Investigating the impact of a tutorial approach in physics teacher education

Recently, teacher education in Austria has undergone major changes. Among other factors, profound content knowledge is essential for the professionalisation of teachers and the later quality of their instruction at school. First evaluation findings of our physics teacher education program revealed year two students’ deficits in the conceptual understanding of introductory mechanics. Since conceptual difficulties hinder meaningful learning of advanced topics and the development of pedagogical content knowledge, we adapted courses by integrating parts of tutorials of the University of Washington into the existing courses without changing the entire teaching mode. We used a pre-post-test design to investigate the impact of these short phases of the tutorial approach. The results indicate that this kind of learning opportunities supports students’ conceptual understanding in the field of mechanics. It shows a positive impact on content knowledge and self-efficacy. Students’ feedback on the tutorial approach shows that most students of the intervention groups appreciated this approach and its usefulness. In addition, all students pleaded for continuing the tutorial approach in the calculus-based mechanic course.