FYS3810 – Physics Education Research and Practice
Course description
Schedule, syllabus and examination date
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.
Admission to the course
Students who are admitted to study programmes at UiO must each semester register which courses and exams they wish to sign up for?in Studentweb.
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 FYS4810 – Physics Education Research and Practice.
- 5 credits overlap with FYS2150L – 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 a separate travel and personal risk insurance.?Read about your insurance cover as a student.
Examination
- Final oral exam, possibly including?a practical experiment, which counts 100 % towards the final grade.
3 mandatory laboratory?reports must be submitted and 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: FYS4810 – 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 submit your response 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.