Resource Letter: PER-1: Physics Education Research

Abstract

The purpose of this Resource Letter is to provide an overview of research on the learning and teaching of physics. The references have been selected to meet the needs of two groups of physicists engaged in physics education. The first is the growing number whose field of scholarly inquiry is (or might become) physics education research. The second is the much larger community of physics instructors whose primary interest is in using the results from research as a guide for improving instruction.

Development of a Concept Inventory to Assess Students’ Understanding and Reasoning Difficulties about the Properties and Formation of Stars

“…More specific to this study, annotated bibliographies of key research publications have been created for astronomy (Bailey & Slater, 2005) and physics (McDermott & Redish, 1999).…”

Bridging the educational research‐teaching practice gap

“…This excellent resource offers biochemistry and molecular biology lecturers a unique opportunity to improve their teaching and learning practice and course curricula and put their practice onto a sound, and rigorously researched theoretical base [1]. Unfortunately though, with the exception of physics [2], the application of this knowledge to the teaching of chemistry [3,4] and biology [5] has been relatively limited [6,7], while disciplines such as biochemistry and molecular biology have been even more neglected [8]. This is despite the extensive efforts of colleagues across various disciplines to promote such applications of knowledge through a wide range of initiatives and publications (see below).…”

Twenty Questions for PER: How Does It All Fit Together?

“…Results have been presented at conferences and published in journals. [4] As a community, we understand these methods, agree on their relevance, and build on past history. We may each emphasize different elements, but we must keep in mind the interconnectedness of the research results when we ask ourselves, "What do I do in class on Monday?…”