Learning and Teaching Optics

Dear Colleagues,

Over the last 50 years, in the context of science education, a distinct stream of research has been related to the learning and teaching of concepts and phenomena that fall within the general area of optics. In this stream, questions have been posed in a well-structured or fragmented way addressing how students and teachers of all levels represent their thinking and/or modify this after teaching interventions. These questions relate to concepts such as light and its propagation or phenomena, such as shadow formation, refraction, etc.

This Special Issue of Education Sciences aims to reflect contemporary research trends in the field of “Learning and Teaching Optics”. Potential topics include the following: mental representations of students or teachers of all ages and educational levels; specialized teaching interventions and activities in traditional classrooms, in formal or informal contexts, and through digital environments; teacher training; analysis of textbooks, school programs, and curricula; teaching and history of physics; problem solving. Any other topic within the scope of this Special Issue is also welcome and will be fully considered.

Some references related to the topic are as follows:

Galili, I. (1996). Students’ conceptual change in geometrical optics. International Journal of Science Education, 18(7), 847-868.

Kaltakci-Gurel, D., Eryilmaz, A., & McDermott, L.C. (2017). Development and application of a four-tier test to assess pre-service physics teachers’ misconceptions about geometrical optics. Research in Science & Technological Education, 35(2)2, 238-260.

Métioui, A., & Trudel, L. (2012). The model of the rectilinear propagation of light and the study of the variation of the size of a shadow. US-China Education Review, 2(9), 173-186.

Pantidos, P., Herakleioti, E., & Chachlioutaki, M.-E. (2017). Reanalysing children’s responses on shadow formation: a comparative approach to bodily expressions and verbal discourse. International Journal of Science Education, 39(18), 2508-2527.

Ravanis, K. Christidou, V., & Hatzinikita, V. (2013). Enhancing conceptual change in preschool children’s representations of light: a socio-cognitive approach. Research in Science Education, 43(6), 2257-2276.

Dr. Konstantinos Ravanis
Guest Editor

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