STRUCTURAL PATTERNS AND REPRESENTATION FORMS OF UNIVERSITY PHYSICS TEACHERS: BIOT-SAVART LAW AND AM-PÈRE’S LAW

Abstract

The way teachers organize and transfer their subject matter knowledge has played a crucial role in science education. However, it seems that more attention should be paid on the forms of represen-tation and knowledge organization of teachers that they apply for transferring their knowledge. Therefore, teachers’ knowledge organization and representation forms were investigated with an emphasis on the topics of Biot-Savart law and Ampère’s law. Four physics teachers of introductory-level University who used, concept cards and concept maps were interviewed, and finally an interpretative analysis was performed. The results showed teachers’ knowledge organization was strongly connected only for the topic of Biot-Savart law. Moreover, descriptive and explanatory mathematical models were the most applied forms of representation that teachers used for representing their knowledge. The possibility to recognize the differences in knowledge organization and representation forms of different teachers is the first step towards developing more effective teaching and learning solution. Key words: Ampère’s law, Biot-Savart law, concept maps, knowledge organization, representation forms.