Supporting pupils to overcome physics anxiety
Building upon “Can I Physics? Yes You Can!” project, this fellowship project has helped teachers to understand and address the barriers to learning physics that many young people experience.
Pupils often consider physics to be too difficult as it involves a lot of mathematics, does not relate in an obvious way to their everyday lives, and it is regarded as only useful for a narrow range of careers (DeWitt, Archer and Moote, 2019). This can result in feelings of anxiety in physics lessons, as pupils struggle to engage with the discipline and understand concepts and experience feelings of inadequacy compared to a perceived small subset of pupils who are able to attain highly in the subject.
It is vital that teachers understand these barriers to pupil learning and take steps to address them. John Connolly’s fellowship drew on his doctoral research and brought together science teachers from a range of schools in London to explore the challenge. Working together, they developed an infographic to share strategies teachers can use to support pupils to overcome their negative perceptions about physics in school.
Co-constructing solutions
Social Cognitive Theory (Bandura,1986) provides a framework to understand and address how disaffection and negative emotions impact on learning. John used this framework with a group of 16 teachers to explore their experience of negative attitudes towards physics in their lessons, and the barriers these create. Their goal: to identify strategies to overcome these barriers and to encourage greater uptake at A-level.
“Can I physics? Yes you can!”
The teachers’ ideas were collected and became the stimulus for an infographic titled “Can I Physics? Yes You Can!” that gives examples of how science teachers can support their pupils in their physics lessons to overcome feelings of anxiety and low self-efficacy. It contains examples of pedagogical practices that can be used in lessons to promote inclusive and adaptive teaching in physics.
The infographic has been shared with teachers in schools in London as well as student teachers on a PGCE training course at IOE. Teachers have responded positively to the infographic. One biology teacher stated that it “provides useful starting points before planning a lesson and the questions on the infographic make me think more deeply about the pedagogy”. A chemistry teacher added how they now preface asking a question with saying “say anything which comes to mind” to make sure pupils understand wrong answers are also accepted.
The project has shown how attending to student’s feelings about the subject can make physics teaching more inclusive. Teachers highlighted how the infographic has reminded them of the importance of factoring in pupils’ confidence and self-efficacy. When planning lessons, they are much more sensitive to the barriers young people experience and try to “ensure pupils have an opportunity for experiencing success”.
About the academic
John Connolly is a Lecturer in Secondary Initial Teacher Education in science specialising in physics in the Department of Curriculum, Pedagogy and Assessment at IOE. Prior to working at IOE, he was an engineer in the private sector before leaving to study for a PGCE and teaching science for 10 years in a London school. [2022–23 cohort]