Physics teachers' conceptions of learning, teaching and professional development

Abstract

In this paper the question is addressed as to whether physics teachers' conceptions of teaching are related to their conceptions of their own learning. Both a questionnaire and interviews were used in order to investigate physics teachers' conceptions of teaching and learning concerning goals and approaches in teaching and teachers own professional development. Goals involved include structuralist, realistic and personal development goals of teaching physics, structuralist and realistic goals in physics learning and growth as a teacher. Approaches investigated in this study are physics teaching as facilitating active knowledge construction of students, physics learning as active construction of knowledge and an internal orientation in the development of self as a teacher. Moreover, whether teachers' conceptions of goals and approaches in teaching and learning are related to teacher characteristics was investigated. The expectation that the ways in which teachers want to teach and their goals in teaching are related to their approach and goals in their own learning process was confirmed quite convincingly, in the questionnaire results as well as in the interviews.