In-service Physics Teachers in the Light of Principles and Tenets of Human Learning: Introduction to Sampling Frequency

Sensors specially designed for use in schools to measure values of physical quantities within physics education have already had their place in science education theory for some decades. In this contribution, the effective use of sensors is discussed in the light of principles and tenets of human learning, as proposed by colleagues researching the application of neuroscience to education. The contribution focuses on in-service physics teachers’ training, and the application of the principles and tenets is illustrated on the topic of sampling frequency, introduction to sampling frequency at the age of 12 and another example at the higher secondary school.


Introduction
Intensive research based on medical imaging and artificial intelligence development in the last decades improved our vision of how children learn.In addition, more than a century of research on general education, educational psychology, pedagogy, science education, and physics education has brought deep knowledge on how children learn physics.We see that the neuroscience research results bring new light to some aspects of learning in general, as well as learning in STEM.In our work, we focus on the research results of the team around T. Tokuhama-Espinosa, researching in the field of neuroscience of learning [1], [2] and C. R. Cloninger, researching in the area of the psycho-socio-biological model of personality and science of well-being [3], [4].The aspect of the development of abilities of university students -future physics teachers, we link to the framework designed by a project of German-speaking universities, DiKoLAN, [5], where training for utilization of sensors within pre-service physics teacher preparation is an integral part.
T. Tokuhama-Espinosa, with her team, identified six principles and 21 tenets of human learning [1].In this contribution, we illustrate the application of the first three of the six principles in the context of learning the physics concept of sampling frequency by children aged 12, using sensors developed for measurement values of temperature, and the first four principles in the context of the development of the concept of sampling frequency by children aged 16, measuring light intensity by a seemingly faulty sensor.One of the goals of the activities with pre-service physics teachers is to enhance students' view of holistic teaching.

Principle 1, Uniqueness
Human brains are as unique as human faces; no two brains are the same [1].So, when we set standards for pupils, we must keep in mind the uniqueness of pupils.Not all children are good at all things.So, education and evaluation of pupils' performance must be differentiated.Some children need more attention, and others need more rehearsal on a particular concept [1].Therefore, the classroom must be flexible to allow the development of most (ideally all) pupils.To illustrate the fulfilment of this principle, we present part of the activity focused on developing an idea, a preconception of sampling frequency.Pupils of the age of 12, in the early weeks of the 6th grade, perform an activity based on measuring the temperature of two glass containers filled with water, one cold and the second warm.They are working in groups of 4 pupils.A group of pupils is given the equipment (glass of warm water, glass of cold water, temperature sensor connected to interface and computer) and a workbook with instructions.The main point of the instructions is a table containing three columns, time (pre-filled, evenly every 5 seconds), sensor position (pre-filled with three qualitative values, air, hot water, cold water), and temperature (to be filled).Part of the table is in Figure 1.

Figure 1.
Part of the table from the workbook for pupils [6].
We are focusing on an introduction to the concept of sampling frequency, not on the development of aspects of teamwork, and we illustrate a possible way to accept the uniqueness of pupils in the group.We help pupils divide the tasks and take different roles in the group.One pupil takes on the task of measuring the time (looking at the timer saying loudly "now" for each data row), another looks at the table and manipulates with the sensor (the sensor must be in the position given by the row in the tablein air or in hot water or in cold water), another loudly reads the temperature, and the fourth write the temperature in the table.The fifth member of the team, if there is one, looks at the synchronization of the whole process.In this illustrative example activity, we can see that we accept the pupils' uniqueness and lead students to recognize that they are unique, with unique tasks.If a pupil does not perform one role well, another pupil with another role, can help.
Most of the pre-service physics teachers in my groups have no experience with data loggers and sensors used at the age of 12 and realize that this activity develops the concept of sampling frequency.They see that the activity is better connected to children's previous experience with single-value temperature measurement than automated measurement with pre-set sampling frequency.Also, the preservice physics teachers recognize that the roles of the pupils are unique; every pupil has a different role and different contribution to the overall result.Such ideas may seem obvious to an experienced physics teacher, but for our University students were proved as not so obvious.The assignment of roles has nothing to do with recognizing the particular ability of one student or another since they seem to be assigned randomly; within this activity, we focused on developing the concept of sampling frequency by all pupils in the group.

