• Open Access

Preparing future teachers to anticipate student difficulties in physics in a graduate-level course in physics, pedagogy, and education research

John R. Thompson, Warren M. Christensen, and Michael C. Wittmann
Phys. Rev. ST Phys. Educ. Res. 7, 010108 – Published 20 May 2011
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Abstract

We describe courses designed to help future teachers reflect on and discuss both physics content and student knowledge thereof. We use three kinds of activities: reading and discussing the literature, experiencing research-based curricular materials, and learning to use the basic research methods of physics education research. We present a general overview of the two courses we have designed as well as a framework for assessing student performance on physics content knowledge and one aspect of pedagogical content knowledge—knowledge of student ideas—about one particular content area: electric circuits. We find that the quality of future teachers’ responses, especially on questions dealing with knowledge of student ideas, can be successfully categorized and may be higher for those with a nonphysics background than those with a physics background.

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  • Received 10 November 2009

DOI:https://doi.org/10.1103/PhysRevSTPER.7.010108

This article is available under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution 3.0 License. Further distribution of this work must maintain attribution to the author(s) and the published article’s title, journal citation, and DOI.

Published by the American Physical Society

Authors & Affiliations

John R. Thompson1, Warren M. Christensen2, and Michael C. Wittmann1

  • 1Department of Physics and Astronomy and Maine Center for Research in STEM Education, University of Maine, Orono, Maine, USA
  • 2Department of Physics, North Dakota State University, Fargo, North Dakota, USA

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Vol. 7, Iss. 1 — January - June 2011

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