Models and Modeling in Physics Education

This article will look at modern trends in physics education through the perspective of model-based-learning and teaching. It will describe some ideas for using models and modeling as main students' activity and their important role for improving the understanding of the physical theory. A physical theory is a system that consists of a mathematical model (formalism) with equations and a linguistic one with semantic content. Semantic content consists of statements regarding physical phenomena, which phenomena theory describes and are not perceived through direct observations. Relationship between theory and reality is performed through physical models. They fully develop the content of the theory. Students who could not construct and use mental models for the physical ones tend to work with definitions and formulae only. They are successful in doing mathematical problems but often are not able to explain a particular physical situation or their explanations are not correct. Therefore, one of the goals of physics education is to help students develop an adequate understanding about the nature of models and the role of modeling in science. Teachers must encourage students to participate in the process of building models in order to understand the relationship between reality and models and their meaning for the development of science.