Investigating Differences in How Teachers Facilitate the Classbook "The Radiation Around Us"

Abstract

HEC (Hypothesis–Experiment Class) is a Japanese teaching method Kiyonobu Itakura first introduced. Similar to a gameshow, students in HEC are asked a series of problems from which to choose answers a, b, or c. After a discussion phase, the correct answer is revealed. In repeating this procedure, the students are constantly learning more about a specific topic. The first author is the first teacher to conduct the HEC lesson "The Radiation Around Us" (TRAU) at an Austrian school. Our impression is that TRAU has much potential and the first two authors are writing their MS theses on evaluating this potential. According to Itakura, HEC has three goals: growth in conceptual understanding, enjoyment of the lesson, and reproducibility of the lesson across classrooms. In this paper, we will discuss the last of those three points; namely, we look to see how increased experience does or does not affect how TRAU is carried out in the classroom. This paper accompanies the DPG Proceedings by Jeidler et al. which addresses the first two goals of HEC.