Training Teachers For New Ways Of Understanding Physics Teaching From Its Mathematization

Abstract

Using mathematics in physics teaching often becomes an obstacle to learning. About this problem, we study possibilities of training future teachers for new understandings about the relationship between physics and mathematics. Our main frame of reference is a research sequence developed in the Teaching and Learning of Physics research group. Data arose from participant observation in the “Didactics of Physics” course in an initial teacher training program. It was qualitative research of case study type, with 20 students finishing their training process. We focused on addressing the "mathematization of physics for teaching" in three phases by developing ways to enrich classroom interaction using experimental resources, technologies, and literature. The three phases were the criteria for planning and executing the course. 1) Phenomenological approach; 2) Physical systems observation and; 3) Conceptual modeling. Results show how students substantially changed the way of creating explanations in physics to the point of being able to work on topics that they did not understand at the beginning, such as Minkowski diagrams, quantum entanglement, and the concept of entropy. We found evidence of real possibilities to get out of the traditional way of presenting mathematics in physics, understanding the mathematization as a natural and mental process to see nature.