Principle 2, Different potentials
Within the preparation of future physics teachers, we see that many of our students, at the initial stages of their five-year (10 semesters) study, feel that they would like to teach physics, and other students feel, that they would like to teach pupils.The idea that the teacher should teach pupils physics (or integrated science or integrated STEM) is clear to the readers of this conference proceedings but not applied by our pre-service physics teachers at the initial stages of their study.We use the principles of human learning to strengthen the idea of a holistic view of physics education.In the context of temperature measurement and sampling frequency, we discuss with our pre-service physics teachers, within the course Introduction to Physics Experiments, the idea that each individual's brain is differently prepared to learn different tasks.Learning capacities are shaped by many by the learning context and prior learning experiences, personal choice, an individual's biology and genetic make-up, and environmental exposures [1].An essential role in a pupil's potential has personality in all three personality dimensions: temperament, character and identity.We do not doubt previous ideas, but do teachers apply this principle in activities with sensors within physics education?At this place, we would like to highlight one aspect related to different potentials -joy, a path to a joyful life, as we can highlight it for our students, and future physics teachers.These ideas are clearly and concisely formulated by K.M. Cloninger and C.R. Cloninger: "Recent psychobiological and developmental research shows that the path to a good and joyful life depends on the integration of three distinct systems of learning and memory that regulate (1) associative conditioning, (2) intentional self-control, and (3) self-awareness.The integration of these learning networks depends on complex molecular pathways involving 972 genes that regulate human temperament and character, which we recently identified and replicated in independent samples despite variable environments and cultures.Awareness of these processes of human thought facilitates selfregulation of how these genes are expressed and how learning processes are integrated to adapt to everchanging conditions.Such awareness leads to a selftranscendent outlook that activates psychobiological mechanisms that promote healthy longevity, positive emotionality, and prosocial behaviour.Our empirical findings show that the path to a good life requires the integration of physical, mental, and spiritual aspects of the person, rather than only one or two of these aspects."[3].Previous ideas, we could include to the subjects of pre-service physics teacher preparation as The Learning Science or Educational Psychology, but, within the development of integrated Pedagogical Content Knowledge (PCK) or Technological Pedagogical Content Knowledge (TPACK) found it fruitful to integrate them to the subject of initial stages of pre-service physics teachers Introduction to Physics Experiments.Learning capacities are shaped by the context of the learning and prior learning experiences.So the illustrative activity with temperature measurement can be important for future physics education, especially in experiments where time is the independent variable.In education, we cannot influence such aspects of different potentials as genetic make-up.We cannot influence temperament traits determined genetically.However, we influence character traits, which mature in adulthood.Illustrative activity with temperature measurement has the potential to raise the learning capacity in physics as well as self-directedness (the pupil works consciously) and cooperativeness (the pupil is a member of a functional team of peers).Also, the activity can have the potential to raise selfdirectedness (if the educational environment fosters engagement, joy, faith for meaningfulness, and contemplation).

Principle 3, Prior experience
It seems no doubt that new learning is influenced by prior experience.Of course, the word principle means a fundamental truth or proposition that serves as the foundation.Pre-service physics teachers should be aware that the brain's efficiency economizes effort and energy by ensuring that external stimuli are first decoded, compared with existing memories, both passively and actively [1].For a teacher, it is a great advantage to know as much as possible about the prior experiences of pupils.Indeed, there are many unknowns.Even a pupil sometimes does not know all about their previous experiences.Here we use, as an example, pupils who have performed the activity with temperature measurement and sampling frequency as the example in principle 1.As an illustration, we chose the part of the activity focused on data transfer from the table to the graph.
All pupils have some experience with a line graph of temperature vs time dependence, but the experiences can vary.They can have read graphs of temperature at the outside environment vs time in the interval of a day or week (weather), daily average outside temperature vs. day for a year (climate), and position vs time (kinematics).They can have various experiences in using graphical representations of the data points, such as a cross, dot, square, or circle.The illustrative activity is focused on the concept of sampling frequency.For most pupils, this is the first conscious experience related to this concept.So, it is recommended to activate as much as possible of the relevant prior experiences related to various aspects of the activity, especially related to the representation of the data set by the table and graph.Graphed data from the illustrative activity in the grid provided in the textbook is in Figure 3.
For pre-service physics teacher seem to be essential to perform the same activity, in a role of a 12 years-old pupil, to appreciate the necessity to transfer the data from the table to the graph and later understand how pupils think when using automated data logging with pre-set sampling frequency to the graph, without displaying the table.We often do so, especially when the table has many rows.
Pupils well focused on the process of time measurement, prompted to read value, and to write the value to the correct row of the table, will later much better feel time-based measurement of temperature and other quantities when the sampling frequency is set in software and reading values at regular time intervals is made by the data-logger or computer.Here it should be noted to the students, pre-service physics teachers, that the principle of prior experience we must apply to concepts development as well as skills development.In developing relatively new concepts not well related to empirical experience, an analogy to previous experience is a recommended way of applying this principle.

