Abstract of Invited poster to be presented at the Physics Education Research Conference 2000: Teacher Education in Guelph, Ontario, Canada, 2 - 3 August 2000.
EDUCATING PRE-SERVICE PHYSICS TEACHERS AT HÖGSKOLAN DALARNA IN SWEDEN*
Jonte Bernhard**
Campus Norrköping, Linköping University, S-60174
Norrköping, Sweden
E-mail: jonbe@itn.liu.se
Homepage: http://www.itn.liu.se/~jonbe
In Sweden physics is taught as a separate subject from the
Swedish grade 7 (13 years old). Pre-service teachers who study
to become certified as science and physics teachers in Swedish
grade 49 take calculus based physics. The minimum requirement
for graduation at Högskolan Dalarna is the study of Young-Freedman
"University Physics" including Modern Physics and also
a short course in Astronomy and some Electronics. The Physics
course also includes a short introduction to Physics Education
Research.
Microcomputer Based Labs (MBL) in physics teaching were first
introduced at Högskolan Dalarna in the 1994/95 academic year
and first used by pre-service teachers in the 1995/96 academic
year. In physics courses for pre-service teachers we have used
MBL-labs in mechanics, thermodynamics and electricity/electronics
courses. The students have very well received these labs. Typical
pre-test values for the pre-service teachers on the FCI have been
around 50% with post-test values between 65 72%.
A secondary, but very important, effect of using MBL-labs is the
training of the pre-service teachers in the use of computers and
it's use in a science education context. Since teachers tend to
teach in the way they have been taught it is very important that
pre-service teachers have experience using computers and experience
of active engagement methods from their own training. Thus the
MBL-labs serves the dual purpose of better educating the pre-service
teachers in physics and in physics teaching.
* Partial financial support from the Swedish National Agency
for Higher Education, Council for Renewal of Undergraduate Education,
is gratefully acknowledged.
** The work described in this paper was mainly done while the
author was employed at Högskolan Dalarna.
Link to poster (pdf-format)