The Extensive Application Of The "Current" Model In Junior High School Physics Teaching

Physics is the study of universal laws on the motion and structure of substances in theworld around us. It is one of the most fundamental subject in all natural sciences. Theconcepts of physics as well as the approaches to physics not only deepen our understandingof nature but also give us methods of scientific thinking. Broadly speaking, methods ofscientific thinking are those that can help us to analyze and solve problems, and to getscientific research skills.The main goal of physics teaching and curriculum is to improve the quality ofstudents’ scientific thinking. However, the goal can not be successfully achieved due to thesimilarity between current physics courses and that developed in the earily19th century.Today’s physics courses contain both new and obsolete concepts and methods that are notrelated effectively. We can find many historical burdens on physics in physics teaching andcurriculum.The developers of the Karlsruher Physikkurs(KPK) at the Didactics Department of theUniversity of Karlsruhe have tried to eliminate such obsolete concepts and methods formore than30years. KPK is an attempt to modernize the physics syllabus by restructuringthe contents and by extensively applying a new method. It is based upon a certain class ofquantities which share the property of being substance-like. substance-like quantities arecentral concepts in KPK. Each such quantity is easy to visualize, namely, as a kind of stuffwhich is contained in and flows through space. Thus, the “current” model is underlying theKPK. It provides a new perspective to understand knowledge of physics and its researchmethod.After reviewing and synthesizing the literature on physics teaching and curriculum, especially on KPK, we do a comparative research between KPK and traditional physicscourses in China and find some historical burdens in traditional physics courses. Then weuse the “current” model in teaching practice for junior high school students. According tothe data from students，we find that junior high school students can use this modeleffectively in problem solving. We also find that from the perspective of cognitive theorygreat changes have taken place in their physics thinking. The findings of the currentresearch will be helpful in the reform of physics teaching and curriculum in China.