Developing the learning physical science curriculum: Adapting a small enrollment, laboratory and discussion based physical science course for large enrollments

dc.creator	Fred Goldberg1
dc.creator	Edward Price2
dc.creator	Stephen Robinson3,
dc.creator	Danielle Boyd-Harlow4
dc.creator	Michael McKean5
dc.date	2012-05-01T00:00:00Z
dc.date.accessioned	2015-07-20T22:14:11Z
dc.date.available	2015-07-20T22:14:11Z
dc.identifier	1554-9178
dc.identifier	https://doaj.org/article/d24ea1d2dc4d4fc29e6716005190644f
dc.identifier.uri	http://evidence.thinkportal.org/handle/123456789/16640
dc.description	We report on the adaptation of the small enrollment, lab and discussion based physical science course, Physical Science and Everyday Thinking (PSET), for a large-enrollment, lecture-style setting. Like PSET, the new Learning Physical Science (LEPS) curriculum was designed around specific principles based on research on learning to meet the needs of nonscience students, especially prospective and practicing elementary and middle school teachers. We describe the structure of the two curricula and the adaptation process, including a detailed comparison of similar activities from the two curricula and a case study of a LEPS classroom implementation. In LEPS, short instructor-guided lessons replace lengthier small group activities, and movies, rather than hands-on investigations, provide the evidence used to support and test ideas. LEPS promotes student peer interaction as an important part of sense making via “clicker” questions, rather than small group and whole class discussions typical of PSET. Examples of student dialog indicate that this format is capable of generating substantive student discussion and successfully enacting the design principles. Field-test data show similar student content learning gains with the two curricula. Nevertheless, because of classroom constraints, some important practices of science that were an integral part of PSET were not included in LEPS.
dc.language	English
dc.publisher	American Physical Society, APS
dc.relation	http://link.aps.org/doi/10.1103/PhysRevSTPER.8.010121
dc.relation	https://doaj.org/toc/1554-9178
dc.source	Physical Review Special Topics. Physics Education Research, Vol 8, Iss 1 (2012)
dc.subject	Education (General)
dc.subject	L7-991
dc.subject	Education
dc.subject	L
dc.subject	DOAJ:Education
dc.subject	DOAJ:Social Sciences
dc.subject	Education (General)
dc.subject	L7-991
dc.subject	Education
dc.subject	L
dc.subject	DOAJ:Education
dc.subject	DOAJ:Social Sciences
dc.subject	Education (General)
dc.subject	L7-991
dc.subject	Education
dc.subject	L
dc.subject	Education (General)
dc.subject	L7-991
dc.subject	Education
dc.subject	L
dc.subject	Education (General)
dc.subject	L7-991
dc.subject	Education
dc.subject	L
dc.title	Developing the learning physical science curriculum: Adapting a small enrollment, laboratory and discussion based physical science course for large enrollments
dc.type	article