La mostra "Divertiesperimenti" come ponte tra l'apprendimento informale e il formale nell'insegnamento della fisica nella scuola secondaria

Abstract

The actual surveys highlight that teaching scientific disciplines it gives often-inadequate results, in Italy particularly, and it emerges that, in general, the educational aspects of the teaching of the Physics are not enough take in account. Usually, the students consider the physics a distant, incomprehensible and difficult discipline: I have verified with the present work as, on the other hand, the teaching of physics could be engaging and stimulating, and entertaining in discovery and fun activities. The research study is therefore based on the need: - To improve the knowledge and the skills related to the teaching and learning of scientific disciplines at school; -to experiment educational methodologies and strategies for teaching Physics more effectively. This topic is complex and it is not easy to transfer educational research in the real classroom, so this work cannot aspire to be complete and exhaustive. I tried to give a contribution to the physics educational research starting from the description of the main issue, as well as of the potentialities, taking account of the actual situation, also normative, in the Italian Secondary School. Then, I have experimented some psico-pedagogic methodologies and I have proposed some original models of good practices. I tried to answer to the question: What contribution can I provide starting from the informal learning, through a didactic laboratory centred on a mini University Science Center, for the construction of new competences in Physics of the students and the teachers? My work: • From the point of view of the methodological aspects was based on Laboratory teaching, and in particular using the Inquiry Based Science Education (IBSE) approach; the IBSE is a scientific inquiry that starts from exploration of phenomena, based on constructivism paradigm and experimental teaching. This methodology is among the most recommended for teaching science, for its applicability and for good educational outcomes. • From the point of view of the laboratory equipment, I mainly used the interactive experiments of the collection "DivertiEsperimenti"; "DivertiEsperimenti" (“Fun-experiments”) is the collection of interactive exhibits, I designed for the Department of Physics at the University of Salerno according to the model of the Exploratorium of San Francisco [1], [2]. This collection of experiments aims to enable the public, especially the school, to "manipulate" and familiarize themselves with many physical phenomena, through an informal and even entertaining approach. New way of teaching and learning the formalization of knowledge, to be effective, have to activate the motivation and creativity of the learners, just as the scientist does during his research. Informal and non-formal learning are therefore gaining more and more a prominent role. An important question remains how to use informal learning in science to build formal knowledge... [edited by Author]