Investigating physics teaching and learning in a university setting

Most of the initiatives taken by the European Community and by other countries internationally in the field of science education focus on elementary and secondary levels of education, and relatively few reports have analysed the state of science education in higher education. However, research in science education, and in particular in physics education, has shown repeatedly that the way teachers teach in elementary and secondary school is strongly influenced by their own prior experience as university students. The education that future professionals, such as scientists, engineers and science teachers, receive at the university is worthy of study, because it allows us to investigate student learning relatively independently of developmental issues, and because of the more rigorous treatment of physics topics at the university level. For these reasons, it seems appropriate to identify, analyse and provide solutions to the problems of teaching and learning related to the university physics curriculum. In this symposium, we present examples of physics education research from different countries that is focused on physics topics

Toward a framework for the natures of proportional reasoning in introductory physics

We present a set of modes of reasoning about ratio and proportion as a means of operationalizing expert practice in physics. These modes, or natures of proportional reasoning, stem from consideration of how physicists reason in context and are informed by prior work in physics and mathematics education. We frame the natures as the core of an emerging framework for proportional reasoning in introductory physics, that will categorize the uses of proportional reasoning in introductory physics contexts, and provide guidance for the development of reliable assessments. We share results from preliminary assessment items indicating that university physics students have difficulty interpreting and applying ratios in context

Connecting Concepts to Problem-solving

This paper, presented at the 2001 Physics Education Research Conference, offers a new way to approach homework problems in electrostatics through the use of âbridging exercisesâ as part of studentsâ homework. These exercises encourage students to solve problems by starting with developed physics concepts and models

Connecting Concepts About Current to Quantitative Circuit Problems

This paper, presented at the 2001 Physics Education Research Conference, describes portions of an ongoing investigation into the relationship between conceptual knowledge and problem-solving ability in physics. To what degree do students apply conceptual knowledge to the solution of traditional examination and end-of-chapter physics problems? Are there instructional strategies that can facilitate this application? Finally, does an increased emphasis on developing conceptual understanding of the material underlying these problems have any impact on subsequent coursework? The researcher found that the addition of an explicit link between concepts and traditional problems can serve both to reinforce concepts and to improve student quantitative problem-solving performance

Demographics of physics education research

Is physics education research based on a representative sample of students? To answer this question we skimmed physics education research papers from three journals for the years 1970–2015 looking for the number of research subjects, the course the subjects were enrolled in, and the institution where the research was conducted. We combined this data with demographics data about these institutions to compile a profile of physics education research subjects, and compared the demographics of this population to those of all students taking physics in the United States. Our results suggest that physics education research subjects, as a whole, are better prepared mathematically and are from a narrow and unrepresentative subset of our intended target physics student populations. For this reason, findings from research may not be as generalizable to all student populations as we have previously assumed

Accounting for variability in student responses to motion questions

We describe the results of an experiment conducted to test predictions about student responses to questions about motion based on an explicit model of student thinking in terms of the cuing of a variety of different physical intuitions or conceptual resources. This particular model allows us to account for observed variations in patterns of student responses in a way that positing the existence of fixed student conceptions about motion does not. As a result of the experiment, we suggest refinements of our model in order to better account for additional features of the student responses