Teaching Einsteinian Physics at Schools: Part 3, Review of Research Outcomes

TL;DR

This review paper summarizes research on teaching Einsteinian physics to school students, showing that students can grasp modern physics concepts and that girls' attitudes improve significantly, reducing gender gaps.

Contribution

It provides evidence that Einsteinian physics can be effectively taught at school levels and highlights gender differences in attitude change.

Findings

Students easily understood Einsteinian physics concepts.

Girls' attitudes towards physics improved more than boys'.

Students aged 6-11 showed positive engagement with modern physics.

Abstract

This paper reviews research results obtained from Einsteinian physics programs run by different instructors with Years 6, 9, 10 and 11 students using the models and analogies described in Parts 1 and 2. The research aimed to determine whether it is possible to teach Einsteinian physics and to measure the changes in students attitudes to physics engendered by introducing the modern concepts that underpin technology today. Results showed that students easily coped with the concepts of Einsteinian physics, and considered that they were not too young for the material presented. Importantly, in all groups, girls improved their attitude to physics considerably more than the boys, generally achieving near parity with the boys.