Textbook in PDF format

An important area of physics pedagogy is the effect of student attitudes and anxieties on physics education. Due to fear, many intellectually able students are unable to obtain satisfactory results in physics. With several decades of experience studying the correlation between science attitudes and anxieties in various student populations, the authors of this comprehensive text discuss how preconceptions and misconceptions about physics often produce anxiety, and they frame this within the wider field of science anxiety. Topics covered include student attitudes, science anxiety, gender, nationality, mathematics anxiety, classroom pedagogy, laboratory pedagogy, group project pedagogy, pedagogies for different student populations, constructivism, social engagement, information technology and issues relevant to distance learning. The book expertly brings together these topics and explains their connections with attitudes and anxiety. Part of IOP Series in Physics Education.
Preface
Why physics?
Student attitudes: mad science
Student anxieties: scary science
Constructivism: rational versus radical
Relations and correlations
Gender: not your grandmother’s inequity
Nationality: does it matter?
Math anxiety: the pipeline choker
Laboratory pedagogy: you can’t get it from a cookbook
Group project pedagogy: more heads than one
Pedagogies for different student populations: they’re not dumb, they’re different
Physics and society: close encounters
Information technology: use, under-use, over-use, misuse
Online education: interaction at a distance
Summary
Appendix: Questionnaires