We present a new secondary school teaching method of quantum uncertainties of two-state systems. Intending to be a material teachable in schools, only two-state systems described by real numbers can be considered. An elementary argumentation based on school statistics leads to the identification of the uncertainty of a physical quantity in such…

About 30 years ago I taught a series of summer enrichment programs for high school physics teachers, using funding from the Howard Hughes Medical Institutes. I deliberately chose teachers from smaller cities and towns who were unlikely to have contact with other physics teachers. One of my more interesting teachers came from a rural area in a far…

Assessment feedback is an essential way to promote student learning. Students and teachers may benefit from educational technologies during the feedback process. The purpose of this study was to identify the feedback dimensions that were fulfilled by iPad applications (apps) and to compare teacher practice to the affordances of apps. Typological…

The aim of the study is to reveal physics teachers' views on constants in teaching physics subjects that include physical constants. The phenomenology approach, one of the qualitative research designs, was used in the study. The study group consists of a total of 10 physics teachers, 2 female and 8 male, working in five public high schools in two…

Einstein's derivation of special relativity theory (SRT), based on hypothetical reasoning and thought experiments, is regarded as a prime example of physics theory development. In secondary education, the introduction of SRT could provide a great opportunity for students to engage in physics theorizing, but this opportunity is largely being missed…

Evidence from physics education research suggests that the introduction of a formalistic description of quantum phenomena can be beneficial to student learning, particularly in terms of helping students move away from naive realist views of quanta or space-time descriptions of quantum phenomena. However, the mathematical requirements for mastering…

High school students' difficulties with quantum physics (QP) are partly due to their limited understanding of the nature of science (NOS). The essence of QP can only be understood with informed views about NOS aspects such as the role of models and the relevance of controversies between physicists. Inversely, QP is an ideal topic for teaching…

This study explored teachers' conceptualizations of integrated computational modeling in secondary physics by exposing twelve experienced physics teachers to programming and then analyzing interview responses. Responses revealed that teachers fell along a spectrum of disciplinary boundary-stretching mentalities. This paper presents a preliminary…

Special Relativity introduces students to Modern Physics, whose importance in the high school is increasing. Nevertheless its teaching and learning is a critical issue. Different solutions have been developed to overcome the encountered difficulties. In this paper we describe the spacetime globe, a mechanical instrument that allows to experience…

In recent years, general relativity (GR) and gravitational-wave astronomy have emerged both as active fields of research and as popular topics in physics classrooms. Teachers can choose from an increasing number of modern instructional models to introduce students to relativistic ideas. However, the true potential of an instructional model can…

Teaching quantum physics (QP) to high school (HS) students is gaining momentum, necessitating the exploration of various effective methods. Specifically, the research on quantitative teaching methods is still in its early stages. Understanding the power of Dirac notation (DN) in teaching is crucial for grasping the complexities of QP, as it…

This research was conducted on students of two senior high schools in Jambi, Indonesia, where the two schools have almost the same characteristics but apply different cooperative learning models, namely the inquiry learning model and the Jigsaw learning model. The purpose of this study was to assess students' attitudes towards physics through the…

The bicycle is one of the greatest locomotive machines ever invented. It is also a perfect vehicle for you to teach some of the ideas that are taught in forces topics to 11- to 16-year-olds. In this article we look at some of the ways in which you can use the bicycle and cycling to provide an alternative and engaging context for teaching some of…

When a new topic is introduced in the curriculum, teachers seek various ways to teach students the related concepts. For the novel topic 'materials' in the revised Dutch curriculum, I developed an experiment in which students determine Young's modulus using a guitar string. The experiment not only covers several concepts related to 'materials' it…

The concept of a sinusoidal wave traveling along a string is included in all secondary education physics books and as a result is being taught in undergraduate lectures around the globe. The didactic approach that follows is advantageous since it provides in a simplified way (through basic mathematical tools) a description of a disturbance that…