Understanding the phenomena involved in Modern and Contemporary Physics: Problem-solving in the didactical transposition

• Grant number: 12/21836-7
• Support Opportunities: Scholarships in Brazil - Post-Doctoral
• Start date: August 01, 2013
• End date: July 31, 2015
• Field of knowledge: Humanities - Education - Educational Teaching and Learning
• Principal Investigator: Mauricio Pietrocola Pinto de Oliveira
• Grantee: María Elena Truyol
• Host Institution: Faculdade de Educação (FE). Universidade de São Paulo (USP). São Paulo , SP, Brazil

Abstract

The upgrade of the curriculum in order to include topics of Modern and Contemporary Physics has been required for more than two decades. The need to prepare citizens to be able to act critically in today's highly technological society requires the inclusion of new knowledge (Pietrocola, 2008). Investigations already carried out and based on the theoretical framework called "Comprehension Model for Physics-Problem Solving" (Truyol and Gangoso, 2010, 2012), showed that it is possible to select the problems of MCP taking to account instructional objectives and the epistemological and pedagogical-didactic obstacles related to them. Thus, one could reframe the educational proposals that employ problem solving considering the knowledge and characteristics of the cognitive structure and the current training needs. This research aims to produce knowledge that can facilitate the design of strategies for teaching physics classes. The main objectives are: to enhance the theoretical knowledge of pedagogical and epistemological obstacles related to a model for comprehension for physics problem-solving; to develop instructional materials for teaching MCP based on the results of the research area that consider characteristics of the subjects, the task and context; to develop a project that allows the realization of a review of the implementation of the proposal; to build instruments based on investigations of the area that can be shared with researchers and teachers.