An Introduction to Physics Education Research

Dr. Steven Sahyun

UWW Physics

PTLGPhysics Teachers Lunch Group

Presentation

Outline

What is PER?

Who does PER?

How is PER applied and communicated?

What is Physics Education Research (PER)?

Sources of Information about PER:

PERG (Physics Education Research Group) sites.

Book: Connecting Research in Physics Education with Teacher Education, ICPE, Andrée Tiberghien, E. Leonard Jossem, Jorge Barojas http://www.physics.ohio-state.edu/~jossem/ICPE/TOC.html

Ph.D. Dissertation: Jeffery M. Saul, Beyond problem solving: Evaluating introductory physics courses through the hidden curriculum. (1998)http://www.physics.umd.edu/perg/dissertations/Saul/

Journal Article: Jan van Aalst “An introduction to physics education research”. Canadian Journal of Physics. 78 pp 57-71 (2000)

Intro to PER

Research on learning of physics

• Attitudes toward physics courses (MPEX)

• Studies of student conceptions about physics (FCI, 1986)

Focus on gap between what lecturers have presented and what students have learned van Aalst Can. J. Phys, pp. 57-59

For 95% of the class, teaching by telling doesn’t work!

Intro to PER

• Studies of epistemological beliefs and assumptions and how they affect learning.

Some common student expectations about learning physics:

1. Knowledge as authority based vs. uncertain answers2. Coherent knowledge set vs. loose collection of ideas3. Concept-based vs. formula-based.4. Equations representation: relationships, convenience5. Classroom learning vs. “real-world”

van Aalst Can. J. Phys, p. 61

Intro to PER

Think aloud protocols are used to develop conceptual questions.

Survey examples: Force Concept Inventory (FCI), Mechanics Baseline Test (MBT), Force and Motion Conceptual Evaluation (FMCE)

Effort to provide evidence of scientific reasoning.

van Aalst Can. J. Phys, pp. 59-61

Who does PER?

Who does PER?

I

You?The University of Wisconsin-Whitewater seeks proposals for the Undergraduate Research Program which provides opportunities for students to conduct undergraduate research, scholarship, and creative activity in partnership with faculty mentors. DEADLINE to RSP is 16 October 2006.

Some of the big PER groups:

http://research.physics.uiuc.edu/PER/Links.htm

How is PER applied?

Curriculum Development

Workshop PhysicsTutorials in Physics (McDermott)Sokoloff Interactive Lecture

Demonstrations (ILD) and TutorialsPET (Goldberg)Applets: PhET (Colorado) http://academics.uww.edu/physics/scs/physlinks.htmlhttp://www.colorado.edu/physics/phet/web-pages/

simulations-base.html

PER Journals and Conferences

Physical Review Special Topics: Physics Education Reserch

http://prst-per.aps.org/ American Journal of Physics

http://scitation.aip.org/ajp/ JRST http://www3.interscience.wiley.com/cgi-bin/jtoc/31817/

Conferences: AAPT http://www.aapt.org/ PERC http://web.phys.ksu.edu/perc2006/

Next PTLG meetings:

Friday, 12:05 pm, Upham 166September 22: Meet Dr. Epps (C & I) and

Physics Licensure issues.

September 29: Q&A with Tony Tautges: What’s it really like to be a high school physics teacher?