TY  - JOUR
A1  - Massolt, Joost  Willem
A1  - Borowski, Andreas
T1  - Perceived relevance of university physics problems by pre-service physics teachers
BT  - personal constructs
JF  - International journal of science education
N2  - Pre-service physics teachers often do not recognise the relevance for their future career in their university content knowledge courses. A lower perceived relevance can, however, have a negative effect on their motivation and on their academic success. Several intervention studies have been undertaken with the goal to increase this perceived relevance. A previous study shows that conceptual physics problems used in university physics courses are perceived by pre-service physics teachers as more relevant for their future career than regular, quantitative problems. It is however not clear, what the students' meaning of the construct 'relevance' is: what makes a problem more relevant to them than another problem? To answer this question, N = 7 pre-service teachers were interviewed using the repertory grid technique, based on the personal construct theory. Nine physics problems were discussed with regards to their perceived relevance and with regards to problem properties that distinguish these problems from each other. We are able to identify six problem properties that have a positive influence on the perceived relevance. Physics problems that are based on these properties should therefore potentially have a higher perceived relevance, which can have a positive effect on the motivation of the pre-service teachers who solve these problems.
KW  - Motivation
KW  - physics education
KW  - pre-service teachers
KW  - repertory grid
Y1  - 2020
U6  - https://doi.org/10.1080/09500693.2019.1705424
SN  - 0950-0693
SN  - 1464-5289
VL  - 42
IS  - 2
SP  - 167
EP  - 189
PB  - Routledge, Taylor & Francis Group
CY  - Abingdon
ER  -