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According to cognitive and spiritual developmental theories, individuals construct and transcend their previous thought processes by incorporating more sophisticated ways of understanding the world as they progress through stages requiring efforts in different modes of thought. These theories focus on the importance of contextual variables in development and emphasize that these variables will spark a change in cognitive and spiritual development or awareness. We have investigated the effects of blended learning on cognitive learning and spiritual interpretations of science teacher candidates. The study with a quasi-experimental design had 54 science teacher candidates attending the science education department of a state university in Turkey. Our study showed that when learning Einstein's theory of special relativity, a blended learning environment affects students' cognitive learning positively. In the spiritual sense, too, significant results were found in favor of the blended learning group students. This effect that triggers spiritual change has been discussed in two contexts: "the effect embedded in the variable" and "indirect effect from the variable." If supported by further research, the results of this study suggest that the spiritual dimension can be incorporated into three domains of learning, namely cognitive, affective, and psychomotor. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This article examines the impact of a professional development program aimed at encouraging high school teachers to include more modern physics in their enacted classroom curricula through improved content and pedagogical knowledge. The program was implemented with 17 high school physics teachers (three were the focal point of this study) in Turkey. A multi-case study using mixed-methods analysis followed by a cross-case analysis revealed conceptual and pedagogical gains. Teachers' higher scores on an achievement test indicated their development of increased subject-matter knowledge. Further, classroom observation revealed a shift from lecturing to dialogic practices centered on student sense-making such as discussion, questioning, and interactive use of technology (simulations, videos). In alignment with the professional development, teachers devoted more instructional time to modern physics, increased the conceptual scope of their lessons (more concepts were taught), and adopted instructional approaches that were more dialogic. It is argued that the combined use of legal mandate and teacher development can help address the problematic status of Einsteinian physics as an absent curriculum at the high school level. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Teacher professional development, in particular, has been at the center of efforts designed to increase teaching practice and the learning of students. The aim of the study was to investigate the effect of the 'teacher-led PD for teachers' program, developed by the researchers, on students' achievements. The study was conducted with six high school physics teachers and 306 students in Turkey. The professional development intervention lasted for seven weeks, and teachers had 21 hours of professional development regarding modern physics at high school level. The results of ANCOVA showed that there was a significant effect of the teacher-led PD for teachers program on students' achievements. The successful implementation indicated that the teacher-led PD for teachers program possesses effective characteristics of professional development and can improve student achievement. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The aim of this study is to investigate pre-service teachers' understanding of and difficulties with some core concepts in the special theory of relativity. The pre-service teachers (n = 185) from the Departments of Physics Education and Elementary Science Education at Dokuz Eylul University (in Turkey) participated. Both quantitative and qualitative research methods were used in this study. Students' understanding of and difficulties with core elements (time, length, mass and density) were tested using a paper-and-pencil questionnaire (including four questions) and in-depth interviews after the instruction of related modern physics topics. The analyses of the collected data were based on quantitative and qualitative techniques. The results indicate that pre-service teachers at different academic levels have specific and considerable difficulties with proper time, time dilation, proper length, mass and relativistic density concepts. In this paper, the conclusions of the study and implications for physics teaching are discussed. (Contains 4 figures.)