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The objective of this paper is to discuss the relationship between academic training of Physics teachers in High School and some subjective variables. These variables are related to the concepts of Personal Efficacy Beliefs of Physics Teachers and the General Efficacy Beliefs in Physics Teaching, inspired by Bandura's Social Cognitive Theory (2005) and in theorizations by followers (WOOLFOLK; ROY, 1990; RIGGS; ENOCHS, 1990). The data were collected during the years 2006 and 2007 through a closed questions questionnaire applied to 136 teachers from public and private schools in Brazil. For data analysis we used a quantitative methodology, specifically the Kruskal-Wallis test, in an attempt to relate some factors that constitute the above mentioned beliefs and academic training of Physics teachers in High School. The results demonstrate the specific training of Physics teacher as a positive condition for the variables studied. In this sense, the academic training of the Physics teacher is highlighted as an important factor in offering a motivating teaching environment. This is a great challenge in our country, where we have a large deficit of graduates in this discipline (GOBARA; GARCIA, 2007). In parallel to the offer of appropriate training for Physics teachers, it is necessary to focus on providing conditions and incentives for these professionals to stay in the profession, especially in public schools. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The following paper presents a study about the student familiarity with analogue situations. In order to do this, it was determined to what extent analogue situations presented to students in teaching activities can be considered familiar as well as their justifications given to evaluate the familiarity. Then, firstly were used some questionnaires that were applied to 112 second and third grade students of four High Schools in Candelária, Nova Palma and Santa Maria in the state of Rio Grande do Sul, Brazil. After that, some individual interviews with a sample of 06 students from one of the schools involved in the study was done. The answer analysis showed that: a) the students considered familiar just the situations effectively lived; b) some students created new analogies, comparing them to the ones already presented, just changing from student to student the analogy elaborated; c) the analogues that seem appropriated to scientists and teachers sometimes were not presented in the same way to the students, once they rejected them; d) the need for justifying the analogues familiarity enabled the students to explore their personal experiences in order to find out other analogues that could justify the first ones; e) the justifications to the familiarity came from different foundations while some students recurred to lived situations and/or professional experiences, others appeal to the knowledge classified in the school contents; f) the students showed scientific knowledge and information which were learned in and out of the school as well as they used these knowledge and informations to produce their answers; g) the analogues came from a conceptual topic of a specific scientific domain, always face the risk of being little familiar; h) in some regions, some analogue situations showed not familiar to students and familiar to others; i) the socio-cultural aspects from the region where the students live tend to condition the knowledge they use to demonstrate upon the analogues. Finally, it is suggested that teachers verify which analogues should be used in a given context. Besides that, it is advisable, during the analogy teaching, to give preference to analogues present in the students everyday life or suggested by them. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]