La cultura profesional como condicionante de la adaptación de los profesores de física universitaria en la enseñanza de la física.

Laburpena

The courses which correspond to the area of Basic Physics in science and engineering programs are characterized by the existence of set models about what and how to teach and evaluate, the curricula, the order of the topics and traditional activities and reference text books which are widely accepted by the international academic community. When a faculty member whose teaching experience belongs to this area must teach Physics, here referred to as Physics for non physicists, in programs where this discipline is not considered of primary importance, such as Architecture or Biology, their insecurities and dilemmas arise because the curricular requirements and the students capacities, motivations and interests are different. This could force them to leave aside the traditional teaching models. This Thesis is centered on the adjustment problem of these faculty members. It is set in the context of the studies on the relationship between teachers thinking, action and innovation and it is approached from the analysis of the possibilities of change and resistance to it and from the framework of professional culture. When a faculty member has to work in another environment, they must interact with a an unknown culture, and so adjustment problems, which may be solved by what here is referred to as processes of cultural change in the way of teaching, arise. This research intends to establish the way in which Physics faculty members change their teaching procedures, traditions and practices in relation to the organizational context of their teaching. A number of Basic Physics faculty members were interviewed to characterize their professional and teaching culture and to find the insecurities and dilemmas of the faculty members who suffer a cultural change in their teaching. There were found five ways in which these faculty members solve their problems. Therefore, five courses whose teachers were considered models of these ways were chosen and case studies were carried out. The factors found to affect the degree of adjustment of the teachers of Physics for non physicists can be classified as internal and external. In order to reflect the feelings of the faculty members about this change of setting. the metaphor of the immigrant was used.