Abstract
Special relativity theory (SRT) has recently gained popularity as a first introduction to “modern” physics thinking in upper level secondary physics education. A central idea in SRT is the absolute speed of light, with light propagating with uniform speed relative to the reference frame of the observer. Previous research suggests that students, building on their prior understandings of light propagation and relative motion, develop misunderstandings of this idea. The available research provides little detail on the reasoning processes underlying these misunderstandings. We therefore studied secondary education students’ preinstructional reasoning about the speed of light in a qualitative study, probing students’ reasoning through both verbal reasoning and drawing. Event diagrams (EDs) were used as a representational tool to support student reasoning. Results show that students productively use EDs to reason with light propagation. In line with previous research, we found two alternative reference frames students could use for uniform light propagation. Most students show a flexibility in their use of reference frame: They not only evaluate light propagation in their preferred frame of reference, but also relative to other frames. Some students experienced conflict between an alternative reference frame and the speed of light and changed their reasoning because of that. This finding suggests promising directions for designing education.Received 8 May 2019DOI:https://doi.org/10.1103/PhysRevPhysEducRes.15.020123Published by the American Physical Society under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 International license. Further distribution of this work must maintain attribution to the author(s) and the published article’s title, journal citation, and DOI.Published by the American Physical SocietyPhysics Subject Headings (PhySH)Research AreasConcepts & principlesScientific reasoning & problem solvingSpecial relativityPhysics Education Research
Highlights
The interest for introducing modern physics in secondary school is growing
We will first discuss how participants worked with the Event diagrams (EDs) and if the tasks triggered student responses that were in line with the aim of the task design
We found that all but one of the participants could work with EDs
Summary
The interest for introducing modern physics in secondary school is growing. Novel teaching approaches about topics such as quantum mechanics, nanoscience, and Einstein’s theories of relativity, both special and general, have been developed and included in national curricula [1,2,3,4] This is the case for the Netherlands, where the modern topics quantum mechanics, particle physics, and special relativity theory were introduced in the final years of preuniversity level secondary physics education. These modern physics topics are characterized by their mathematical complexity, their lack of daily life reference, and their often counterintuitive concepts and consequences. Students have not yet mastered the formal techniques to solve meaningful quantitative problems This favors a conceptual approach in secondary schools. In the subtasks for task B, the observer and/or the room are moving, relative to each other or relative to the paper
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