Regensburg 1998 – scientific programme

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DD: Didaktik der Physik

DD 1e: Hauptvortrag

DD 1e.1: Invited Talk

Thursday, March 26, 1998, 09:30–10:15, H 4

On students’ knowledge of light: a specific confusion about light which is reinforced by the currently prevailed approach in teaching optics — •Igal Galili — Hebrew University of Jerusalem, Israel

Current introductory optics courses and employed textbooks are commonly presented in terms of light rays behavior, emphasizing the instrumental knowledge required in simple problem solving: ray tracing technique. A confusion in ontological status of the light-ray notion and a lack of other tools (dropped from physics curriculum) can be related to a number of types of alternative phenomenological understanding of optical phenomena (’misconceptions’) which were found to be pronounced in a systematically analyzed students’ knowledge regarding image formation, seasons, etc.