Teaching Dynamics with the Historical Method: The Pre-Classical Approaches and the Newtonian Principles within the Content of Physics

Manolis Kartsonakis
(The Hellenic Open University, Greece)

Abstract: The following work introduces an innovative methodological approach for the teaching of the Dynamics in the curriculum of the lower secondary education. The approach takes in account the difficulties which have been traced among the pupils as they deal with the newtonian law of the motion in high school classes: Though pupils have been born and grown up within the newtonian principles, it seems that they comprehend the natural phenomena in a non –newtonian way. On the other hand, pupils cannot link effectively the content of Physics with the every-day life. Nielsen & Thomsen have outlined these difficulties among the Danish pupils (but this is something common that we all face in our schools) indicating that “the majority of secondary school students find Physics to be difficult, unrelated to other schools subjects and with very little connection to real life.

Key words: Newtonian, physics, historical method, dynamics, teaching physics, history of science and didactics, Aristotelian Natural Philosophy, Aristotle, Philoponus, Newton