Report of the Workshop in GIREP-EPEC Conference in Finland on Teaching and Learning the Energy Concept and Teacher Formation in Primary School

The ways students, ranging in age from primary school through university, learn about energy and how this concept can be taught, have been productive subjects of physics education research (Duit, 1984; Goldring & Osborne, 1994; Solomon, 1992). Many proposals about how to teach the subject have been influenced by this research. Several researchers presented findings at a Symposium at GIREP 2008 in Cyprus that have implications for teaching energy concept. One of the conclusions reached at the Symposium was that no clear consensus exists regarding the structure of a vertically integrated curriculum for teaching energy. At the GIREP 2010 conference, a Workshop organized by Paula R.L. Heron and Marisa Michelini (with the contribution of Bat-Sheva Eylon, Yaron Leavi and Alberto Stefanel) took place and was attended by 25 colleagues from 9 countries. Three different groups discussed the issue for primary, lower secondary, and secondary schools, respectively. As a result, it was decided to form a GIREP Thematic Group on ENERGY that was charged to continue work on the subject both through electronic dissemination and through activities at GIREP conferences. The GIREP 2011 workshop on energy has been focused in particular on the primary school level. It consisted in the presentation of the position paper following the Reims Workshop and of two contributions about the construction of the concept of energy in primary school and in a course of teacher formation. This paper, as part of the Symposium “Teaching and learning the concept of energy from early childhood school through university”, reports on the discussion during the 2011 workshop and presents the points recognized to be important and fundamental for the introduction of the concept of energy at primary school level.