We believe that economists have much to learn from educational research
practices and related pedagogical innovations in other disciplines, in
particular physics education. In this paper we identify three key features of
physics education research that distinguish it from economics education
research - (1) the intentional grounding of physics education research in
learning science principles, (2) a shared conceptual research framework focused
on how students learn physics concepts, and (3) a cumulative process of
knowledge-building in the discipline - and describe their influence on new
teaching pedagogies, instructional activities, and curricular design in physics
education. In addition, we highlight four specific examples of successful
pedagogical innovations drawn from physics education - context-rich problems,
concept tests, just-in-time teaching, and interactive lecture demonstrations -
and illustrate how these practices can be adapted for economic education.Comment: 19 pages, 3 figures, submitted to Journal of Economic Education, also
available from Social Science Research Network
<http://ssrn.com/abstract=1151430
