This volume, which is the output of a DAAD-funded collaboration between the University of Siegen and the Hanoi National University of Education, discusses and summarizes theoretical foundations of common grounds of mathematics and physics education. This interdisciplinary perspective enables especially teachers who have only been trained in one of these subjects to enrich their pedagogical content knowledge. The starting point is a description of characteristics of the disciplines and their historical genesis, followed by comparative studies. This edited volume brings together thirteen stimulating contributions on educational aspects of both disciplines written jointly by experienced researchers from Germany and Vietnam.

Interdisciplinary teaching is considered as one of the main goals of education worldwide. At the same time, it poses an immense challenge to teachers who have been trained in only one of the combines subjects. This is true even for closely related disciplines such as mathematics and physics. In this volume, practice-oriented educational comparisons are made across various topics that are highly relevant in both subjects. Furthermore, practical examples are presented in the form of lesson plans in which exemplary implementation in class is presented, considering both educational perspectives.

This book is about mathematics in physics education, the difficulties students have in learning physics, and the way in which mathematization can help to improve physics teaching and learning. The book brings together different teaching and learning perspectives, and addresses both fundamental considerations and practical aspects. Divided into four parts, the book starts out with theoretical viewpoints that enlighten the interplay of physics and mathematics also including historical developments. The second part delves into the learners’ perspective. It addresses aspects of the learning by secondary school students as well as by students just entering university, or teacher students. Topics discussed range from problem solving over the role of graphs to integrated mathematics and physics learning. The third part includes a broad range of subjects from teachers’ views and knowledge, the analysis of classroom discourse and an evaluated teaching proposal. The last part describes approaches that take up mathematization in a broader interpretation, and includes the presentation of a model for physics teachers’ pedagogical content knowledge (PCK) specific to the role of mathematics in physics.

In this "provocative" book (New York Times), a contrarian physicist argues that her field's modern obsession with beauty has given us wonderful math but bad science. Whether pondering black holes or predicting discoveries at CERN, physicists believe the best theories are beautiful, natural, and elegant, and this standard separates popular theories from disposable ones. This is why, Sabine Hossenfelder argues, we have not seen a major breakthrough in the foundations of physics for more than four decades. The belief in beauty has become so dogmatic that it now conflicts with scientific objectivity: observation has been unable to confirm mindboggling theories, like supersymmetry or grand unification, invented by physicists based on aesthetic criteria. Worse, these "too good to not be true" theories are actually untestable and they have left the field in a cul-de-sac. To escape, physicists must rethink their methods. Only by embracing reality as it is can science discover the truth.

Graduate-level text offers unified treatment of mathematics applicable to many branches of physics. Theory of vector spaces, analytic function theory, theory of integral equations, group theory, and more. Many problems. Bibliography.

This open access report explores the nature and extent of students’ misconceptions and misunderstandings related to core concepts in physics and mathematics and physics across grades four, eight and 12. Twenty years of data from the IEA’s Trends in International Mathematics and Science Study (TIMSS) and TIMSS Advanced assessments are analyzed, specifically for five countries (Italy, Norway, Russian Federation, Slovenia, and the United States) who participated in all or almost all TIMSS and TIMSS Advanced assessments between 1995 and 2015. The report focuses on students’ understandings related to gravitational force in physics and linear equations in mathematics. It identifies some specific misconceptions, errors, and misunderstandings demonstrated by the TIMSS Advanced grade 12 students for these core concepts, and shows how these can be traced back to poor foundational development of these concepts in earlier grades. Patterns in misconceptions and misunderstandings are reported by grade, country, and gender. In addition, specific misconceptions and misunderstandings are tracked over time, using trend items administered in multiple assessment cycles. The study and associated methodology may enable education systems to help identify specific needs in the curriculum, improve inform instruction across grades and also raise possibilities for future TIMSS assessment design and reporting that may provide more diagnostic outcomes.