We present a year-long case study that documents the interactions between a teacher-research-mentor (TRM) and two 11th grade students working in their school laboratory on an extended inquiry project that is part of reformed mandatory requirements for advanced-level matriculation in physics. Both the students (females) and the TRM (male) are Arab…

Circus art excites amazes and delights. Most of circus genres are based on the principles of classical physics. Dialogic discussions are known as an instrument to identify conceptual barriers (misconceptions) and facilitate their further revision. The present study integrates the three worlds: physics education, dialogic teaching and circus art;…

This case study examined the characteristics of classroom discourse during physics lessons in two single-sex high school classes--a boys' vs. a girls' class. All lessons were taught by the same teacher and covered the same topics. For each class, six lessons were recorded, transcribed, and coded and the characteristics of the discussion were…

Circular motion is embedded in many circus tricks, and is also one of the most challenging topics for both students and teachers. Previous studies have identified several misconceptions about circular motion, and especially about the forces that act upon a rotating object. A commonly used demonstration of circular motion laws by physics teachers…

This research focuses on the absence of women among academic staff in physics. To explore the causes of this gender imbalance, we focus on the decision-making junction between obtaining a Ph.D. diploma and pursuing a postdoctoral position. We use the mixed-methods paradigm, combining a nationwide representative survey of Ph.D. students in Israel…

Sound is one of the most commonly used physical phenomena that most of us use without considering its nature. Moreover, students often face difficulties in understanding acoustic phenomena, the most frequent one of which is the substance-based view of sound instead of a process of pressure and density differences. The current study introduces…

Inquiry practices can be integrated into various settings that differ in terms of their constraints and hence in the scope and depth of the practices that students experience. Key policy papers suggest implementing a gradual learning sequence for inquiry practices so that students' learning experiences in more constrained settings can serve them…

We suggest an activity for measuring the speed of a bicycle going in circular motion by measuring the bicycle's lean angle. In this activity students will be able to feel the strength that is being activated on their bodies while they are moving in circular motion. They will also understand that it is impossible to ride in a circle without the…

Background: Discourse is the teacher's principal pedagogical tool in class. Studies stress the importance of research on discourse in science education and demonstrate its cruciality for understanding science. Purpose: The purpose of this study was to investigate characteristics of the classroom discourse in lessons on physics. Sample: Classroom…

Troubleshooting activities require students to diagnose teacher-crafted erroneous examples by detecting and explaining the conceptual errors driving them. In a previous study, the author tested whether diagnosing erroneous examples and then scoring them using a rubric that contained the related worked examples, a step-by-step strategy to solve a…

In the past three decades in high-income countries, female students have outperformed male students in most indicators of educational attainment. However, the underrepresentation of girls and women in science courses and careers, especially in physics, computer sciences, and engineering, remains persistent. What is often neglected by the vast…

Research indicates that troubleshooting activities that require students to reflect on pre-prepared erroneous examples, i.e. erroneous solutions to problems that correspond to common naïve ideas, impact their learning positively. These include asking students to diagnose erroneous examples; in other words, detect the conceptual errors and then…

The goal of this research is to provide a rich set of connections between two fields: (i) Nanoscale science and technology (NST) and (ii) topics from a common middle school physics curriculum. NST is emerging as one of the most promising new fields of the 21st century, which is one of the many arguments for including NST topics in secondary…

For research areas to advance, researchers are required to carry out studies that are in line with the inadequacies in the field and to have a grasp of the studies in the field. One of the most important means of identifying inadequacies in a field is to review studies between certain years. In this sense, it is important to analyze the…

[This paper is part of the Focused Collection on Curriculum Development: Theory into Design.] We discuss the theoretical underpinnings that informed the considerations and decisions that shaped the design of a curriculum unit entitled "Electromagnetic radiation--principles, applications, and decisions". This unit is part (45 h) of the…