Abstract
This study examines the knowledge for teaching of prospective secondary physics teachers as related to the subject of sound waves, specifically the topics of sound level and sound intensity. The data is comprised from future teachers’ responses to the task in which they had to compose a script for an imaginary dialogue between a teacher and a group of students and provide a commentary elaborating on their instructional choices. The topics selected for the task were chosen intentionally as they provide authentic and rich opportunities to bridge mathematics and science concepts while challenging future teachers to consider logarithmic measurement scale and its role in science. The task provided the beginning of the dialogue, that featured a student’s confusion related to the measurement of the sound level using a decibel scale. Future physics teachers were asked to extend this dialogue through describing envisioned instructional interactions that could have ensued. The instructional interchange related to the relationship between sound intensity and sound level, and particular teachers’ responses to the student ideas related to the meaning of a decibel sound level scale were categorized as featuring superficial or deep, conceptual or procedural knowledge for teaching. We describe each category using illustrative excerpts from the participants’ scripts. We conclude with highlighting the affordances of scriptwriting for teachers, teacher educators, and researchers.
Highlights
Exploring ways to describe and strengthen teachers’ knowledge has long been of interest to science educators and researchers
We engaged a group of future physics teachers in extending an imaginary dialogue between a teacher and several students, in which a student exhibited confusion about the measurement of sound level and the meaning of the differences in measures expressed in decibels
While scriptwriting was used in a variety of studies in mathematics education, our contribution is in extending the applicability of scriptwriting to physics education
Summary
Exploring ways to describe and strengthen teachers’ knowledge has long been of interest to science educators and researchers. (McDermott, 2001; McDermott et al, 2006) Within this general avenue of science education research, we focus on the topic of sound, sound level and sound intensity. We proceed with a brief overview of the concepts related to sound level and sound intensity and conclude with describing prior education research on sound and logarithms. Contemporary frameworks focusing on knowledge for teaching (K4T) have expounded on a variety of additional facets. These include the familiarity with the subject and its overall structure, understanding how the subject matter relates to other subjects and everyday life, awareness of potential student difficulties and willingness to use modern technologies to support student learning (Milner-Bolotin, 2019, 2020). Descriptions of K4T often highlight topics related to the current state of affairs in the field of education, such as contemporary advances in educational technologies, ethical challenges, student
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