For nearly two decades, augmented reality (AR) has found diverse applications in education, particularly in science education, where its efficacy has been supported by relevant theories and many empirical studies. However, previous studies have revealed the following research deficit: While AR technology appears to influence learning-related…

Some descriptions of learning represent the process as the development of organisations of elements. Various organisations have been proposed, for example, schemata and conceptual structures. Such representations assume that mental entities, such as concepts, are sufficiently stable and differentiated to be treated as units. We discuss these…

Research on students' thinking about the particulate nature of matter has shown that students find it difficult to connect the macroscopic with the sub microscopic world. Although they have heard about atoms, students stay within a continuous model of matter or attribute macroscopic properties to particles. The research presented focuses on the…

While the use of experiments is important for developing students' scientific knowledge and skills, challenges may arise when teachers and students are conducting experiments in class, such as non-reusable experimental resources, safety issues and difficulties simulating some specific effects. Augmented reality (AR) technology affords an…

Smartphone-based experimental exercises were incorporated as part of the homework problems in an introductory mechanics course at a university. A quasi-experimental field study with two cohorts design was performed to measure the impact of such exercises on motivation, interest and conceptual understanding. The empirical results on learning…

Undergraduate instructional labs in physics generate intense opinions. Their advocates are passionate as to their importance for teaching physics as an experimental activity and providing "hands-on" learning experiences, while their detractors (often but not entirely students) offer harsh criticisms that they are pointless, confusing and…

Newton's cradle, a device consisting of a chain of steel balls suspended in alignment, has been used extensively in physics teaching to demonstrate the principles of conservation of momentum and kinetic energy in elastic collisions. The apparent simplicity of the device allows one to test commonly hold views regarding the intuitive understanding…

This dissertation presents the results of an experiment that measured the learning outcomes associated with three different pedagogical approaches to introductory physics labs. These three pedagogical approaches presented students with the same apparatus and covered the same physics content, but used different lab manuals to guide students through…

This study reports on a content course for science immersion teacher candidates that emphasized authentic practice of science and thinking scientifically in the context of introductory astrophysics. We explore how 122 science teacher candidates spanning three cohorts did and did not reason scientifically and how this evolved in our program. Our…

The Lawson Classroom Test of Scientific Reasoning (LCTSR) was used to gauge the relative effectiveness of three different methods of pedagogy, "Reading, Presenting, and Questioning" (RPQ), "Experimenting and Discussion" (ED), and "Traditional Methods" (TM), on increasing students' level of scientific thinking. The…

This work investigates the presence of Thought Experiments (TEs) which refer to the theory of relativity and to quantum mechanics in physics textbooks and in books popularizing physics theories. A further point of investigation is whether TEs--as presented in popular physics books--can be used as an introduction to familiarize secondary school…

Examines students' construction of experimentation models for physics theories in energy storage, transformation, and transfers involving electricity and mechanics. Student problem solving dialogs and artificial intelligence modeling of these processes is analyzed. Construction of models established relations between elements with linear causal…

Interviews university students in modern physics about their understanding of three fundamental experiments. Explores their development of models of microscopic processes. Uses interactive demonstrations to probe student understanding of modern physics experiments in two high school physics classes. Analyzes the nature of students' models and the…

Discusses: how thought experiments (TES) are presented and used in physics textbooks; how and why teachers include TES in their explanations; and what understandings students draw from TES. Indicates that TES are only one of a broad class of "acts of imagination" which are essential in physics education. (JN)

This study was an attempt to identify the epistemological roots of knowledge when students carry out hands-on experiments in physics. We found that, within the context of designing a solution to a stated problem, subjects constructed and ran thought experiments intertwined within the processes of conducting physical experiments. We show that the…