In this work a qualitative research is described. The topic of this research is the teaching of the Theory of Special Relativity (TSR) to students of secondary education (10th grade). The purpose of this study is to investigate whether and to what extent students of secondary education can understand the basic concepts of the TSR.
The instruction is based on the model of social constructivism. The research instrument is worksheets consisting of short stories, which are written in a simple way. These stories are based in everyday life, thought experiments, paradoxes and experimental data. Each story deals with a particular concept of Special Relativity. We expect students to “construct” the axioms of the theory and to be able to deal with some consequences of it (relativity of simultaneity, time dilation, length contraction). They work in groups where they have to provide arguments supporting their ideas. Their discourses were recorded. The analysis of the collected data was based on the content analysis (worksheets) and on the discourse analysis (cassette recordings).