Despite its frequent use, there is little understanding of the concept of differential among upper high school and undergraduate students of physics. As a first step to identify the origin of this situation and to revert it, we have done a historic and epistemological study aimed at clarifying the role and the meaning of the differential in…

Recommends that teachers wishing to develop the problem-solving expertise of students make concentrated and sustained efforts to develop students' knowledge base, skill base, resource base, strategy-experience base, and behavioral base. Application in a General Physics course resulted in improved problem solving performance which is partially…

Develops a simple core-halo model of a galaxy that exhibits the main features of observed rotation curves and quantitatively illustrates the need to postulate halos of dark matter. Uses only elementary mechanics. (Author/MVL)

Presents suggestions intended to help physicists who have not had the benefit of teacher training workshops and programs, including, among others, those on lecturing, conducting laboratories and discussion sessions, preparing tests, and dealing with difficult subject matter. (SK)

Discusses student difficulties in problem solving. Presents a structured approach to one-dimensional constant acceleration problems. Provides researcher's experience including an example problem, advantages of the approach, and student responses with two illustrations of problem solving. (YP)

Describes a teaching model aimed at promoting conceptual change concerning heat and temperature. The model is used with teachers (n=2) and students (n=92) to explore its use as a professional development tool as well as a teaching strategy. Results indicate that the teaching model is effective in changing students' ideas and the approach resulted…

This study examined ways in which teachers use their own experiences and those of their colleagues to become better teachers, based on case studies of a group of eight physics teachers engaged in collaborative action research. Two perspectives on teaching that have framed other inquiries are first discussed: the teacher knowledge perspective,…