PHY 312 -- Physics Teaching from the Historical Perspective
Physics Teacher Education Program
Illinois State University
Carl J. Wenning, Program Coordinator
Spring Semester 2005
One of the major goals of Physics 312 is to provide you the opportunity to integrate your knowledge of physics, physics/science education research, educational psychology, and pedagogy. Creating a unit plan will give you the opportunity to think about and synthesize all you know about teaching, students, and a particular area of physics. The end in view is to create something that will be useful not only to you, but to your classmates, future physics education majors, and physics teachers globally. Your unit plan will be, in part, a compilation of broad educational goals, specific objectives, subject matter, instructional activities and resources, and appropriate evaluation instruments, all of which are associated with a central theme, topic, or issue.
A major advantage of writing detailed unit plan now is that such planning will take place when you have the time and energy to construct realistic and balanced objectives, to sort through a maze of resources to select and include the most appropriate activities, to plan for a wide range of educational activities, and to create both alternative and authentic assessment instruments. Chances are such that this opportunity will not present itself once you begin student teaching.
Work with your cooperating teacher to identify a suitable topic for your unit plan. It should, perhaps, be the topic you will first teach during your student teacher practicum. In researching and preparing your unit plan, follow the guidelines below precisely. See this hyperlink for example unit plans prepared by those who have gone before you. Read background for your topic by referencing each of the following three works:
Enumerate and title all sections exactly as shown in the outline below. Use a 12-point Times/Times New Roman font, or similar. Set margins to one inch on all sides. Single- and double-space your work as shown in the unit plan examples. In addition, follow the guidelines provided in the syllabus for submission and evaluation of written course work.
Students will be required to submit sections of their unit plans at the end of the second, third, and fourth weeks of class formative evaluation and corrective feedback. The unit plan is worth 100 points total which will be normalized as necessary to determine course grade.
A. Give a short summary of your unit plan. State the topic/theme/issue to be studied, and the approach (conceptual, historical, etc.) you will use to teach it. State who the intended students are, and give and explain any prerequisites or assumptions. Give the name and author of the textbook you will use with this unit, if any.
B. Obtain the following book and read the chapter that relates most closely to your unit plan's area of concentration: Arons, A. B. (1990). A Guide to Introductory Physics Teaching, New York: John Wiley & Sons (QC30.A761990). Explain in a few sentences the major concerns that should be addressed when dealing with the unit plan subject matter you have chosen.
C. Goals -- State broad goals, indicating generally what you expect your students to get out of this unit. That is, explain briefly the changes in content knowledge, process skills, and scientific dispositions that you expect your students to exhibit at the conclusion of this unit. Be certain to include pertinent aspects of the Illinois State Goals for Learning and national standards. (Refer to section XIV, "Congruence with State and National Standards," before writing this section or planning your unit any further.)
Explain how your unit will be used to relate science to your student teaching community, and how you might use human and institutional resources in that community to advance the education of their students in science. The social context of science teaching refers to:
Give a detailed outline of the explicit curriculum in your teaching unit. What you insert here should be sequenced in a logical manner using outline form (A, 1, a, i). You may want to use your chosen physics textbook or a philosophical disposition as a guide. Remember, curriculum is more than the sum of what is found in a textbook. Follow a hierarchical outline using one of the examples below:
A. Definitions
1. Distance v. displacement
2. Speed v. velocity
3. Instantaneous v. mean velocity
4. AccelerationB. Graphical Representations
1. Distance/displacement
2. Constant velocity
In this section you will write major objectives in appropriate form. Objectives dealing with content knowledge and process skills should be written in observable form. While authentic behavioral objectives require observable performances, conditions, and minimum acceptable standards of performance, you need not write them in this format. Visit the PHY 310 statement dealing with student performance objectives to see acceptable forms for this course. Objectives dealing with dispositions are not so structured. These objectives include the specific disposition that warrants change, and the behavior that the teacher will accept as evidence of change in student disposition.
A. State the unit's major content knowledge objectives. What specifically should students come to know as a result of working their way through your unit? Do not confuse content knowledge objectives with process skill objectives. See below.
