This study applied thematic approaches to the study of introductory physics. Symmetry principles and conservation laws were chosen to serve as themes for the development of a unit on elementary particles used by students who were enrolled in a physics sequence for nonscience majors. The unit was independently evaluated by teachers of general…

Two teaching methods (learner-centered vs. conventional) were investigated as related to achievement and content covered in a basic electricity course in which 65 students were enrolled. All students participating in the study were given the Bell Laboratories Electricity Examination as a pretest and as a final test. The Otis Test of Mental Ability…

The problem of this investigation was to compare the effectiveness of the lecture-discussion method of instruction and the multimedia programmed method in promoting achievement in a noncredit, college level physics course. The three instructors taught 180 freshmen who had failed to achieve a minimum grade of 70 percent on a physics placement…

This study was proposed to determine the occurrence, stability, and character of kinetic structure patterns within college physics lessons. Six lectures were randomly chosen from the schedules of each of six cooperating physics professors and a transcription of audio-tape recordings of each lecture was prepared. The flow of discourse was broken…

The primary purpose of this study was to determine if self-instructional data analysis sessions could be used effectively as traditional college laboratories to reinforce students' understanding of certain principles of mechanics. The secondary purpose was to determine whether any of the 140 college physics students involved had a dependence on…

This study was undertaken primarily to identify various approaches used by physics teachers with special note made in terms of the inquiry approach in teaching. It was carried out in fifteen micro-teaching exercises, each involving one teacher and five high school students randomly chosen from the teacher's physics class. All verbal utterances…

All students enrolling in the day sections of Physical Science 101 at Pensacola Junior College (Florida) during the spring semester of 1974 were allowed to register for either audio-tutorial (A-T) or conventional coursework. The A-T group consisted of 144 students in two sections, and the lecture-discussion group consisted of 76 students in two…

The purpose of this study was to develop and evaluate an instructional model which utilized the computer to produce individually prescribed instructional guides in physics at the secondary school level. The sample consisted of three classes. Of these, two were randomly selected to serve as the treatment groups, e.g., individualized instruction and…

This thesis describes a project to design a primary school physics learning environment which takes into account teachers' needs, design procedures, properties of the learning environment, and pupil learning outcomes. The project's design team has wide experience in research and development work in relation to science education, the use of ICT in…