Teaching Newton's second law in final year science classes: Exploring practical bridging-in-action

When teaching a subject, all of the teacher's work must be part of a learning process for the student, i.e., bringing knowledge closer to the student so that they can effectively assimilate it and truly enter into the culture of the discipline. Therefore, in physics, the development of student activity materials, right up to their implementation in the classroom, must take into account a number of criteria, including the functioning of the discipline, in order to successfully bridge the gap between the subject matter and the learners. An analysis of the activity materials used by three teachers to teach Newton's second law in the final year of high school science shows that the work instructions (tasks or types of tasks) and the systems put in place do not allow students to move between the real and theoretical worlds using appropriate models. The work produced on the board only reinforced this observation, and the discourse concocted by these three teachers does not allow for the establishment of efficient interconceptual (or inter-concept) relationships that could promote a good understanding of the law.