Research based activities in teacher professional development on optics

The aim of this research is to understand how teachers take ownership of content given them in formative intervention modules and transform it into suggestions and materials for teaching. To this end a module on optics was designed for a group of kindergarten, primary and lower secondary school Teachers which sought to integrate meta-cultural, experiential and situated approaches with various context specific factors. The study investigated how teachers deal with conceptual difficulties in the module and how they adapt it to their school situations with data being gathered through a variety of tools. It emerged that the most difficult concepts teachers encountered at the formative stage were those they most often incorporated into their materials. The steps taken in this process of appropriation were then reviewed via a collaborative discussion among the teachers themselves on the materials they had produced

Monopole-vortex complex in a theta vacuum

We discuss aspects of the monopole-vortex complex soliton arising in a hierarchically broken gauge system, G to H to 1, in a theta vacuum of the underlying G theory. Here we focus our attention mainly on the simplest such system with G=SU(2) and H=U(1). A consistent picture of the effect of the theta parameter is found both in a macroscopic, dual picture and in a microscopic description of the monopole-vortex complex soliton.Comment: 18 pages 3 figure

Love wave tomography in Italy from seismic ambient noise

We estimate Love wave empirical Green's functions from cross-correlations of ambient seismic noise to study the crust and uppermost mantle structure in Italy. Transverse-component ambient noise data from October 2005 through March 2007 recorded at 114 seismic stations from the Istituto Nazionale di Geofisica e Vulcanologia (INGV) national broadband network, the Mediterranean Very Broadband Seismographic Network (MedNet) and the Austrian Central Institute for Meteorology and Geodynamics (ZAMG) yield more than 2 000 Love wave group velocity measurements using the multiple-filter analysis technique. In the short period band (5–20 s), the cross-correlations show clearly one-sided asymmetric feature due to non-uniform noise distribution and high local activities, and in the long period band (>20 s) this feature becomes weak owing to more diffusive noise distribution. Based on these measurements, Love wave group velocity dispersion maps in the 8–34 s period band are constructed, then the SH wave velocity structures from the Love wave dispersions are inverted. The final results obtained from Love wave data are overall in good agreement with those from Rayleigh waves. Both Love and Rayleigh wave inversions all reveal that the Po plain basin is resolved with low velocity at shallow depth, and the Tyrrhenian sea is characterized with higher velocity below 8 km due to its thin oceanic crust

La formaci\uf3n docente: un reto para la investigaci\uf3n

En este trabajo se repasa la labor desarrollada por los autores a lo largo de su experiencia profesional como docentes y formadores de docentes en las \ue1reas cient\uedficas. En particular, se discute con detalle la formaci\uf3n del profesorado en el sistema educativo italiano. This paper reviews the work developed by the authors in the course of their professional experience as teachers and teacher trainers in the scientific areas. In particular, it discusses in detail the training of teachers in the Italian educational system

E-learning in teacher professional development in innovation and formative guidance on modern physics: The case of IDIFO master's programs

The professional development of in-service teachers is becoming an increasingly "hot" research topic internationally. Innovations in both methodologies and content are a challenge for schools wishing to respond to the demands of the knowledge society. The second level biannual IDIFO Master's Program, offered as project of the national plane for scientific degree (Piano Nazionale Lauree Scientifiche-PLS) by the Research Group in Physics Education of the University of Udine, in collaboration with 20 other Italian universities, provides teacher formation in modern physics and formative guidance to in-service teachers in Italian high schools and is now being run for the fourth time. Based on research into the teaching and learning of physics, it started in 2006 was activated in e-learning every second year. The course is wide-ranging (it is worth 165 CTS) and allows for customized study paths to suit the needs of individual participants, both regarding content and length of study period: single modules (worth 3 CTS) and an annual Specialization Course (15 CTS) are run alongside the Master's. The organization of the e-learning formation, carried out using uPortal, is as follows: analysis of physics education research materials; web-forum discussions of content and methods; the compiling of teaching materials, both collaboratively and in personal project work; doing experimentations (teaching intervention modules) in high school students, analizing and discussing online with peers and with professors-tutors-experts. The program has undergone continual revisions - based on feed-back and reflection on the overall outcomes of the formation - while retaining its original structure. Analysis of project work and of the dissertations presented in the final exams has demonstrated the contribution of e-learning formation to capacity building through: access to research material and proposals; peer debate; a critical review of traditional approaches. The flexibility of the formative model is a key element for its implementation nationally in a wide variety of situations. The commitment required of the participants, particularly in the first two versions of the program, while resulting in an excellent preparation, also prompted the course designers to create more flexible study paths in order to allow participants to complete their training in a number of stages following coherent pathways. The educational research on the Master's is not just a source of materials and training content, but also a context for what concern teacher formation. The analysis of participants' learning processes in each module - like that on quantum mechanics - revealed both the characteristics of an effective educational innovation formative model, and the part played by peer interaction on web-forums in building participants' integrated expertise both regarding content (CK) and its teaching/learning (PCK). An analysis of the school experiment written reports high-lighted the role of the Master formative path in the didactic design

High school students analyzing the phenomenology of superconductivity and constructing model of the Meissner effect

Superconductivity offers many opportunities to explore a relevant phenomenology interesting for students because perceived as a challenge stimulating the construction of models, activating a critical re-analysis of magnetic and electrical properties of materials, bridging science and technology. In the European projects MOSEM1-2, an educational path was developed on superconductivity for high school based on explorative experiments and on-line measurements concerning the Meissner and the pinning effects. Feasibility tests were performed in several Italian high schools with more than 500 students. A research experimentation carried out with 40 selected students, aged 17-19, was focused on the models they develop analyzing the Meissner effect using the field lines representation. Data were collected by the worksheets used by students and by the audio-tape dialogues in the group activities. A qualitative analysis of the students\u2019 answers, sentences, explicit reasoning and drawings was performed. The students learning paths show a progressive construction of models based on the ideal diamagnetic properties of superconductors, in which the concept of field has an important role

Teaching modern physics in secondary school

The physics of the last century is now included in all EU secondary school curricula and textbooks, even if in not organic way. Nevertheless, there are very different positions as concern its introduction and students\u2019 conceptual knots in classical physics are quoted to argue the exclusion of modern physics in secondary school. Aspects discussed in literature are goals, rationale, contents, target students, instruments and methods. Very different goals, i.e. the culture of citizens, popularization, guidance, education, build different perspectives and aspects to treat selection: fundament, technologies and applications. Methods used are story telling of the main results, argumentation of crucial problems, integrated or as a complementary part in the curriculum. Modern physics in secondary school is a challenge, which involves curriculum innovation, teacher education and physics education research to individuate ways that allows the students to face the interpretative problems and manage them in many contexts and in social decisions. In this perspective, modern physics is an integrated content in curricula involving the building of formal thinking. Our research focus on building of formal thinking is on three directions: 1) Learning processes and role of reasoning in operative hands-on and minds-on phenomena interpretation; 2) object - models as tools to bridge common sense to physics ideas and ICT contribution focusing on real time labs and modelling; 3) building theoretical way of thinking: a path inspired of Dirac approach to quantum mechanics. We developed four different kind of proposals: 1) the physics of modern research analysis in material science: resistivity and Hall effect for electrical transport properties, Rutherford Backscattering Spectroscopy to look to structure characteristics, Time Resolved Resistivity for epitaxial growth; 2) Explorative approach to superconductivity phenomena (a coherent paths), 3) Discussion of some crucial / transversal concepts both in classical physics and modern physics: state, measure, cross section, 4) foundation of theoretical thinking in quantum mechanics