Physics teachers initial education and professional performance: what do future teachers have to say?

This research deals with the discussion about Physics teachers’ undergraduate education and professional performance related to the knowledge acquired during this initial education. More specifically, we try to answer questions like: How do future teachers evaluate the knowledge acquired during their initial education as in terms of specific knowledge as pedagogical knowledge? What are their formative needs and future expectatives about professional performance and the school teaching environment? Data was constituted from a sample of 26 future high school physics teachers, one semester long, that were taking the supervised curricular training in a undergraduate Physics education program (called Licenciatura in Brazil), in São Paulo State public university. Besides the final report of this training, future teachers were asked to answer a questionnaire aiming to take their conceptions about their initial education program, their formative needs, future professional expectatives and high school teaching environment. According to the future teachers, the program they were about to finish was satisfactory in terms of Physics specific contents; however, about the pedagogical content knowledge and the pedagogical practice, they showed to be unsatisfied and insecure. The majority of the questionnaire responses demonstrated that they feel lack of teaching experience. Moreover, teachers emphasize other factors related to the future professional performance: possible difficulties to deal with students’ indiscipline, schools’ bad physical structure, limited number of Physics classes in high school level, lack of didactical laboratories and also they seem to be frightened that the expertise teachers do not be collaborative with the new ones. In this sense, the research outcomes shows the necessity of discussions about questions involving teachers knowledge, related to either, the Physics conceptual domain and the pedagogical one, since it matters directly to future teachers professional performance. Discussions in this sense can also help evaluation and restructuration of programs designed to initial and continuous teachers’ education.

Future Brazilian teachers imaginaries about physics teaching in adults education

Conselho Nacional de Desenvolvimento Científico e Tecnológico (CNPq)

Pedagogical practices carried out during an in-service teachers education project: approaching history and philosophy of science to physics teaching

We report here part of a research project developed by the Science Education Research Group, titled: "Teachers’ Pedagogical Practices and formative processes in Science and Mathematics Education" which main goal is the development of coordinated research that can generate a set of subsidies for a reflection on the processes of teacher training in Sciences and Mathematics Education. One of the objectives was to develop continuing education activities with Physics teachers, using the History and Philosophy of Science as conductors of the discussions and focus of teaching experiences carried out by them in the classroom. From data collected through a survey among local Science, Physics, Chemistry, Biology and Mathematics teachers in Bauru, a São Paulo State city, we developed a continuing education proposal titled “The History and Philosophy of Science in the Physics teachers’ pedagogical practice”, lasting 40 hours of lessons. We followed the performance of five teachers who participated in activities during the 2008 first semester and were teaching Physics at High School level. They designed proposals for short courses, taking into consideration aspects of History and Philosophy of Science and students’ alternative conceptions. Short courses were applied in real classrooms situations and accompanied by reflection meetings. This is a qualitative research, and treatment of data collected was based on content analysis, according to Bardin [1].

A comunicação como barreira à inclusão de alunos com deficiência visual em aulas de óptica

O presente artigo representa uma continuidade dos resultados apresentados em Camargo e Nardi (Revista Brasileira de Ensino de Física 29, 117 (2007)). Encontra-se inserido dentro de um estudo que busca compreender as principais barreiras para a inclusão de alunos com deficiência visual no contexto do ensino de física. Focalizando aulas de óptica, analisa as dificuldades comunicacionais entre licenciandos e discentes com deficiência visual. Para tal, enfatiza as estruturas empírica e semântico-sensorial das linguagens utilizadas, indicando fatores geradores de dificuldades de acessibilidade nas informações veiculadas. Recomenda, ainda, alternativas que visam dar condições à participação efetiva do discente com deficiência visual no processo comunicativo, das quais destacam-se: a identificação da estrutura semântico-sensorial dos significados veiculados, o conhecimento da história visual do aluno, a destituição da estrutura empírica audiovisual interdependente e a exploração das potencialidades comunicacionais das linguagens constituídas de estruturas empíricas de acesso visualmente independente. Conclui afirmando que a comunicação representa a principal barreira à participação efetiva de alunos com deficiência visual em aulas de óptica e enfatiza a importância da criação de canais comunicacionais adequados como condição básica à inclusão desses alunos.

