Chapter 14
IDIFO6 MQ_P: A Course for In-Service
Secondary School Teachers Education
on Modern Physics
Daniele Buongiorno, Marisa Michelini, Lorenzo Santi, and Alberto Stefanel
Abstract The recent demanding for innovation with respect to modern physics
topics in secondary school curricula and the possibility for a new final exam in the
school year 2016/2017 in which modern physics could be a predominant part drove
Italian secondary school teachers in requesting a specific training. Project IDIFO6,
coordinated by Physics Education Research Unit (PERU) from University of Udine
(IT) allowed to respond positively to the request of 25 physics and mathematics
secondary school teachers from a network of school from Veneto, proposing them a
specific course named MQ_P on modern physics topics. The structure and contents
of the course have been designed in a tight cooperation between PERU and the
involved teachers, sharing with them topics, teaching sequences, methodologies, and
research questions. A setting integrating experiential and situated models in teacher
formation allowed participants to experience actively scientific-cultural problems
that the introduction of modern physics sets on conceptual plan in designing
didactical proposals integrating operative aspects in the form of experimental,
interpretative, and problem solving activities. At the end of the course, every
participant revised individually the contents addressed and two rubrics guided the
planning of the teaching intervention. Here we analyze teachers’ works in which
they put into practice in their classes the outcomes of their formation.
14.1 Introduction
In-service secondary school teacher formation in Italy is mainly due to self-training
during school activities (Luzzato 1999; Pugliese et al. 1999; Dutto 2001; Bonetta
et al. 2002; Dutto et al. 2003a, b) and, despite a law dating back to year 1990 (Law
D. Buongiorno (*) · M. Michelini · A. Stefanel
Physics Education Research Unit, DMIF, University of Udine, Udine, Italy
e-mail: buongiorno.daniele@spes.uniud.it; marisa.michelini@uniud.it; alberto.stefanel@uniud.it
L. Santi
DMIF-URDF, Università degli Studi di Udine, Udine, Italy
e-mail: lorenzo.santi@uniud.it
© Springer Nature Switzerland AG 2021
B. G. Sidharth et al. (eds.), Fundamental Physics and Physics Education Research,
https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-030-52923-9_14
175
IDIFO6 MQ_P: A Course for In-Service
Secondary School Teachers Education
on Modern Physics
Daniele Buongiorno, Marisa Michelini, Lorenzo Santi, and Alberto Stefanel
Abstract The recent demanding for innovation with respect to modern physics
topics in secondary school curricula and the possibility for a new final exam in the
school year 2016/2017 in which modern physics could be a predominant part drove
Italian secondary school teachers in requesting a specific training. Project IDIFO6,
coordinated by Physics Education Research Unit (PERU) from University of Udine
(IT) allowed to respond positively to the request of 25 physics and mathematics
secondary school teachers from a network of school from Veneto, proposing them a
specific course named MQ_P on modern physics topics. The structure and contents
of the course have been designed in a tight cooperation between PERU and the
involved teachers, sharing with them topics, teaching sequences, methodologies, and
research questions. A setting integrating experiential and situated models in teacher
formation allowed participants to experience actively scientific-cultural problems
that the introduction of modern physics sets on conceptual plan in designing
didactical proposals integrating operative aspects in the form of experimental,
interpretative, and problem solving activities. At the end of the course, every
participant revised individually the contents addressed and two rubrics guided the
planning of the teaching intervention. Here we analyze teachers’ works in which
they put into practice in their classes the outcomes of their formation.
14.1 Introduction
In-service secondary school teacher formation in Italy is mainly due to self-training
during school activities (Luzzato 1999; Pugliese et al. 1999; Dutto 2001; Bonetta
et al. 2002; Dutto et al. 2003a, b) and, despite a law dating back to year 1990 (Law
D. Buongiorno (*) · M. Michelini · A. Stefanel
Physics Education Research Unit, DMIF, University of Udine, Udine, Italy
e-mail: buongiorno.daniele@spes.uniud.it; marisa.michelini@uniud.it; alberto.stefanel@uniud.it
L. Santi
DMIF-URDF, Università degli Studi di Udine, Udine, Italy
e-mail: lorenzo.santi@uniud.it
© Springer Nature Switzerland AG 2021
B. G. Sidharth et al. (eds.), Fundamental Physics and Physics Education Research,
https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-030-52923-9_14
175