Teachers' interpretations of a proposal on "Motion and Force" in secondary school. Transformations of didactic intentions.

This qualitative research study, within the EU STTIS Project, investigates how teachers in different countries interpret the description/instructions of a proposal for secondary schools called “Motion and Force” (M+F), which addresses: kinematics, introduction to force and to force and motion, friction. A small sample of Italian (6), Spanish (3) and French (3) teachers have been interviewed about a document (“M+F Instructions” MFI) that presents didactic intentions, rationale, activities, and comments. The study uncovered some gaps between teachers’ interpretations and the designers’ didactic intentions, together with similarities/differences amongst the groups. The Italian teachers’ interest is focused on kinematics, that of the Spanish and French teachers on the force area. Friction is globally overlooked. The path “From Real Phenomena to Ideal Cases/Models”, one of (M+F)’s main features, is valued but only for the “observation of real phenomena” part; focus on observation of regularities and modelling is lacking. Real-time experimentation is valued by the Italian teachers, more as a motivating than as a cognitive tool, while the French teachers seem quite critical towards the use of real-time apparatuses. These differences may well derive from specific curricula situations in EU countries and in the different degrees of familiarity with real-time apparatuses. These results indicate criteria and yield specific suggestions for improving the design/implementation of teacher training programs and materials.