Abstract
The interrelations between Physics and Mathematics caught the attention of the physics education research community. Focusing mainly on students and teachers competency, the research in physics education (PER) found that learners, at different ages and levels, lack the ability to construct the mathematical models of physical processes or to describe the physical meaning of mathematical constructs. Mathematical knowledge was also found to reflect on the quality of explanations of physical phenomena. (Clement et al. 1981; Cohen et al. 1983; Rozier and Viennot in International Journal of Science Education 13:159–170, 1991; Rebmann and Viennot 1994; Bagno et al. in Physics Education 43(1):75–82, 2007; Redish and Smith in Journal of Engineering Education 97(3):295–307, 2008; Baumert et al. 2010; Zuccarini and Michelini 2014). The approach that underlines our study adopts the view that the context of physics teaching invites investigating the interplay between physics and mathematics. This “Phys-Math” interplay is regarded as a complex two ways track by which the knowledge and understanding of physics is constructed by learners. Our multi-national group examines this subject from various perspectives: history and philosophy of science as well as its instruction in different levels from high school to university (Eylon et al. 2010; Pospiech and Matthias 2011; Lehavi et al. 2013; Pospiech et al. 2014, 2015). The present study follows our previous research in which we addressed, through interviews, the “Phys-Math” PCK of expert high school physics teachers from Israel and Germany (Lehavi et al. 2013, 2015; Pospiech et al. 2015). Here we report on a study which follows this research by analysing data collected from classes. The data was collected by videotaping physics lessons at middle school level. The videotapes were analysed, looking specifically for incidents in which Phys-Math interplay is evident.
This is a preview of subscription content, log in via an institution.
Buying options
Tax calculation will be finalised at checkout
Purchases are for personal use only
Learn about institutional subscriptionsNotes
- 1.
It is possible to measure the speed directly via the Doppler Effect. However, this was not the strategy adopted here by the teacher.
References
Abell, S. K. (2007). Research on science teacher knowledge (Chapter 36). In S. K. Abell & N. G. Lederman (Eds.), Research on science teacher education (pp. 1105–1149). New York: Routledge.
Bagno, E., Eylon, B., & Berger, H. (2007). Meeting the challenge of students’ understanding formulas in high-school physics—A learning tool. Physics Education, 43(1), 75–82.
Etkina, E. (2010). Pedagogical content knowledge and preparation of high school physics teachers. Physical Review Special Topics: Physics Education Research, 6, 2.
Eylon, B., Cohen, E., & Bagno, E. (2010). The interplay of physics and mathematics in a graduate quantum mechanics course for physics teachers, talk given in GIREP-conference 2010 in the Symposium. Addressing the Role of Mathematics in Physics Education.
Hull, M., Kuo, E., Gupta, A., & Elby, A. (2013). Problem-solving rubrics revisited: Attending to the blending of informal conceptual and formal mathematical reasoning. Physical Review Special Topics: Physics Education Research, 9, 1.
Karam, R. (2014). Framing the structural role of mathematics in physics lectures: A case study on electromagnetism. Physical Review Special Topics: Physics Education Research, 10(1).
Karam, R., & Krey, O. (2015, February). Quod erat demonstrandum: Understanding and explaining equations in physics teacher education. Science & Education, 24(5), 661–698.
Kuo, E., Hull, M. M., Gupta, A., & Elby, A. (2013). How students blend conceptual and formal mathematical reasoning in solving physics problems. Science & Education, 97, 32.
Lehavi, Y., Bagno, E., Eylon, B.-S., & Cohen, E. (2013). Can math for physics teachers impact their conceptual knowledge of physics? An oral presentation given in the 2013 Girep conference, Prague.
Lehavi, Y., Bagno, E., Eylon, B. S., Mualem, R., Pospiech, G., Böhm, U., et al. (2015). Towards a PCK of Physics and Mathematics interplay. In The GIREP MPTL 2014 Conference Proceedings (Accepted for publication).
Magnusson, S., Krajcik, J., & Borko, H. (1999) Nature, sources and development of pedagogical content knowledge for science teaching. In J. Gess-Newsome & N. G. Lederman (Eds.), Examining pedagogical content knowledge: The construct and its implications for science education (pp. 95–133). Dordrecht: Kluwer Academic Publishers.
Pospiech, G., & Matthias, S. (2011). Quantum physics in teacher education. In Proceedings of the 12th International Symposium Frontiers of Fundamental Physics [FFP12], Udine. http://www.fisica.uniud.it/~ffp12/proceedings.html
Pospiech, G., Eylon, B. S., Bagno, E., Lehavi, Y., & Geyer, M. A. (2015). The role of mathematics for physics teaching and understanding. In The GIREP MPTL 2014 Conference Proceedings (Accepted for publication).
Redish, E. F., & Smith, K. A. (2008). Looking beyond content: Skill development for engineers. Journal of Engineering Education, 97(3), 295–307.
Rozier, S., & Viennot, L. (1991). Students’ reasoning in thermodynamics. International Journal of Science Education., 13, 159–170.
Author information
Authors and Affiliations
Corresponding author
Editor information
Editors and Affiliations
Rights and permissions
Copyright information
© 2017 Springer International Publishing Switzerland
About this paper
Cite this paper
Lehavi, Y. et al. (2017). Classroom Evidence of Teachers’ PCK of the Interplay of Physics and Mathematics. In: Greczyło, T., Dębowska, E. (eds) Key Competences in Physics Teaching and Learning. Springer Proceedings in Physics, vol 190. Springer, Cham. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-319-44887-9_8
Download citation
DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-319-44887-9_8
Published:
Publisher Name: Springer, Cham
Print ISBN: 978-3-319-44886-2
Online ISBN: 978-3-319-44887-9
eBook Packages: Physics and AstronomyPhysics and Astronomy (R0)