Thinking about actions to take: Exploring Magnets

There's a good chance you could improve your teaching if you were to:

Try these

• using an explicit model of permanent magnets
• being consistent in the drawing of force arrows
• giving children a variety of representations to hand when asking for descriptions
• explicitly modelling the drawing of magnetic fields
• explaining the interpretation of magnetic field diagrams – and why field diagrams are important
• speaking, acting and drawing with exemplary precision, so children can apprentice their practice on yours
• giving extensive first-hand, physical, experience of the forces between magnets
• explicitly modelling the replacement of an interaction with a force, by isolating one magnet from its environment
• exploiting the sensations of action-at-a-distance in your own hands
• explicitly introducing the purposes of the field idea at the same time as the idea
• moving from north-seeking pole to north pole
• using the mini-magnets representation to support predictions

Teacher Tip: Work through the Physics Narrative to find these lines of thinking worked out and then look in the Teaching Approaches for some examples of activities.

Avoid these

• relying too much on precise words by themselves
• acting as if the drawing of magnetic fields is obvious
• referring to gravitational, electrical and magnetic effects without taking great care to separate them
• linking the atmosphere to mediating either gravitational or magnetic forces
• assuming that action-at-a-distance is not problematic

Teacher Tip: These difficulties are distilled from: the research findings; the practice of well-connected teachers with expertise; issues intrinsic to representing the physics well.