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By
Mehmet Fatih Taşar;
Mehmet Fatih Taşar
Georgia State University
, Atlanta, GA,
USA
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Paula R. L. Heron
Paula R. L. Heron
University of Washington
, Seattle, WA,
USA
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The International Handbook of Physics Education Research: Teaching Physics covers the topics of educational technologies, learning environments, teacher education, and assessment in relation to physics education. As the field of physics education research grows, it is increasingly difficult for newcomers to gain an appreciation of the major findings across all sub-domains, discern global themes, and recognize gaps in the literature. The current volume incorporates the understanding of both physics and education concepts and provides an extensive review the literature in a wide range of important topics.

The International Handbook of Physics Education Research: Teaching Physics includes:

  • Various teaching perspectives including active learning, the modeling method, and teaching environments.

  • Distance/online education, formative and summative assessment, and assessment in online education.

  • Gender, race, and ethnicity equity.

Readers will find this comprehensive treatment of the literature useful in understanding physics education research and extending to all the physical sciences including chemistry, mathematics, astronomy, and other related disciplines.

As a young science education researcher at Penn State in the mid-1990s with a background in pure physics (condensed matter—high temperature superconductivity), I was totally perplexed and worried about the future of my doctoral studies. I was new to the field and did not know where to turn for research ideas and, if I found one, how to validate the rationale. When I progressed further into my coursework, we were introduced to the handbooks that existed at the time: the Handbook of Research on Science Teaching and Learning (Gabel, 1994) and the International Handbook of Science Education (IHSE) (Fraser and Tobin, 1998). I was amazed by the breadth and depth of the chapters written by experts on each topic deemed to be of concern and be attractive to science education researchers. The sections and chapters outline the major research areas and a respective synthesis of research. Later, other handbooks followed, both those covering science education broadly [e.g., the Handbook of Research on Science Education (HRSE) by Abell and Lederman, 2007 and 2014] and the Second International Handbook of Science Education (Fraser, Tobin, McRobbie, 2012), and others that that covered specific topics in depth (e.g., the International Handbook of Research on Conceptual Change, Vosniadou, 2008; and the International Handbook of Research in History, Philosophy and Science Teaching, Matthews, 2014).

While IHSE did not have chapters on specific science content areas (i.e., physics, chemistry, and biology), HRSE included such chapters in its “Science Teaching” section. Reinders Duit has been compiling a bibliography of science education for some decades and reporting percentages of published studies for each content area. In HRSE's “Teaching Physics” section, the authors (Duit et al.) reported that “… according to the bibliography on constructivist-oriented research on teaching and learning science by Duit (2009), about 53% of the studies documented were carried out in the domain of physics, 18% in the domain of biology, and 28% in the domain of chemistry.” To cut the long story short, having known the obvious advantages of handbooks and the fact that the field of physics education research has a high number of published studies, I envisioned editing a handbook dedicated to physics education research (PER). But, the timing was also crucial, and I was thinking that it was ripening already in 2018.

Scholarly contributions to PER come from two types of researchers: those coming from a background of physics teaching and science education research studies in a college/faculty of education—and those coming from a background of college/university level physics teaching and PER in a department of physics. I mostly represent the former and I thought I needed a co-editor from the background of the latter. Although I had my doctoral degree from an American university, since 2001 I had resided in Turkiye and had become very active in European science education and physics education circles. Moreover, as an educator, I valued and practiced actions favoring inclusion and diversity throughout my professional life. I have cherished international collaborations and connections from around the world and always kept in mind that education and educational research is about enhancing human capacities.

With all these thoughts in my mind, and given the fact that American contributions to PER have been immense, I wanted to have a colleague from the USA co-edit the handbook with me. Thus, I decided to approach Paula Heron, who has a Ph.D. in physics and is in a physics department. We had already known each other for quite some time, and I very much respected and admired her contributions to PER, just like everyone else did in our field. I emailed Paula in early March of 2019. She was a keynote speaker at the GIREP conference that was going to be held in Budapest in early July of that year. Paula carefully considered my invitation to co-edit The International Handbook of Physics Education Research and within a few days responded, as she promised, with a positive answer. Committing oneself to a long-term project like this is indeed courageous and for that reason I am forever grateful to Paula for teaming up with me in this extremely important endeavor, the value of which I am confident will be appreciated in the years to come.