B. State the unit's major process skill objectives. These objectives should relate to science process skills such as the following: observing, communicating, estimating, measuring, collecting data, classifying, inferring, predicting, making models, interpreting data, making graphs, hypothesizing, controlling variables, defining operationally, and investigating. (See Section XIII, "Student Assessment," before writing these objectives.)
C. State the expected major scientific disposition objectives for this unit. Disposition objectives are concerned with such things as emotions, traits, attitudes, reactions, values, behaviors, and moral judgments. Though you cannot directly teach scientific dispositions, you may be able to influence them. Explain how you plan to go about shaping those dispositions you find most apropos to the scientifically literate citizen.
Describe the diverse and effective actions, strategies, and methodologies you will use to teach the science content. Include such things as the roles of formative and summative assessment; classroom atmosphere and student management. Explain what role constructivism will play in your teaching. Explain how you will make your teaching student-centered rather than teacher-centered. Explain the type of classroom atmosphere you intend to establish and maintain. Describe what an outside viewer would see looking in upon your classroom. Feel free to include here pertinent elements of your personal teaching philosophy.
Explain how you will develop a community of learners from the diverse variety of students frequently found in the Illinois classroom. Explain how various types of student groupings can be used to construct meaning from science experiences and develop a disposition for further inquiry and learning. How will you organize students and develop personal interactions with students as well as peer interactions to promote learning and achievement?
Provide a list of all the technology you will utilize in your unit. This should include both instructional technology use by the teacher (e.g., computer and video projection, demonstration materials) and the students (e.g., lab materials).
Given your experiences with the required course Curriculum & Instruction 214 - Reading in the Content Area, explain how you will accomplish each of the following at some point in your unit activities:
Explain how you will integrate metacognition and student self-regulation into your teaching.Give and explain five examples.
Explain how your unit will relate science to the daily lives and interests of your students and to a larger framework of human endeavor and understanding. This section can be strengthened by including a rationale. If you will, provide a rationale for the content knowledge, process skills, and scientific dispositions you have chosen to teach or promote. Specifically, explain the relevance/importance of the knowledge, skills, and dispositions to: (1) the student, (2) society, and (3) the scientific profession. One paragraph for each of these elements should be sufficient.
In the reference section on the first floor of Milner Library, find The Handbook of Research on Science Teaching and Learning (Q181.A1H351994). Look over the Handbook and determine its general contents. Find the section entitled Alternative Conceptions (pg. 180 onward) and the sub-section that deals with physics. Write a comprehensive summary of the alternative conceptions that students often bring to the study of physics in the content area you have chosen for your unit plan. Include the following sources of information about alternative conceptions in your comprehensive summary: Pay particular attention to myths in the books below.
Jewett, J. W. (1994). Physics Begins with an M...Mysteries, Magic, and Myth. Boston: Allyn and Bacon. (QC24.5.J48)
Jewett, J. W. (1996). Physics Begins with Another M...Mysteries, Magic, Myth, and Modern Physics. Boston: Allyn and Bacon. (QC30.J49)
These two books should be available on Milner's fifth floor among the regularly shelved books, not the reference books.
You might also want to check out the following site that you visited in PHY 310 when studying constructivism: alternate conceptions.
Units should run from one to two weeks in duration. Provide a day-by-day summary of the inquiry-oriented lessons that you propose to teach as part of this unit, including demonstrations, laboratory activities, and technology utilization. Refer to the Physics 311 Inquiry Lesson Rubric so that you have an idea of what is expected in an inquiry lesson.
Given your experiences with the resources of Physics 302, be certain to infuse a wide range of technology into your timeline. More specifically, state as part of each lesson how you would use CBL and/or MBL technology, simulation software, Internet resources. The best way to begin this project would be to go back to the Physics 302 syllabus and review the list of projects.
List, too, major demonstrations that can be meaningfully used in your unit, and from which a substantial amount of student learning can occur. For example, using air carts on an air track would be deemed "major"; dropping an eraser to the floor would be considered "minor." The designation of major/minor is relatively subjective and rests ultimately with the course instructor. If you have any doubts about a particular demonstration, please see your instructor.
