Strategies in formative intervention modules for physics education of primary school teachers: a coordinated research in Reggio Emilia and Udine

It is nowadays universally recognized that the training of teachers, especially primary school teachers, requires integration of the education in physics and in the psychological and pedagogical fields.Therefore, a cultural background in physics is necessary, as well as knowledge of the conceptual difficulties and of the teaching methods typical of the discipline itself. The formation in a specific field of knowledge has to provide teachers with the capability of transferring concepts.Hence the problem is how to realize a formation supplying educational tools for different situations and contexts, therefore improving teaching competences. Different educational models have been proposed, referring to teaching equipments and operational strategies in meta-cultural, experiential, or situated forms.This work moves from the assumption that pre-service training of teachers requires education in this discipline through the teaching of the discipline itself. This objective can be achieved by means of teaching activities in which the planning as well as the reflection on didactical proposals are an integral part of the teaching process. Moreover, the direct involvement is considered to be effective only when it is operative and tasks and goals to be reached are clearly defined.We have selected different strategies based on such hypotheses and characterized by being set in real situation and by realizing operative involvement. Not completely defined instruments have been offered because the elaboration and the planning phases are considered a part of the intervention therefore integrating professional formation with disciplinary formation.The present research refers to the study of the impact of such a strategy on students of the 2nd year of the Primary Education Sciences Course (PESC). The analysis is centred on the improvement of critical and planning capacities for the construction of professional competences in physics education, with particular care on the planning of single experimental activities, of explorative experimental chains and of maps and conceptual networks for the definition of paths for formal instruments management, either for personal exploration, or for didactical proposal definition.