Active learning in pre-service science teacher education

We report a course on teaching in physics lab for teachers enrolled in Formative Active Training, which actually allows to obtain the teacher qualification in Italy. The course was designed with the purpose of showing in practice what means active learning in physics and how effective activities can be realized in practice. Two different type of teachers attended to the course, a small group, with physics or mathematics degree, for teacher qualification in secondary school of second grade (age 14-19) and a more numerous group for qualification in secondary school of first grade (age 11-14), usually with a different science degree such as biology, environmental sciences and so on. We compare this training in physics lab between the two groups and with other experiences we performed in previous years in pre-service education and updating courses for teachers in-service.
Comment: 8 pages, 5 figures, 4 tables, presented to ICPE-EPEC 2013 The International Conference on Physics Education PRAHA, CZECH REPUBLIC August 5-9, 2013 to appear in the ICPE-EPEC 2013 Conference Proceedings