Electric Circuits for Prospective Elementary Teachers. The Educational Reconstruction Model in the design, development and evaluation of a Teaching-Learning Path about Electric Circuits for Prospective Elementary Teachers based on Logical Circuits and Equivalent Resistance

The main goals of the research project carried out in this thesis have been: - to design a teaching-learning sequence about electric circuits to be implemented in a teacher education scenario with the aim of: identifying conceptual nodes; promoting the overcoming of difficulties related to conceptual shifts from a local to a global perspective and from a sequential to a systemic reasoning; enhancing prospective teachers’ Pedagogical Content Knowledge and competencies of developing suitable teaching plans, - to study the effectiveness of the proposed teaching-learning sequence. Two pillars constituted the methodological framework of this thesis work: the Educational Reconstruction Model and the Pedagogical Content Knowledge construct. The model of Educational Reconstruction has been adopted to inform the overall design of this thesis work and of the proposed teaching-learning sequence which is based on an innovative approach called “Functional Approach”. The construct of Pedagogical Content Knowledge has been adopted as reference model to inform the methodology enacted in the validation process of the proposed teaching-learning sequence The thesis work was informed by the rich science education literature about electric circuits, the history of the development of electric circuits’ theory and preliminary studies carried out in informal learning contexts. From the literature review, we found that alternative reasoning strategies and incorrect models of current circulation in electric circuits (as, e.g., the “Current Consumption” or the “Clashing Currents” and the “battery as a constant current source” issues) are mainly related to the failure in performing the “local to global” and “sequential to systemic” transitions. The historical analysis allowed to identify the Equivalent Circuit and the Equivalent Resistance as key concepts to help students to overcome such difficulties. Moreover, preliminary studies about logic circuits (i.e. circuits with a battery, a bulb and one or two switches) suggested to adopt them as typical examples of electric circuits to be treated as unique systems, characterized by a well defined functioning. Equivalent circuit, equivalent resistance and logic circuits constitute the conceptual references of the innovative approach developed in this thesis work, namely the Functional Approach. The Functional Approach has been exploited to inform the design of a 8-hours teaching-learning sequence and adapted to a teacher education scenario in order to promote prospective and in-service teachers’ pedagogical content knowledge about electric circuits. The actual design of the teaching-learning activities called for some preliminary studies which involved primary and middle school students in an informal setting. The evaluation of the teaching-learning sequence involved in-service middle school and prospective primary teachers. These results have informed the subsequent optimization of the teaching-learning sequence