Paula and I could be a successful team of co-editors once we set clear goals and plans, show strong leadership to achieve those goals, fulfill our own tasks, and also help each other communicate openly, resolve emerging conflicts constructively, and feel that each one of us is directly contributing to the handbook's success. All of these became true over the course of the creation of The International Handbook of Physics Education Research. I am forever grateful to Paula for being such a wonderful colleague and co-editor.

In Budapest, we met and talked about some of the details of the project. Also, since many PER people were already there, it was a precious opportunity for us to open the project to potential contributors, collect their ideas, and seek ways to involve them in The International Handbook of Physics Education Research. The next steps were to form a structure and organization for The International Handbook of Physics Education Research and find a publisher. Later, we formed an international advisory board to share the idea of The International Handbook of Physics Education Research and their views about the draft structure and organization. As a result, we received much praise and positive feedback. Among our efforts to find a publisher for The International Handbook of Physics Education Research, we finally contacted the AAPT Committee on Publications, who had an agreement with AIP Publishing (AIPP) to publish books. AIPP reviewed our proposal for The International Handbook of Physics Education Research and in July 2020, we signed a contract.

For The International Handbook of Physics Education Research to deserve the “international” character in its name, we wanted to include colleagues with extensive experience in PER from around the world. Another aspect was to have diverse teams of co-authors, such as relatively new and relatively experienced ones, and ones from different countries (or better, whenever possible, from different continents). In addition, we wanted to share not only the responsibility and workload but also the joy and pride of creating The International Handbook of Physics Education Research with respected PER colleagues. Therefore, we decided to have section editors collaborate with us in identifying chapter authors and tracking progress. To a large degree, our scheme worked.

It is important to note that the development of The International Handbook of Physics Education Research took place during a time of tremendous upheaval and uncertainty. The global Covid-19 pandemic presented editors, authors, and reviewers with unanticipated challenges in maintaining high standards while meeting publisher deadlines. While schools and businesses were closed and lockdowns were ordered, we all experienced difficult times. But, the work had to go on. Paula and I held weekly online video meetings and had meetings with section editors. It was a big challenge to organize it since we were spread out around the world. Nevertheless, things worked out well. Afterwards, we communicated frequently with the section editors to respond to their questions, to provide initial editorial reviews for submitted first drafts of chapters, to recruit reviewers, and anything else that came along.

Initially, I was in Turkiye and Paula was in the U.S. During the last year, we switched continents. She came to Europe for a sabbatical, while I moved to the U.S. We still had several hours of time difference, but it did not stop us from working together in accordance with our determination to successfully complete The International Handbook of Physics Education Research. That was our great responsibility to so many who vested trust in us and have been devoting their time and efforts as section editors, authors, and reviewers with diligence, motivation, and ambition.

Now we have the final manuscript, which consists of three volumes organized into 12 sections, with a total of 69 chapters. Nineteen section editors and 170 authors contributed and benefited from the expertise of many external reviewers. Section editors, contributors and reviewers represent countries from Europe, the Americas, Asia, Africa, the Middle East, and Australia. As general editors, we are greatly thankful to all.

M. Fatih Taşar

Georgia State University

Atlanta, GA, USA

Coming from a physics background with a Ph.D. in theoretical physics, and entering the field of PER as a postdoc, handbooks were not a significant part of my early professional development. In the mid-1990s, when I joined the Physics Education Group at the University of Washington (then under the leadership of Lillian C. McDermott), the field seemed small enough that everyone knew everyone else (at least in the USA) and you could pick up the phone or send an email to inquire about what they were up to. The literature was relatively sparse, especially concerning university-level teaching, and most researchers were intimately familiar with a small set of seminal papers. Since then, the field has grown enormously and I have come to appreciate the value of review articles, such as those found in handbooks. In my role as an Associate Editor of Physical Review—PER, it has frequently been the case that I have needed a quick overview of a particular area of research. This, more than anything else, convinced me that a handbook for PER would be an invaluable resource for our field. I am grateful that Fatih approached me about this project, which seemed ambitious at first, but has grown into something even bigger than I think either of us imagined. I am also deeply appreciative of all of the effort that has gone into it, especially by the Section Editors, without whom the project would not have been possible.

