Teacher Training Seminar on the Teaching of Energy

A three-day seminar was held from March 16 to 18, 2026, at the Laboratory of Science Education (https://edithe.upatras.gr/), within the Department of Educational Sciences and Early Childhood Education of the University of Patras. The seminar was entitled “Teaching Energy through the ‘Energy Change’ Approach – Workshop for Developing Teacher-Leaders and Regional Research Collaboration.”

The seminar was organized within the framework of collaboration between the research group “Energy in Education” (https://energyineducation.blogspot.com/) and international research teams. It constitutes the preliminary phase of a joint research project aimed at developing and implementing an interdisciplinary teaching approach to the concept of energy. The research examines how teachers and researchers perceive, design, and develop instruction around this topic.

The seminar brought together seven researchers and twelve teachers from Cyprus (University of Cyprus), Georgia (Ilia State University), Israel (Hebrew University of Jerusalem; David Yellin Academic College of Education), and Greece (University of Patras). The event was organized by the Greek research team, comprising Dimitris Koliopoulos, Niki Sissamperi, and Kalliopi Meli.

The seminar programme combined theoretical and practical components, with the following objectives:

(a) to support teachers’ professional development in the teaching of energy-related topics;
(b) to prepare participating teachers to act as multipliers in the professional development of their peers; (c) to foster the generation of ideas for the advancement of the associated research agenda.

Particular emphasis was placed on the “energy changes” approach, grounded in quantitative calorimetric experimentation. In parallel, the “energy chains” approach was also explored, particularly in cases requiring an initial qualitative description and analysis of energy systems. Furthermore, data were collected for academic research purposes, including the study of teachers’ professional development processes, the investigation of teaching and learning conceptions related to energy and climate, as well as dissemination activities such as conference presentations, academic publications, and the development and presentation of instructional materials within the context of teacher education.

As an outcome of the collaboration to date, a paper entitled “Teaching Energy as a Coherent Crosscutting Concept – International Researchers–Practitioners Partnership” has been submitted to the conference of GIREP (International Research Group on Physics Teaching), to be held in Rethymno, Greece, from July 6 to 10, 2026 (https://www.girep.org/conferences /).




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