The Research Of Teaching Core Concept Of Mechanics In High School Physics Based On Learning Progressions Theory

In 2017,Ordinary High School Physics Curriculum Standards was in effect,which clearly stated core capacities that the discipline requires for students and curriculum objectives.In order to cultivate students' scientific literacy and to form their ethical values and basic skills required by their personal development as well as society,it is necessary for teachers to find new ways of training and educating students.From the perspective of students,they have limited time to master a comparatively large body of knowledge.An efficient way is to prioritize short and sweet core concepts.In this way,students can get the whole picture and find it easier to understand subordinate concepts and non-essential knowledge.So how can students master the core concepts?Student,as epistemic subjects,should be fully understood by the teacher concerning their cognitive styles and pre-concepts.Therefore,the Learning Progression Theory is suitable for describing the way students progress into a deeper understanding while learning a new topic.The curriculum design based on this theory will inevitably be consistent with the growth and development of students.Mechanics is both important and difficult for high school students,taking a large proportion in the physics textbook for high school students.Considering a scattered profusion of knowledge concerning mechanics as required by the Curriculum Standards and the textbook,the knowledge of mechanics should be reduced and integrated.The theoretical research on this topic has been relatively adequate at home and abroad.However,there are relatively few studies empirical studies.Exemplified by mechanics of the high school physics,the present research designed a class of core concepts based on the Learning Progression Theory and practically gave the class.Finally,the practical effects of the class were analyzed.The following is how the research was done:1.Extensive reading is done to understand the meaning of the core concept and its defining criteria,as well as the Learning Progression Theory and how to put it into practice.2.According to the National Science Education Standards of the US,based on China's Ordinary High School Physics Curriculum Standards(2017 Edition),andInterview results of front-line teachers,five core concepts of mechanics are summarized: force,motion,Newton's first law,Newton's second law,Newton's third law.3.The Force Concept Inventory(FCI)is tested for reliability and validity and is used to investigate the pre-concepts of students through FCI.Through the classification of FCI test questions with reference to core concepts of mechanics,the test results are analyzed by SPSS to analyze the students' answers to each question and portray their cognitive styles.Based on the test results and revolving around core concepts of mechanics,the learning progression is established.4.I take the established learning progression as the framework in teaching,design teaching based on the concept transformation strategy and put it into practice.Due to the limited space,the class of "Newton's second law" is selected as an illustration of teaching process.5.Finally,after teaching core concepts guided by the Learning Progression Theory,academic performances of students are tested by SPSS to analyze the T-test.According to the results,when applying the Learning Progression Theory in teaching,performance of the experiment group is higher than that of the control group.