Research on Developing Curriculum and Instructional Strategies for Physics Teaching: the Impact of Teaching and Learning from Exploring the Representation and Etymology of Chinese Physical Terminology

The problem of scientific terminology was of great significance in the process of absorbing Western knowledge in the Ming and Qing Dynasties. The translation and evolution of physical terminology were complementary to the learning and absorbing of physical knowledge. Based on my past research, I will proceed to explore the representations and etymology of Chinese physical terminology in teaching and learning physics. The study will focus on the concept of mechanics (such as torque, momentum, free-fall, and so on) from three perspectives: (1) The translation and evolution of Chinese physical terminology in the translated textbooks during the Ming-Qing period; (2) the etymology of physical terminology; (3) the impact of teaching and learning from the representation of Chinese physical terminology. In this study, interviews with high school students and teachers together with the analysis of questions designed to probe students’ understanding will be applied to figure out key problems and effective cognitive conflict strategies to strengthen the development of professional teaching, clarify student’s misunderstanding, and improve the context of physics textbooks.

Project ID:PF10406-3168
External Project ID:MOST104-2511-S182-011