Principles of human learning and neuroconstructivism applied to building utilization of conception of sampling frequency -blinking LED diode
Pupils who have experience with the activity focused on building the preconception of sampling frequency in the context of measurement of the temperature of warm and cold water much later can perform the activity focused on measurement of the light output of a light source.In the preparation of our university students -pre-service physics teachers, we place this activity for the age of 16 in the introductory of the activity focused on an experiment where light is dependent on the distance from a light source.For a point source, it should lead to inverse square law.As the light source, we use a LED diode powered by AC, 3V school power source.It should be noted that at this level, we do not distinguish between light intensity or irradiance (radiometric) and illuminance (photometry).
We prepared an imaginary situation in which, in the preliminary measurement, pupils decided to use a bigger LED, school power source, cheap light sensor (CMA 0513), WiLab interface and computer with Coach 7 software environment, shown in Figure 4.As a result, pupils got strange, unstable outputs, as shown in Figure 5.If we compare Figure 2 and Figure 5, we can see that there are more details in Figure 5. Built on previous experience, pupils use time measurement even to get one light intensity value.In this measurement, a preliminary to the experiment where distance should be an independent variable and light intensity, one value for each distance, should be the dependent variable.They measure more values intending to use average value in the data processing.They use the function of the software environment to graph the values in real time.Without experience similar to the illustrative example, Figure 2, with manually transferring data from table to graph, Figure 3, this could be more difficult and often lead to surface learning.The strange output the pre-service physics teachers in the role of 16 years-old pupils could not be able to eliminate.One of the identified reasons (incorrect) could be based on information that a cheap, imprecise light sensor was used.Pre-service physics teachers are faced with the question of how to scaffold the pupils.Every pupil is unique (1st principle), pupils have different potentials (2nd principle), new learning is influenced by prior experience (3rd principle), and the brain is changing even before the changes are visible in behaviour (4th principle).We can use guiding questions like these: Do we expect stable or time-variable light?Is there a pattern in the measured data?Could we look at the pattern by looking at the changes in more detail, using more data?Pupils can release that there are many measured points with a light intensity of 0.15 W/m 2 .Some pupils can suggest looking at the number of points taken per unit of time and raising this number.Here we can identify a previous experience and the concept of sampling frequency built at some level, at least at the level of preconception from activity with a temperature sensor.Graphs taken during this part of the activity are in Figure 6.
University students, future physics teachers, see that the light is changing with period 0,02 s, so with the frequency of 50 Hz.After this preliminary measurement, they can continue in the initially intended experiment of inverse square law using the maximal values of the light, or they can decide to use a DC power source.

Conclusion
In this contribution, we presented a design of activity from the course Introduction to school physics experiments for university students, future physics teachers.We found that applying principles of learning, as formulated by the team of researchers in the learning sciences, can be used in the series of teaching-learning sequences in a complex activity in physics education and in pre-service physics teachers' education.Furthermore, we see that wise use of technology can be enriched by knowledge in topics related to processes of learning.Based on our experience, we hypothesize that this allows for designing learning activities in a brain-friendly manner.Our findings are in accordance with findings published by Samani and Pan [8], who researched interleaved practice in university students -future physics experts.Similarly, as Samani and Pan [8], we identified among our students, future physics teachers' opinions such as that it is too difficult to often change between concepts studied (concepts related to temperature, light, sampling frequency, intensity of light vs distance from a point light source, and other not explicitly mentioned in this contribution).At the same time, we identified, similarly to Samani and Pan, deeper and higher mastery in using sensors to get a series of relevant data within school physics experiments.
We have started this contribution with a theory of learning based on the principles and tenets of T. Tokuhama-Espinosa [1].An interesting and perspective theory of learning, highly in accordance with these principles and tenets, seems to be the theory Knowledge-in-Pieces [9].Both strengthen the important role of intuitive knowledge, besides rationale reasoning, in physics education and research, as discussed in [10].Both tacit and explicit knowledge we use in critical thinking development of critical thinking is one of the important goals of physics education [11].Development of pupils via physics and science education in an environment equipped with tools [12] designed in accordance with the principles and tenets of learning seems to be a path leading to the improvement of physics education [13], [14], [15].The example used in this contribution, the concept of the sampling frequency, is developed not only in physics and science education but can also have a firm place in mathematics education.Interplay physics/mathematics education is well discussed in [16].Besides pre-service teacher training, in-service teacher training is a crucial factor in bringing the results of this theoretical work into practice in schools [5], [17], and now we work on adaptation if the ideas related to the preparation of pre-service physics teachers presented in this contribution, also on the in-service physics teacher training and formal alternative teacher preparation programs, such as transitions of physicists to physics teachers and teachers of other subjects (e.g.math or biology) to physics teachers.The quality of the courses are to be measured by various methods, one of them can be based on [18].

Figure 2 .
Figure 2. One of the roles in the illustrative activity -reading the temperature.

Figure 3 .
Figure 3.An example of the utilization of prior experience in the activity focused on developing the concept of sampling frequency.

Figure 4 .
Figure 4. Apparatus for measurement of light intensity from LED.

Figure 5 .
Figure 5. Preliminary measurement of light produced by LED diode powered by 3V AC source.

Figure 6 .
Figure 6.Graphed data of light from LED diode powered by AC 3V at various sampling frequencies.