Training pre-service and in-service secondary school teachers: Analysis of changes in perceptions about quantum physics concepts and NoS views

In this work we focus on the study of the changes in perceptions about Quantum Physics concepts and Nature of Science (NoS) Views of secondary school teachers attending three different typologies of professional development courses on Modern Physics. An open-ended questionnaire has been properly developed and administered in order to investigate Quantum Mechanics conceptual issues, NoS views and motivational aspects for all involved teachers. The same questionnaire has been submitted to the teachers both prior-to and after the courses. The analysis of teachers’ pre-instruction answers highlights that the majority of them show several difficulties on both conceptual knowledge and epistemological issues regarding the basic properties of Quantum Physics systems. After instruction, the teachers answered to the questionnaire by showing a clear change of perspective on their view of Quantum Physics concepts. Moreover, our study demonstrates that differences in the educational background of the participating teachers, as well as the typology of professional development course attended, are important when comparing normalized gains. Even in NoS view and motivational aspects, teachers’ answers, collected at the end of the professional development course attended, have shown interesting changes. An overall discussion is finally presented.