Physics Colloquium: Physics education research in higher education: What can we learn from the ...

Thursday, November 21, 2019

3:30 PM-4:30 PM

Charles Henderson, PhD, Western Michigan University

Physics education research in higher education: What can we learn from the top cited papers in the Physical Review?

Physical Review Physics Education Research (PRPER) was established in 2005 to be the archival research journal for the growing body of knowledge produced by the physics education research community. In this talk I will use the top-cited papers from PRPER to highlight some important findings from Physics Education Research. For example, there is strong evidence that in typical physics courses many students do not learn the core concepts of the discipline; student beliefs about physics become less expert like; and there is a significant gender gap, with men outperforming women. Many research-based instructional strategies can improve student knowledge and some instructional strategies can improve student beliefs. However, implementation of these strategies is low because the field often uses ineffective dissemination strategies.

Contact Information

Professor Eric Brewe
eric.brewe@drexel.edu