PHYSICS TEACHERS’ BELIEFS ABOUT THE ATTAINMENT OF SKILL OBJECTIVES AND THE EXTENT OF THESE BELIEFS’ REFLECTION ON TEACHERS’ INSTRUCTIONAL PRACTICES

Abstract

Turkish Ministry of National Education has made important changes in both primary and secondary school curricula in the last decade. The Turkish High School Physics Curriculum (THSPC) after these changes was put into practice first in 2008-2009 education year. Apart from being the first written curriculum with written objectives, this curriculum also contained—differently from other previous physics curricula—skill objectives. This included objectives related to problem solving skills (PSS) and information and communication skills (ICS) and physics-technology-society-environment objectives (PTSEO). No matter how well-prepared a curriculum for a subject is, whether it is implemented effectively depends on the teachers. One of the factors affecting proper implementation of curricula is teachers’ beliefs about the curricula as a whole and its constituent elements. Since the curriculum is relatively new, teachers’ beliefs and how these beliefs are reflected in their instructional practices are not yet known. Therefore, the purpose of this study was to investigate physics teachers’ beliefs about the attainment of PSS, PTSEO and ICS and the extent these beliefs were reflected in teachers’ instructional practices. Data were collected by administering an open-ended questionnaire to four in-service physics teachers and observing their instructional practices in the ‘nature of physics’ and ‘energy’ units. The results of this study showed that although physics teachers believed that majority of the skill objectives of the THSPC should be attained, they did not teach physics by taking these skill objectives into consideration. The physics teachers inclined more to help students attain PTSEO when compared with PSS and ICS.

Keywords: Teachers’ Beliefs, Turkish High School Physics Curriculum, Skill Objectives.

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