2018-04-05 - Ore 15.00 - Aula Caianiello
"Physics Knowledge for Teaching (PKT): a new framework for the teaching of physics at high school and university level"
SPEAKER: Dr. Italo TESTA
Il seminario, rivolto a tutti gli interessati all'insegnamento della fisica a livello scolastico ed universitario è inserito nell'ambito del corso di formazione "Dall' Elettromagnetismo classico alla Meccanica quantistica. Approfondimenti disciplinari e percorsi didattici per l'ultimo anno dei Licei Scientifici" attivato dal Piano Lauree Scientifiche Fisica Napoli in collaborazione con la sezione Napoli 2 dell'AIF.
Abstract
The idea of Pedagogical Content Knowledge (PCK) was introduced by Lee Shulman more than thirty years ago, in 1986. It refers to the transformation of Subject Matter Knowledge (SMK) into a suitable knowledge for teaching to improve students' understanding.
Briefly put, Shulman's idea was that the effectiveness of didactical strategies to teach a certain topic depends not only on the teacher's knowledge of the content but also of students': (i) reasoning about the topic and; (ii) naïve ideas about the topic. However, despite the fact that PCK has been a relevant aspect of professional development courses, research studies about PCK still have not been able to completely shed light on what actually PCK is.
Recent results in Mathematics Education suggest that a new construct may be hypothesized, called Mathematics Knowledge for Teaching (MKT), which includes an emphasis on both SMK and PCK. Building on this idea, we currently hypothesize that in the field of Physics Education it should also be possible to isolate a construct, which we will similarly call Physics Knowledge for Teaching (PKT). The PKT construct can be used to design professional development courses in the context of physics teaching at Italian upper secondary and tertiary level.
We hypothesize that PKT is a form of knowledge of the physics content that pertains exclusively to physics teachers, in that it is different from both the Physics knowledge a professional (scientist, technician, engineer, ...) uses in his/her job and the traditionally recognized aspects of PCK. The main aim of the interactive seminar is to illustrate current research efforts to define the components of the PKT construct.