Implementing a formative module on quantum physics for pre-service teacher training

Quantum Mechanics (QM) constitutes the cultural reference paradigm and theoretical foundation for the present description of the microscopic phenomena. Its implications are very important in many branches of sciences that investigate nature. It is, therefore, important that the cultural baggage of a well-informed citizen includes those methodological elements, that constitute the "quantum-mechanical way of thinking". Even though in the last two decades the teaching of the last century physics is included in several countries curriculum, many knots regarding the choices of lay-out and strategy are still unsolved. Many works have been made on the subject, but, until now, there is no consensus on the aspects to be treated and lay-out to be adopted. Several of these recover the intuition in the construction of quantum concepts, or provide the cultural contents of quantum theory, show its potential for unifying the understanding of microscopic phenomena, highlight the interconnection between its formalism and its physical meaning. The phenomenological contexts of reference in this case are those of physical optics, treatable with mathematical instruments accessible to high school students: interference and diffraction. In this context arises the problem of teacher training, which furthermore adds cultural formation issues to the educational ones. The knots on the strategies to be adopted in the teacher training and on the supporting materials needed for teaching innovation are completely unsolved (Pospiech 2000 b). The lack of specific disciplinary knowledge in QM of many teachers enhances such problems. Within the framework of the SeCiF and FFC National Research Projects, we developed a web site with the working and studying materials for teaching QM in secondary school and a Formative Intervention Module (MIF) for teacher training about the subject. The web-environment targets teachers and teacher trainers: in particular, it translates the didactic proposal developed in previous researches with indications on lay-out, approach, strategy and methods, educational path and map. It also provides suggestions and examples on how to operate in the classroom context, using local common computer software and/or java applets on the web for modeling and simulations (www.fisica.uniud.it/URDF/), examples of work sheets for pupils, designed according to what has emerged from previous researches, experiment presentations and reports on previous experimentations in school. In the context of the biannual postgraduate Specialization School for Secondary Teaching (SSIS) a MIF on QM has been organized: 3 cts per year (about 30 hours). The MIF sperimentation has been running for 2 years (academic years 01/02 and 02/03) and 22 teachers in training (student-teacher from now on) have been involved. The Udine MIF on QM teaching consists of a critical overview of the basic ideas of the theory. It is structured in a modular way and can be used only partially and integrated with other lay outs and didactical treatments. The educational proposal operatively analyzed in the MIF starts in a simple phenomenological context, but it also accounts for the basic formalism of the QM and the conceptual framework of the new way of thinking about the microscopic phenomena interpretation. It is useful to build up the theoretical reasoning. It also outlines the reference didactical path for planning activities of the student-teachers. In spite of the difficulty and the innovative character of the proposal, many student-teachers (in most of 50% of cases) implemented in the schools personal proposals on QM teaching and included the project and the experimentation results in the final reports discussed in the state exam of the end of the SSIS course. In this work we presented the analysis of these reports. To evaluate the effectiveness of the MIF these were compared with non-MIF reports prepared by the students without the contexts of the following research. In the MIF reports and they the student-teachers showed better project skills then they show in non MIF reports, are, also, more focused on the student’s learning and on the materials and tools used. Furthermore they discussed quantum mechanical issues and other topics which were well known to them with the same competence. These results are coherent with the results of the classroom implementations that showed a significant learning curve.