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To demonstrate how state-of-the-art video databases can address issues related to the lack of preparation of many physics teachers, we have created the prototype Physics Teaching Web Advisory (Pathway). Pathway’s Synthetic Interviews and related video materials are beginning to provide pre-service and out-of-field in-service teachers with much-needed professional development and well-prepared teachers with new perspectives on teaching physics. The prototype was limited to a demonstration of the systems. Now, with an additional grant we will extend the system and conduct research and evaluation on its effectiveness. This project will provide virtual expert help on issues of pedagogy and content. In particular, the system will convey, by example and explanation, contemporary ideas about the teaching of physics and applications of physics education research. The research effort will focus on the value of contemporary technology to address the continuing education of teachers who are teaching in a field in which they have not been trained. © 2006 American Institute of Physics [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

In spite of advances in physics pedagogy, the lecture is by far the most widely used instructional format. We investigated students' understanding and perceptions of the content delivered during a physics lecture. Students participating in our study responded to a written conceptual survey on grand propagation. Next, they looked for answers to the survey questions in a videotaped lecture by a nationally known teacher. As they viewed the lecture, they indicated instances, if any, in which the survey questions were answered during the lecture. A group of experts (physics instructors) also participated in our study. We discuss students' and experts' responses to the survey questions. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

We investigated students' mental models for energy, and changes in these models in going from mechanics to electromagnetism contexts. We interviewed students in a two-semester calculus-based physics course. Our research design included semi-structured interviews with demonstration. Based on our findings in the interviews we are developing a first version of an ‘Energy Mental Model Inventory.’ [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

We propose a framework to characterize students' reasoning in an interview. The framework is based on interview data collected by five researchers with different research goals. The participants were enrolled in various introductory physics courses at Kansas State University (KSU). Our framework includes external inputs (e.g. questions asked, verbal, graphic and other cues) from the interviewer and interview environment; tools (e.g. memorized or familiar formulae, laws and definitions, prior experiences) that the student brings to the interview; a workbench encompassing mental processes (e.g. induction, accommodation) that incorporate the inputs and tools; and the answer given by the student. We describe how the framework can be used to analyze interview data. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

We discuss the implications of a framework to characterize student reasoning in an interview and its underpinnings in cognitive psychology. Our framework, described in a previous paper in these Proceedings, enables a researcher to identify various cognitive elements used by a student during an interview. Our thesis is that this framework can help identify reasoning paths used by the students. We discuss how this framework can be applied to both a coarse and fine grained analysis of reasoning and how it can be used to infer a student's implicit reasoning processes. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

A new physics teacher faces a daunting task. All too frequently he or she is asked to teach physics without sufficient background knowledge in either the content or pedagogy of physics. Yet, obtaining that background information is not easy for an in-service, under-prepared teacher. The Physics Teaching Web Advisory (Pathway) is addressing this issue by creating a system that builds on a unique collaboration among several longstanding research projects in digital video libraries, advanced distance learning technologies, collaboration technologies, and nationally known experts in physics pedagogy and high quality content for physics teaching. This library provides information which can help teachers of all levels of proficiency prepare for their classes including a large corpus of virtual video laboratories and demonstrations that emphasize hands-on and minds-on activities as well as conceptual understanding of physics. Pathway is integrated with a novel system by which users can easily obtain valuable assistance through interactions with virtual experts in the field. To make these materials accessible, Pathway includes state-of-the-art video retrieval tools: Informedia Digital Video Library, which extracts information from video and audio content, and Synthetic Interviews (SI) of expert physics teachers, with pedagogical advances developed at Kansas State University and with materials contributed by master teachers. With Synthetic Interviews developed for Pathway, the new-to-physics teachers, pre-service teachers, and experienced teachers will be able to become more effective teachers of physics by interacting, both virtually and directly, with knowledgeable experts on their classroom techniques and how those techniques are related to contemporary issues in physics teaching. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]