Paula R. L. Heron

University of Washington

Seattle, WA, USA

This handbook would not be possible without the support, suggestions, critiques, and contributions of a large number of people. First and foremost, we are grateful for the work of the section editors who recruited and supported authors, reviewed chapters, and wrote section overviews: Marisa Michelini, Italy; Shulamit Kapon, Israel; Olivia Levrini, Italy; Edit Yerushalmi, Israel; Bat Sheva Eyon, Israel; Sarantos Psycharis, Greece; Eugenia Etkina, USA; Eric Brewe, USA; Eilish McLoughlin, Ireland; Feral Ogan Bekiroglu, Turkiye; Geraldine Cochran, USA; Don Metz, Canada; Peter Heering, Germany; Cibelle Celestino Silva, Brazil; Marika Kapanadze, Georgia; Gabriela Jonas-Ahrend, Germany; Gesche Pospiech, Germany; and David Meltzer, USA. The results are a credit to their efforts. Early in the process we received invaluable suggestions from a small group of advisors: Richard Gunstone, Australia; David Hestenes, USA; the late Norman G. Lederman, USA; Marcia Linn, USA; Robin Millar, UK; E. F. (Joe) Redish, USA; the late Laurence Viennot, France; and the late Lillian C. McDermott, USA. Blane Baker (then AAPT Secretary) and Laura McCullough (then Chair of the AAPT Books Advisory Committee) were instrumental in securing the sponsorship of the AAPT. Martine Felton, Michael Lynch, and Dina Rabie at AIP Publishing worked with us to prepare the manuscript.

We are also grateful for the review efforts and invaluable feedback provided for improving the manuscripts in this volume by the following colleagues:

Section I

Omiros Iatrelis, University of Thessaly, Greece

Patrinopoulos Mathaios, Coordinator of 2nd Regional Center for Educational Planning of Attica, Greece

Stamovlasis Dimitrios, Aristotle University of Thessaloniki, Greece

Ali İbrahim Can Gözüm, Kafkas University, Turkiye

Nikos Zygouris, University of Thessaly, Greece

Section II

Chris Orban, The Ohio State University, USA

Jennifer Doctor, University of Wisconsin–La Crosse, USA

James Bell, Center of Advancement of Informal Science Education, USA

Eilish McLoughlin, Dublin City University, Ireland

Section III

Eilish McLoughlin, Dublin City University, Ireland

David Meltzer, Arizona State University, USA

Deirdre O’Neill, University of Limerick, Ireland

Section IV

Feral Ogan Bekiroglu, Marmara University, Turkiye

Mehmet Fatih Taşar, Gazi University, Turkiye

Emily Alicea-Muñoz

Georgia Institute of Technology, Atlanta, Georgia 30332, USA

Saalih Allie

Physics Department & Centre for Higher Education, University of Cape Town, Cape Town 7701, South Africa

Feral Ogan Bekiroglu

Faculty of Education, Department of Mathematics and Science Education, Marmara University, 34722 Goztepe Istanbul, Turkiye

Michael B. Bennett

QSEnSE Quantum Leap Challenge Institute, University of Colorado Boulder, Boulder, Colorado 80309, USA

Eric Brewe

Drexel University, Philadelphia, Pennsylvania 19104, USA

Mojca Čepič

Faculty of Education, University of Ljubljana, 1000 Ljubljana, Slovenia

Lin Ding

Department of Teaching and Learning, The Ohio State University, Columbus, Ohio 43220, USA

Julie Direnga

Universität Bremen, 28359 Bremen, Germany

Eugenia Etkina

Rutgers University, New Brunswick, New Jersey 08901, USA

Claudia Fracchiola

University College Dublin, Dublin, Ireland

Jon D. H. Gaffney

Utica University, Utica, New York 13323, USA

Georgios Giannakas

Department of Computer Science and Telecommunications, University of Thessaly, 35132 Lamia, Greece

