Students in upper secondary education encounter difficulties in applying mathematics in physics. To improve our understanding of these difficulties, we examined symbol sense behavior of six grade 10 physics students solving algebraic physic problems. Our data confirmed that students did indeed struggle to apply algebra to physics, mainly because…

This article presents a qualitative study of the type and quality of questions formulated by prospective elementary teachers (PETs) when designing scientific inquiry activities, depending on the school science content selected. The data were acquired during teacher training instruction on these aspects with 67 participant PETs. The results showed…

Teaching the tools and concepts associated with modern physics can often be a daunting and difficult task for secondary science teachers. Classical physics is often perceived as intimidating and complex in its own right. Modern physics addressing quantum phenomena where Newtonian laws break down is even more abstract for learners. However,…

Background: Self-regulation in learning (SRL) represents a major topic in educational research. Nevertheless, there remains a gap in the research concerning how teachers can incorporate SRL into the classroom. This study focuses on the Professional Vision for SRL (PfS) method, which aims to bridge the gap between theory and practice so that…

The Colorado Learning Attitudes about Science Survey (CLASS) is an instrument which is widely used in physics education to characterize students' attitudes toward physics and learning physics and compare them with those of experts. While CLASS has been extensively validated for use in the context of higher education institutions in the United…

The aim of present research was to develop a Likert type scale that determines the attitudes of 9th grade students towards physics courses so as to identify the physics students' attitudes towards this course. The research started with a draft scale of 30 items. The draft scale was applied to 177 ninth grade students as a pilot research. According…

Racial or ethnic isolation may negatively impact physics graduate students' academic and professional experience. An interview study with 16 doctoral students who were considered to be particularly at risk of such isolation found that (i) the students interviewed are mostly not the only member of their racial or ethnic group in their programs;…

Teaching cosmology at the undergraduate or high school level requires simplifications and analogies, and inevitably brings the teacher into contact with at least one of the pedagogical interpretations of the expanding Universe. The by far most popular interpretation holds that galaxies in an expanding Universe are stationary, while space itself…

In this article, physical quantities related to the motion of a parachute system in the framework of Newton's law of mechanics guide an informal approach to the mathematical concept of function. Furthermore, a graphical simulator that enables visualization of the fall of object-parachutes system is presented. The article is aimed at students and…

Although the United States is becoming racially diverse, the representation of marginalized groups in physics still remains low. Historically Black Colleges and Universities (HBCUs) have been successful in graduating Black physicists, such that HBCUs are nine of the top 10 physics departments in the United States that produce bachelor degrees.…

Numerous studies have been published about instruments intended to quantitatively measure students' epistemic beliefs about science; however, as this researcher would discover, developing an instrument to accurately measure epistemic beliefs about physics knowledge is not always as straightforward as the literature would make it seem. Given a lack…

Crossroads Elementary School in Saint Paul, Minnesota, was designed and built physically and pedagogically with an "Inquiry Zone" located in the heart of the school. This collection of 80 learning centers provides a pathway for all students to pursue their own scientific interests. In this article, the authors describe the background and…

The interrelationship between mathematics and science education has frequently been emphasized, and common goals and approaches have often been adopted between disciplines. Improving students' problem-solving skills in mathematics and science education has always been given special attention; however, the problem-posing approach which plays a key…

Teaching blackbody radiation within the framework of astrophysics can motivate students to learn and obtain a more profound and qualitative understanding of the subject. In this paper we present a teaching module that intertwines teaching blackbody radiation via the continuous spectrum of hot objects, especially the stars. The module's approach…

Despite their increasingly widespread adoption in post-secondary education, scholars and practitioners know very little about the impact of digital data displays on instructors' sense-making and academic planning. In this manuscript, I report the results of comparative case studies of five different introductory physics instructors at three…