We are easily seduced into believing that learning is better when it is easier,
but research shows the opposite: when the mind has to work, learning sticks better.
Gary Lynch, University of California
The information on this website is meant as supplement to the Guide for Teachers on the School Exam Physics havo/vwo [Handreiking schoolexamen natuurkunde havo/vwo1] matching the examination programmes physics in senior general secondary education [havo]2and in pre-university education [vwo]3 that are valid from August 2013 at upper secondary level.
On the proposal of the Physics Curriculum Innovation Committee4, models and modelling occupy an important place in the attainment targets of these examination programmes because of the increasing importance of models and modelling in science and technology. It does not only concern the practical skills in computer modelling, but also a modelling approach to a given problem situation with associated knowledge construction.5,6 'Modelling' as competence encompasses herewith both the cognitive component of thinking in models and the practical skill of computer modelling. Computer modelling is in this vision a concrete form of applying a modelling approach to problems.
Across all natural sciences, the new examination programmes mark a turning point in the attention to modelling in Dutch secondary education.7 Under the influence of the scientific and societal importance and by the experiences with pilot computer exams (first periods at school in 2003-2010), modelling is now explicitly targetted as essential competence for the natural sciences and mathematics. Herewith, modelling has become a serious part of the final examination, both in the school exam and the nationwide exam. Modelling also plays a rather important role in the school exams of Nature, Life and Technology (NLT) and Mathematics D.
This web-based supplement to the Guide for Teachers on the School Exam Physics havo/vwo
is meant to inform teachers about the attainment levels with regards to models and modelling, with suggestions and
didactic advice for realizing a coherent modelling curriculum. The considerations of Piet Lijnse8,9 and the insights
acquired through the research of Onne van Buuren, exposed in his doctoral thesis
'Development of a Modelling Learning Path'10 and in a paper with Koos
Kortland as co-author in the Handbook Didactics of Physics [Handboek natuurkundedidactiek11], serve as guidelines to inform and advise physics teachers.
The 4. Overview of models and
modelling equations contains a number of examples of dynamic models for domains in the examination programmes havo and vwo,
with matching files for use in the Coach 7 modelling environment12.