A Study of High School Students' and Science Teachers' Understanding of Ideal Conditions involved in the Theoretical Explanation and Experiment in Physics: Part I- Focused on the Meaning and the Characteristics of Idealization -

This study is the first part of the investigation of the students' and teachers' understanding of ideal conditions in physics. To do this, here, we provided the theoretical basis for the above study by discussing the meaning and characteristics of idealization. Idealization, introduced and elaborated by Galileo therefore characterized the nature of modem science, can be generated by four procedures: neglecting the minor variables, giving without any description about the minor variables, assuming the limit case, assuming constancy or uniformity. Idealization generated by these procedures can produce models and laws from the sensory informations about real world. And physics world is constructed by formalization or mathematization of these models and laws obtained through idealization about real world. Therefore, it can be said that idealization have a major role in the context of discovery. By this aspects, physics world can be viewed as the approximation of the real world, and this view, again, give rise the philosophical debate about the reality in nature. Idealization take an important role in the process of application of physics world and the understanding the real world. That is, physicists accept the discrepancies between real world, and physics world and make a great effort to explain, moreover, reduce these discrepancies by modifying or eliminating idealization involved in physics world. Continued from this study, we will proceed to obtain the implications of idealization on the physics learning and investigate the students' and teachers' understanding of the ideal condition involved in the theoretical explanation and the experiment in physics.