Science teaching in general and physics teaching in particular often fail to meet the challenges of motivating and engaging learners. Consequently, students do not adequately understand concepts, leading to the poor acquisition of expected practical skills. In response to this need, we conducted a study to document physics teachers' instructional…

The purpose of this study is to investigate the effect of teaching through a virtual laboratory prepared using simulations teaching materials and that are based on constructivist thought about geometrical optics upon the students' academic success and their attitudes towards physics. Quasi-experimental pretest and posttest control groups was used…

Spatial reasoning is a valuable cognitive tool which enables navigation of the body in relation to other objects in space, permits deconstruction of dimensional forms, allows reconstruction of two-dimensional representations into three-dimensional objects, and facilitates diagramming of processes or concepts. A considerable body of work has…

Simulation educational technologies provide a convenient way to augment classroom learning in higher education. The University of Colorado Boulder has created many Physics Education Technology (PhET) computer simulations relevant to concepts in Sciences and Mathematics. There is a notable gap in the literature of simulation-based technologies,…

The laws of physics are often seen as objective truth, pure and simple. Hence, they tend to appear cerebral and cold. However, their presentation is necessarily subjective and may vary from being boring to being exciting. A detailed analysis of physics education reform efforts over the last three decades finds that interactive instruction results…

In this dissertation, I investigate the effects of a grounded learning experience on college students' mental models of physics systems. The grounded learning experience consisted of a priming stage and an instruction stage, and within each stage, one of two different types of visuo-haptic representation was applied: visuo-gestural simulation…

Physics inquiry can be interpreted as the construction of a cogent argument in which students apply inquiry knowledge and knowledge of physics to the systematic collection of relevant, valid, and reliable data, creating optimal scientific support for a conclusion that answers the research question. In learning how to devise, conduct and evaluate a…

Introductory physics courses can be a challenge for some college students, especially those that have not taken Advanced Placement (AP) physics courses in high school. Even some classical mechanics concepts, such as energy, power, or the laws of Newton, can be non-intuitive and hard to grasp. When it comes to evaluating the learning outcome of our…

Brazil is a country that does not invest enough in basic education, thus leaving a gap in the knowledge of young people studying in public schools and jeopardizing their future. One of the main ways to get into college in Brazil is through the National High School Exam (ENEM), a multiple-choice test administered by the National Institute of…

Every year, thousands of college students in the life sciences take introductory physics. Some educators have advocated physics be presented in a way that is relevant to these students. Most are biology majors, but many students are in the allied health field studying to become athletic trainers, occupational therapists, or professionals in some…

Students' epistemologies of experimental physics refer to how they understand the role of experimentation as well as the experimental operation and design and communication of results in physics. This research aimed to find whether students in inquiry-based physics laboratory activities show more expert-like epistemologies of experimental physics…

Graphs of objects in motion are frequently used in introductory high school or college physics courses since they offer a valuable alternative to verbal and algebraic descriptions by offering students another way of manipulating the developing concepts. If graphs are to be a valuable tool for students, then the level of the students' graphing…

Today's students are increasingly immersed in a landscape of screens and handheld digital devices through which a good deal of their interactions with the world around them are mediated. Physics educators, meanwhile, continue to rely on traditional human interactions with the physical world, such as sliding down a ramp or throwing a baseball, in…

In this paper, we present three types of activity that we have observed during students' free exploration of a software called "Algodoo," which allows students to explore a range of physics phenomena within the same digital learning environment. We discuss how, by responding to any of the three activity types we identify in the students'…

In the February 2017 issue of "The Physics Teacher," an article was presented that highlighted the importance of high school physics teachers in inspiring women in physics, particularly by recognizing them as being a "physics person." Drawing on data from over 900 female undergraduates in physics, the article showed that the…