FYS4810 ¨C Physics Education Research and Practice

Course content

The course gives an introduction to physics education research and practice, focusing on teaching, students' relation to the subject, and how physics teachers specifically can work on motivating and helping students to understand different areas of physics. The course also looks at physics as a science discipline and its relation to society.

Learning outcome

After completing this course, you:

• are familiar with physics education as an academic field and with central concepts and terminology, and?be able to discuss the position of physics in school, educational system, and society,?
• are able to discuss the nature of physics and give examples from its historical development.
• can describe learning theory relevant to learning physics and natural science, including the role of language in the learning process
• can develop and evaluate research-based teaching in physics and give reasons for choices of topic content and teaching approaches.
• can discuss the role of experimental work, inquiry approaches, modeling, and programming of?digital tools in physics teaching, and master experiments and equipment that are central to school physics
• can extract useful information from research texts in physics education and critically assess such texts.
• can reflect on the role of physics in society, for instance with reference to challenges within energy, climate, and health.

And one of these:

• are are?able to navigate in, and make use of, research literature in physics education
• can design, perform, and report on a physics experiment and comment on this in light of physics education research and practice.

Admission to the course

Students admitted at UiO must?apply for courses?in Studentweb. Students enrolled in other Master's Degree Programmes can, on application, be admitted to the course if this is cleared by their own study programme.

If you are not already enrolled as a student at UiO, please see our information about?admission requirements and procedures for international applicants.

This course is not available for single course students.

Recommended previous knowledge

A minimum of 60 ECTS within physics and astronomy.

Overlapping courses

• 10 credits overlap with FYS3810 ¨C Physics Education Research and Practice.
• 5 credits overlap with FYS2150L ¨C Practical work in physics education (discontinued).

Teaching

The course extends over a full semester with 5 hours of teaching per week, 75 hours in total per semester. The teaching includes:

• Lectures
• Laboratory exercises
• Group work

Considering the time we spend on theory, group work, and discussions, and laboratory exercises, the teaching will be flexible.

• This course has 3 mandatory laboratory reports that must be submitted and approved before you can take the final exam.
• Attendance of minimum 60 % is mandatory; absence of more than 40 % requires medical documentation or must be specifically clarified with the course administration

As?the?teaching involves laboratory and/or fieldwork, you should consider taking out separate travel and personal risk insurance. Read about your insurance cover as a student.

Examination

• Final oral exam, possibly with a practical experiment, which counts 100 % towards the final grade.

3 mandatory laboratory reports and a theoretical or experimental assignment, must be approved before you can take the final exam.

It will also be counted as one of the three attempts to sit the exam for this course, if you sit the exam for one of the following courses: FYS3810 ¨C Physics Education Research and Practice

Examination support material

30 minutes preparation time with all available support material. No support material during the exam.

Language of examination

You may write your examination paper in Norwegian, Swedish, Danish or English.

Grading scale

Grades are awarded on a scale from A to F, where A is the best grade and F is a fail. Read more about the grading system.

Resit an examination

Students who can document a valid reason for absence from the regular examination are offered a?postponed exam?at the beginning of the next semester.

New examinations?are offered at the beginning of the next semester for students who do not successfully complete the exam during the previous semester.

We do not offer a re-scheduled exam for students who withdraw during the exam.

More about examinations at UiO

• Use of sources and citations
• Special exam arrangements due to individual needs
• Withdrawal from an exam
• Illness at exams / postponed exams
• Explanation of grades and appeals
• Resitting an exam
• Cheating/attempted cheating

You will find further guides and resources at the web page on examinations at UiO.