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Students reinventing the general law of energy conservation
Logman, P.S.W.M.
Publication date
2014
Link to publication
Citation for published version (APA):
Logman, P. S. W. M. (2014). Students reinventing the general law of energy conservation.
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Acknowledgements
First and foremost I would like to thank my sweet Pyly Mucuthi for keeping me and our house upright. Without her continuous support I would not have been able to finish this research. We can take on any challenge together!
Wolter Kaper taught me a lot on the subject of energy and its history as well as on doing qualitative educational research. I could not have wished for a better co-promotor and tutor. Having Ton Ellermeijer as my promotor assured me of very experienced supervision by a well-respected physics education researcher. He also gave me the opportunity to meet many of the prominent researchers in the field.
When I started my research, the AMSTEL Institute was still a strong research institute in which a great and diverse group of people were all working on educational research in one way or another. I would like to thank all of them for the great atmosphere, help and discussion along the way. In particular, I would like to mention Johan van de Ridder for helping me test my ideas for suitable experiments, Mary-Beth Key for the ever kind words of comfort, Frank Schweickert for always willing to help in setting up new ideas on the use of ICT, and Maarten Pieters for introducing me at the biology, chemistry and physics teachers’ conferences in the Netherlands. Maarten has recently started his own Ph.D.-research and I wish him all the best. The group of students we started out with was also special to me. We had fruitful discussions and many moments of laughter. Thanks André Heck, Lodewijk Koopman, Norbert van Veen, Sanne Schaap, and Ron Vonk, and especially Onne van Buuren. Onne is the only one that accompanied me through the large number of changes in location during the dismantling of the institute. You have been a great mirror, sparring partner, and traveling companion. Thanks for all the discussions and preparations for conference presentations. It is a pity that a reorganization at the University of Amsterdam separated such a strong team.
In my research I was helped to a great extent by the DUDOC-program in which twenty teachers of the exact sciences in the Netherlands performed educational research. It provided an extensive introduction to the educational research literature with respect to science through presentations by specialists in various fields. It also provided ample opportunity for critical discussion of my research inside and outside official meetings. Especially the discussions with Sonia Abrantes Garcêz Palha and Adri Dierdorp whose research was most closely related to mine were very pleasant and fruitful. Moreover, I will never forget the road trip to the ESERA Summer School in Udine, Italy, including on the road presentation preparations with Micha Ummels, Klaas van Hees, and Hilde Boer. I would like to thank Michiel Dam, Frank Lacroix, Marcel Koeneman, and Daan van Smaalen for their warm welcome into the group. As I was the last to start my
Acknowledgements
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research it was helpful to see from the other teacher-researchers what lay ahead. The organization by Tjeerd Plomp, Marie-Christine Knippels, and Gjalt Prins was impeccable: thanks for all the organizational efforts you put into the DUDOC-program.
For welcoming me warmly into the international physics education research community I would like to thank Wim Peeters and Dagmara Sokolowska. From day one in Leicester we have seen many great dinners, drinks, and outings drenched with fun together with the other usual suspects - Tom Lambert, Sabrina Rossi, Ton Ellermeijer, Ewa Kedzierska, Frank Schweickert, Ian Lawrence, Susanne Neumann, and Fatih Taşar. Here is to many more to come!
Of course this research would not have been possible without all the teachers that participated and dared to take the risks involved in trying out a new teaching approach: Jeroen Borsboom, Winfried Appelman, Urs Wyder, Coen Loermans, Jaap Schouten, Onne van Buuren, Onne Slooten, and Mark Molenaar. I also would like to thank all the teachers that considered participating. Furthermore, this research could not have been done without all the students that worked their way through the material and provided useful feedback while doing so.
In the teaching materials, experiments play a prominent role. For helping me prepare these experiments I would like to thank Johan van de Ridder (first experiments), Jaap Bernaert (a perfect balance), Aleksejs Eitminovics (cardboard tube partly filled with lead granules), and Ruud Glas (Joule’s experiment), who deserves extra thanks for his help in setting up Joule’s experiment in the various schools.
I would like to thank Marc Vrakking of the XUV group at AMOLF for giving me back the taste of performing research and the confidence to start this Ph.D. trajectory.
For polishing my English for this thesis I would like to thank Annelies van Diepen: thanks for all the effort you put into it. For their help on earlier work I would like to thank Pyly Mucuthi, and Rosan Donker.
I would like to thank Martijn Dorresteijn for his beautiful visualization of Heisenberg’s principle on the cover for this book and his ideas for the layout of the body of the text. Pieter Hoogendoorn receives my thanks for his help in printing this thesis.
Finally I would like to thank Platform Bèta Techniek for financing this research and my principal Marc Boelsma for his permission and support.
