Professional training of future teachers of Physics to organize research activities of students in secondary schools

Abstract

The requirement of the time is to increase the level of the professional training aimed at the future Physics teachers who are able to master the ability to observe, plan and perform experiments, process measurement results, hypothesize and build models, set limits for their application, etc., which means that teaching Physics should be accompanied by research activity. The purpose of the conducted research is to form the future competence of physics teachers’ research competence in the process of studying the section "Molecular Physics and Thermodynamics" within the course of General Physics and to apply the gained experience in the organization of students’ research in the course of pedagogical practice. The theoretical analysis of the problem related to the formation of the research competence as well as the practical methods there were used these research methods: questioning, testing, organization of complex educational-research activities at lectures, practical and laboratory classes. The content and structure of the future Physics teachers’ research competence has been defined as a set of motivational, cognitive, operational research-centred, evaluative and reflexive components have been determined. The criteria and indicators have been identified for each of the components alongside with the levels of the research competence (low, medium and high) have been identified. At the ascertaining stage of the experiment, the students' unsatisfactory level of the research competence was determined according to the relevant indicators, namely: students did not want to fulfil the research tasks due to the lack of the information system, their abilities to plan and manage their research activities. To increase the level of the research competence at the formative stage of the experiment, the section of General Physics "Molecular Physics and Thermodynamics" was accompanied by the fulfilment of certain educational research tasks combined both the theoretical lecture material and experimental research material on each topic of the educational program which was mastered and assimilated when performing in nature-oriented and virtual laboratory works as well as in the process of solving these problems. While performing the research tasks of the complex content significantly increased the level of the students’ research competence according to all the indicators, as it was evidenced by the results of the educational research activities. The practical significance of the obtained results was determined by the fact that the system aimed at forming the research competence (on the example of the section of General Physics “Molecular Physics and Thermodynamics”) was developed and implemented in the educational process of training the future Physics teachers on the basis of the complex research activity. It is expedient that one should apply the experience gained within the platform of the formation of the future Physics teachers’ competence while mastering further sections of General Physics. Keeping to this approach, the idea of the content of Physics as a holistic system of universal knowledge, abilities, skills and place of research in the formation of research competence arises must be of great importance.

Keywords

• future physics teachers
• training
• research competence.