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The Role of History and Philosophy in Research on Teaching and Learning of Relativity

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International Handbook of Research in History, Philosophy and Science Teaching

Abstract

The paper provides an overview of the studies on teaching/learning special relativity carried out in physics education research. The purpose of the overview is to (i) show the main research strands or dimensions (namely, conceptual change, curriculum design and teacher education) on which the problem of improving teaching/learning of special relativity has been projected in order to be studied, (ii) present, within each strand, the results that can be considered stable and/or reflective of our most current understanding, along with the issues that remain unresolved and (iii) highlight the roles ascribed to history and philosophy of physics in the specific research domain which concerns teaching/learning special relativity.

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Notes

  1. 1.

    Italics is, significantly, in the original text. It is not added.

  2. 2.

    In a recent survey carried out with about 100 prospective French teachers (de Hosson et al. 2010), a variation of the Scherr and colleagues problem is used in order to identify ‘the types of reasoning implemented by prospective physics teachers faced with situations of classical and relativistic kinematics’. Even though the criteria used by the researchers for distinguishing classical and relativistic kinematics seem somehow unconventional, the results confirm what Scherr and colleagues achieved.

  3. 3.

    The role of thermodynamics in the genesis of SR is extensively argued in the paper of Abiko (2005) which will be discussed later.

  4. 4.

    Also the invariance of mass is strictly related to the relativistic space-time structure, being the module of energy- momentum 4-vector. This point is addressed very effectively by Taylor and Wheeler, and it would be worth understanding why many textbooks and teachers still use the notion of relativistic mass (a mass dependent of velocity), in spite of the sharp criticisms known in literature (e.g. Adler 1987; Warren 1976; Whitaker 1976).

  5. 5.

    The words in italics are technical words within the coordination class model. Their detailed explanation is beyond the scope of the paper. They are extensively described in the paper I am reviewing (Levrini and diSessa 2008).

  6. 6.

    See, for example, Arriassecq and Greca (2010), Borghi et al. (1993), Cortini et al. (1977), Cortini (1978), Fabri (2005), Levrini (2002a, b), Solbes (1986), and Villani and Arruda (1998) for secondary school students and Angotti et al. (1978), Scherr et al. (2002) for university students. The list is certainly incomplete. I am quoting only the proposals I found cited in the research literature. Yet, in some cases, I did not have direct access to the whole texts because they are teaching texts and, hence, written only in the national language.

  7. 7.

    See Borghi et al. (1993), Cortini et al. (1977), Cortini (1978), and Fabri (2005).

  8. 8.

    See Arriassecq and Greca (2010), Levrini (2002a, b), Solbes (1986), and Villani and Arruda (1998).

  9. 9.

    See Gil and Solbes (1993), Levrini and diSessa (2008), Scherr et al. (2001, 2002), and Villani and Arruda (1998).

  10. 10.

    See, for example, Bevilacqua et al. (2001), Cobern (2000), Duschl (1985), Gauld (1991), and Matthews (1994).

  11. 11.

    Within this debate, very strong positions can be also found for supporting the role played by Poincaré (see, e.g. Bjerknes C. J. (2002), Albert Einstein, The Incorrigible Plagiarist, XTX Inc, Downers Grove, Illinois ; Hladik J. (2004). Comment le jeune et ambitieux Einstein s’est appoprié la Relativité restreinte de Poincaré, Ellipses Édition Markenting S.A, Paris; Leveugle J. (2004). La Relativité, Poincaré et Enstein, Planck, Hilbert. Histoire véridique de la Théorie de la Relativité, L’ Harmattan, Paris).

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Acknowledgments

 The author wishes to thank readers of previous drafts of this paper (or parts of it) for comments that improved the content and presentation. This includes the Research Group in Physics Education at the Department of Physics and Astronomy of the University of Bologna (in particular, Paola Fantini, Marta Gagliardi, Nella Grimellini Tomasini, Barbara Pecori), Anna De Ambrosis, Andrea A. diSessa, Enrico Giannetto, Mariana Levin and Zalkida Hadzibegovic. I am very grateful to the manuscript reviewers for the Handbook who helped refine and clarify arguments. A special thanks to Prof. Colin Gauld for his patient work in copyediting the manuscript.

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  1. Department of Physics and Astronomy, University of Bologna, Bologna, 40127, Italy

    Olivia Levrini

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  1. School of Education, University of New South Wales, Sydney, New South Wales, Australia

    Michael R. Matthews

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Levrini, O. (2014). The Role of History and Philosophy in Research on Teaching and Learning of Relativity. In: Matthews, M. (eds) International Handbook of Research in History, Philosophy and Science Teaching. Springer, Dordrecht. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-94-007-7654-8_6

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