Read the following booklet in its entirety: AAPT Committee on Apparatus. (1978) Teaching physics safely, Washington, DC: Author. Read selectively from the following book: NSTA Subcommittee on Safety. (1978). Safety in the secondary science classroom, Washington, DC: Author. Both of these items are on closed reserve in the Physics Department office.
A. Write a brief synopsis of the general safety responsibilities of each of the following: principal, science department chairperson, and science teacher. One paragraph about each should suffice.
B. Prepare a brief summary dealing with the safety issues surrounding your unit's subject. Note potential sources of danger, and explain how you would mitigate or eliminate such dangers.
C. There are dangers associated with almost every laboratory activity and classroom demonstration. Sometimes the risks are small; other times they are large. Review each of your classroom demonstrations and laboratory activities and note the nature and extent of the dangers associated with each. Note what you will do to mitigate the danger, and how you might handle situations that could get out of control.
Students who take your physics courses may come to you with any of a variety of disabilities. Select, identify, and characterize one physical disability (blind, limited vision, deaf, mute, cerebral palsy, paraplegia, quadriplegia, etc.) that you choose to work with in this section of the unit plan.
A. Obtain from the instructor and read "Access in Word and Deed". Provide a one-paragraph summary of the information found therein that relates to you unit plan activities.
B. List and explain the type of handicaps such a student might face in the physics classroom. What effect might the identified handicaps have on the student if accommodation is not made? (Remember, handicaps are not disabilities.)
C. State how you would accommodate the above student with the above identified disability and handicaps. Include the following aspects in your discussion: class (lectures, demonstrations, discussions, and student presentations), reading of course textbook, homework problems, and laboratory work.
D. Give and explain one enrichment activity that a gifted student might perform.
E. Explain how you would work with a student with limited English proficiency.
Novice teachers need very little time to become proficient at writing objective tests dealing with content knowledge. Unfortunately, such tests frequently fail to assess a student's all-around competencies. In this section you are required to create (not just talk about) several assessment instruments that deal with content knowledge, process skills, and scientific dispositions related to the objectives of this unit plan. Please note that there are two general types of science process skills. Basic skills include: observing, communicating, classifying, measuring, inferring, and predicting. Integrated skills include: identifying variables, constructing a table of data, constructing a graph, describing relationships between variables, acquiring and processing data, analyzing investigations, constructing hypotheses, defining variables operationally, designing investigations, and experimenting.
A. Scientific knowledge assessment (8 pts) -- Create an assessment instrument for evaluating students' knowledge that contain the following elements. Be absolutely certain to align these questions with your unit's knowledge-based objectives. Make the test authentic. That is, be certain to include a location for student name, instructions, adequate room for free-response answers, etc. At the end of the exam, prepare a very brief section noting how each question aligns with stated student performance objectives. Be specific (e.g., Question 2 is based upon Objective 6). You are strongly encouraged to consider including a variety of TIPERs in your work.
- 8 multiple-choice questions that assess physics concepts (e.g., no math-based problems)
- 6 free-response questions that assess physics problems (e.g., math-based work)
- 2 essay questions
B. Process skill assessment (1 pts) -- Create an authentic performance assessment for integrated science skills. You may choose to assess one or a group of related skills. This skill assessment may take place in a laboratory setting, but laboratory exercises per se are not to be considered a substitute.
C. Scientific disposition assessment (1 pts) -- Create an alternative assessment instrument or procedure for you, the teacher, to gain an understanding of student dispositions toward some aspect of science. Recall that dispositions can cover a wide range of attitudes and behaviors. See Section IV, "Student Performance Objectives," for a more comprehensive explanation of what dispositions might entail. A list of questions for discussion or an essay would be suitable.
XVI. CONGRUENCE WITH STATE AND NATIONAL STANDARDS (5 points)
How well does your unit plan jibe with state and national standards for enhancing scientific literacy? In this section you will compare the design of your unit plan with selected standards from the Illinois Learning Standards and the National Science Education Standards.
A. How well does your unit plan align with Illinois Learning Standards? Report on the ways and to what extent your students will, as a result of this unit plan, gain a working knowledge of:
B. How closely does your unit plan align with the general goals for teaching enunciated by the National Science Education Standards? To what degree does your unit plan provide or allow for: