Abstract
Abstract In this work, we show the results from a research made in a curricular innovation situation, whose main focus was to assess the performance of a teacher which implemented a teaching sequence on the concept of mass. This process began by a revision of the concept of mass in three different frameworks, namely classical mechanics, electromagnetism and relativity, with the purpose of addressing the epistemological changes of the subject from Newtonian mechanics to relativity. This revision yielded a written material about the theme and was employed in the development of the teaching sequence, which had as main methodology the Design Based Research. Our main research focus concerns the performance of the implementer teacher and his appropriation of the underlying didactic intention. In order to assess how effectively this teacher did absorb the intentions of the course he delivered, we relied on Chevallard’s Didactic Transposition Theory. Data were extracted from recordings of the teacher’s classes and the subsequent analysis has shown that there may be a relation between the difficulties he had in conveying the didactic intention and the innovative character of the contents involved. Our results indicate that these difficulties are directly related with the very nature of scientific knowledge and, in fact, belong to the realm of epistemology.
Highlights
Research on curriculum innovation is recurrent in science education
The teaching-learning sequence (TLS) is centered around the concept of mass, we found it necessary to discuss the meaning of other instrumental concepts during the design process, such as binding energy, potential well, field, momentum, and energy
The five didactic intention components presented in the previous section were used to analyze the lessons 1, 4 and 6 delivered by the implementer teacher
Summary
In Brazil, several researchers have discussed the problems of inserting modern physics into high schools and efforts were directed mostly to the development of methodologies and strategies, aimed at improving approaches to innovative contents. Since the 1980s, these studies have emphasized a need for curriculum changes, so as to incorporate both modern scientific theories and their worldviews, especially relativity and quantum mechanics, into education [1,2,3,4,5]. Research has often an interventionist character, with the purpose of developing teaching strategies for modern topics. At University of São Paulo, there is a group called Research Nucleus in Curricular Innovation (NUPIC), composed by researchers, lecturers, and post-graduate students which, in the last decade, has been developing didactic materials on modern physics to be introduced into public schools. The NUPIC project is focused on high school teachers and develops strategies
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