The paper "Design of a profession-oriented course on theoretical mechanics for physics education students" reports on a redesigned theoretical classical mechanics course offered at the University of Vienna that explicitly integrates the future professional needs of prospective high-school physics teachers with rigorous physics content.
Korner and Likos identify a common "vicious circle" in teacher education — low motivation for abstract theoretical physics among students and corresponding low expectations from instructors — and aim to break it by planning the course around meaningful connections to the teaching profession while preserving mathematical rigor. Key design elements include careful selection of material, interwoven lectures and exercises, and alignment with principles from science education research to make abstract concepts relevant to future classroom use.
Their findings suggest that this profession-oriented planning can effectively enhance student engagement and counteract negative attitudes toward theoretical physics. By foregrounding how mechanics content will be useful in their later work as teachers, and by applying educational design principles such as meaningful contexts and educational reconstruction, the course helps students see the purpose in difficult material without diluting the physics. The authors conclude that such an approach can be successfully implemented without sacrificing academic standards, offering a model for other institutions seeking to better tailor advanced physics instruction to the needs of physics education students.
The work of Korner and Likos appears in Physical Review Physics Education Research, a leading journal of the American Physical Society with worldwide reach. This underscores that the joint efforts between Physics Didactics and Physics Subject undertaken in our Faculty have not only been fruitful locally but they bear international relevance as well.
- Publication: Korner, M., & Likos, C. N. (2026). Design of a profession-oriented course on theoretical mechanics for physics education students. Physical Review Physics Education Research, 22(1), 010131. doi 10.1103/1lc2-2372
- Experimental Basic Training and Physics Didactics: https://teaching-physics.univie.ac.at/