Aprender para ensinar: a reflexão na formação inicial de professores de física

Fundação de Amparo à Pesquisa do Estado de São Paulo (FAPESP)

A escolha profissional de licenciados em física de uma universidade pública

Pós-graduação em Educação para a Ciência - FC

Ensino de física na educação de jovens e adultos: um estudo de caso na formação inicial de professores

Pós-graduação em Educação para a Ciência - FC

A temática ambiental, o processo educativo e os temas controversos: implicações teóricas e práticas para o ensino de física

Coordenação de Aperfeiçoamento de Pessoal de Nível Superior (CAPES)

Saberes docentes mobilizados em contextos interativos discursivos de ensino de física envolvendo analogias

Coordenação de Aperfeiçoamento de Pessoal de Nível Superior (CAPES)

Um estudo sobre as configurações curriculares e potenciais formativos de cursos de licenciatura em física do Estado de Minas Gerais

Pós-graduação em Educação para a Ciência - FC

Saberes docentes mobilizados por futuros professores de Física em processos interativos discursivos

This research deals with teachers’ education, discussing elements related to the teachers’ knowledge and discursive interaction. Teaching knowledge can be mobilized in different situations and spaces; however, here, we considered them in the classroom environment and the interactive context among teacher-students and students-students. We analyzed the discursive interactions in a 23 future high school physics teachers sample, observed during the development of activities of supervised teaching, in an undergraduate teachers’ initial education program, in one of the São Paulo State universities, in Brazil. The main research question was: which teachers’ knowledge is mobilized by future high physics teachers during the interactive discursive context aiming the construction of scientific knowledge by students? Data showed that in the communicative interaction process in the classroom the student-teachers mobilized teaching knowledge related to the content and to its pedagogy.

O grupo de estudos e discussão como subsídio ao desenvolvimento de interações discursivas entre professores de física sobre a temática teoria da relatividade

Based on the assumption that the exchange of knowledge can support a process of self-organized interactions of the involved in the process, we present the results of a study about how happen the dialogue between physics teachers involved in a group of study of Modern and Contemporary Physics. With the support of the propositions of Bakhtin about the potential of the discourse and discursive interactions studies, we identified interesting regularities in how organize discussions among teachers, identifying a scheme that allows us to infer the effectiveness of the enforcement of this form of lead and mediate the discussions in groups of continuous formation of physics teachers to other topics, as well as adding arguments in defense of the groups of discussion as a strategy for continuing formation of teachers.

Interpretando la estrutura curricular de programas brasileños de licenciatura en Física, a partir de una perspectiva epistemológica de la Didáctica de la Física

This study aims to contribute to understanding the complexity related to the definition and practice of "Didactics of Physics" in initial physics teachers training. We intend to make evident how is understood the Didactics of Physics in curricular organizations, since an "observation" from a perspective based on an analysis of theoretical frameworks of Science Teaching, according to which "Didactics of Physics" is an articulating axis between different disciplines and constitutes the knowledge body to be taught in order to teachers learn to teach physics. For that, we used techniques of documentary analysis, constituting a text from a systematic search of information about Physics teachers’ initial education programs, looking for criteria justifying their organizations and contents of disciplines that aim to contribute to the training for teaching, in a study carried out during 2011. We found on these curricular organizations the presence of disciplines in fields such as: Exact Sciences, Humanities, Social Sciences and Teaching Practice, which indicates a consideration of interdisciplinary training which must receive the future teacher. However, without being consistent with Science Education' epistemology, requesting the integration of interdisciplinary knowledge to solve problems related to teach physics in high school, with some exceptions in the preparation for the subject "traineeship" or training for "Didactic transposition", but since different interpretations.

A unified model for the long and high jump

A simple model based on, the maximum energy that an athlete can produce in a small time interval is used to describe the high and long jump. Conservation of angular momentum is used to explain why an athlete should, run horizontally to perform a vertical jump. Our results agree with world records. (c) 2005 American Association of Physics Teachers.