Shaw-IAU Workshops by the OAE

In the present study we combined two approaches to teach seasonal changes: laboratory activities and specially designed images. To investigate the effectiveness of the teaching approaches we adopted a 2x3 experimental design: we randomly assigned 9th grade students to “laboratory” and “no laboratory” conditions while both groups received instruction under one of the three conditions: textbook images and text; teaching booklets with specially designed images and text; only text. Overall, we involved in the six experimental conditions 337 students. A draw-and-explain task and a multiple choice/true false questionnaire were used as pre and post-test evaluation. Preliminary results show a significant interaction effect of the two teaching strategies. Results will be presented in the workshop.

About Italo Testa

Italo Testa is a professor of Physics Education at the Federico II University in Naples. His research interests related to astronomy education include the role of affective variables in students' learning processes, the study of visual representations, and the development of teaching-learning sequences based on active learning methods to address students' misconceptions. He currently serves as editorial board member for the journals Physical Review Physics Education Research and Astronomy Education Journal.