DEVELOPING PROSPECTIVE PHYSICS TEACHERS’ SKILLS OF INDEPENDENT EXPERIMENTAL WORK USING OUTDOORS APPROACH

This paper discusses the development of an Introductory Physics course at a Pedagogical University in Russia. The course focuses on developing students' skills of independent experimental work. Piotr Gal'perin's (1902-1988) ideas, that learning should begin with a profound orientation to the learning task and integrate students' self-reflections, provide a theoretical ground for the course development. An outdoor context was used to inspire and implement the students' self-directed projects. Evidence of the outcomes of different elements of the course implementation was collected through action research methodology. The results show that the students deepen their skills of inquiry and value doing independent planning and implementation of experimental activities in an outdoor environment.