Ana Gostinčar Blagotinšek

Faculty of Education, University of Ljubljana, 1000 Ljubljana, Slovenia

Danielle B. Harlow

Department of Education, UC Santa Barbara, Santa Barbara, California 93106-9490, USA

Paraskevi Iatrou

STEM Advisor, Socialinnov, 11854 Athens, Greece

Victoria Ikoro

Future Swipe Analytics, Mancester M32 0EX, United Kingdom

Meltem Irmak

Mathematics and Science Education Department, Gazi University, Ankara 06500, Turkiye

Leonora Kaldaras

Department of Physics, University of Colorado Boulder, Boulder, Colorado 80309, USA

Michail Kalogiannakis

Department of Preschool Education, Faculty of Education, University of Crete, 74100 Crete, Greece

Konstantinos Kalovrektis

Department of Computer Science and Bioinformatics, University of Thessaly, Livadeia, Greece

Derya Kaltakci-Gurel

Faculty of Education, Department of Mathematics and Science Education, Kocaeli University, 41380 Umuttepe, Turkiye

Antonios Karampelas

American Community Schools of Athens, 15234 Chalandri, Greece

Jari Lavonen

University of Helsinki, 00014 Helsinki, Finland

Eilish McLoughlin

CASTeL & School of Physical Sciences, Dublin City University, Dublin 9, Ireland

Knut Neumann

IPN–Leibniz-Institute for Science and Mathematics Education, 24118 Kiel, Germany

Valerie K. Otero

University of Colorado Boulder, Boulder, Colorado 80309-0249, USA

Stamatios Papadakis

Department of Preschool Education, Faculty of Education, University of Crete, 74100 Crete, Greece

Matthaios Patrinopoulos

Coordinator of 2nd Regional Center for Education Planning of Attica, Thrakomakedones, Greece

Jerneja Pavlin

Faculty of Education, University of Ljubljana, 1000 Ljubljana, Slovenia

Despina Potari

Department of Mathematics, University of Athens, Athens, Greece

Dimitris Psillos

Emeritus Professor, Aristotle University of Thessaloniki, Thessaloniki 57500, Greece

Sarantos Psycharis

School of Pedagogical and Technological Education, Athens, Greece

Katemari Rosa

Federal University of Bahia, Salvador 40170-115, Brazil

Dagmara Sokolowska

Faculty of Physics, Astronomy and Applied Computer Science, Jagiellonian University, Krakow, Poland

Stefan Sorge

IPN—Leibniz-Institute for Science and Mathematics Education, 24118 Kiel, Germany

Dimitrios J. Sotiropoulos

European University of Cyprus, 19002 Athens, Greece

Vasiliki Spiliotopoulou-Papantoniou

Department of Education, School of Pedagogical and Technological Education (ASPETE), Athens, Greece

Mehmet Fatih Taşar

Gazi University, Ankara, Turkiye

Kalliopi Theodoropoulou

Department of Physics, University of Thessaly, 38221 Volos, Greece

David F. Treagust

School of Education, Curtin University, Bentley, Western Australia 6102, Australia

Chrissavgi Triantafillou

Department of Mathematics, University of Athens, Athens, Greece

Charilaos Tsihouridis

Faculty of Humanities and Social Sciences, Department of Education and Social Work, University of Patras, Patras, Greece

Dionysios (Denis) Vavougios

Faculty of Sciences, Department of Physics, University of Thessaly, 35100 Lamia, Greece

Apostolos Xenakis

Deparment of Digital Systems, University of Thessaly, Volos 38221, Greece

Duygu Yılmaz Ergül

Gazi University, Ankara, Turkiye

Marjan G. Zadnik

Department of Physics and Astronomy, Curtin University, Bentley, Western Australia 6102, Australia

Ping Zhang

Department of Physics, Beijing Normal University, Beijing 100875, People's Republic of China

Alkinoos-Ioannis Zourmpakis

Department of Preschool Education, Faculty of Education, University of Crete, 74100 Crete, Greece

Benjamin M. Zwickl

School of Physics and Astronomy, Rochester Institute of Technology, Rochester, New York 14623, USA

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