ABSTRACT
The project described here was aimed at developing and evaluating a novel curriculum with corresponding instructional materials for middle school students on an introduction to Newtonian mechanics, based on physics education research findings. A case study showed that teachers who attended a half-day workshop on the curriculum subsequently enacted these materials in their classrooms appropriately and saw improved student performance. Thus, the project suggests that with only a relatively short amount of training time teachers are able to utilize such materials and consequently to improve teaching and learning in physics classes. We therefore regard it as a promising approach for professional development programs.
Acknowledgments
We would like to thank Michael Malvern Hull, PhD, for his constructive criticism and for proofreading the manuscript.
Disclosure statement
No potential conflict of interest was reported by the authors.