Physics education research (PER) is a growing and vibrant field of physics that deals broadly with teaching and learning physics. Since its origins in the 1960s, PER has made valuable and important contributions to understanding physics teaching and learning and to improving the quality of physics teaching. Among the fruits of PER are the discoveries that
- Students' everyday ideas matter for learning.
- Traditional lectures and demonstrations do not reliably improve student understanding.
- Students' attitudes about physics influence their learning.
When teachers implement these and other results of PER in their classrooms, student learning and retention improve.
Studies in PER encompass a wide range of subjects, sample sizes, and orientations—from individuals to institutional practices, from neural and cognitive processes to social and contextual components of education, and from basic research to educational practices in physics.
Karen Cummings' article on the history of PER highlights some of these contributions that have helped change approaches to teaching physics. Thanks to PER, we now have new tools (for example, the Force Concept Inventory [FCI], Brief Electricity and Magnetism Assessment [BEMA]), new curricula, and new pedagogies (peer instruction, workshop physics, modeling instruction, tutorials in physics).
GPER is born
In April 2013 the council of the American Physical Society endorsed the creation of a topical group devoted to physics education research, GPER (pronounced 'jeeper'). The new topical group has as its objective 'the advancement and diffusion of knowledge concerning the learning and teaching of physics.' GPER represents the continued maturation of a field that now boasts two publishing outlets: Physical Review Special Topics–Physics Education Research (PRST-PER) and a section of the American Journal of Physics (AJP-PER).
The American Association of Physics Teachers and APS have supported PER from its infancy. AAPT not only has a PER Topical Group (PER-TG), but it also supports the annual, national PER Conference. APS has been instrumental in developing the field with its 1999 Statement: 'Research in physics education' and the ongoing support of PRST-PER.
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AAPT and APS's support for PER is significant in part because PER is an intrinsically interdisciplinary research field with multiple entry points. Some scholars earn their PhDs in PER from a physics department; others 'convert' to PER as postdoctoral research associates and go on to join an existing PER group; others earn their doctorates in colleges of education; still others switch research fields at some point in their academic careers, often during a sabbatical or following tenure. Many dabble in the field, applying the findings of research in their own classrooms or carrying out small-scale teaching experiments. The formation of GPER will augment support for all of the various paths and practices of PER and promote PER as a viable field in physics.
The formation of GPER will also put APS and physics again at the forefront of the national movement toward greater emphasis on discipline-based education research (DBER). Last year the National Academies' Board on Science Education released a report on DBER, which clearly positioned physics as a leader in the DBER movement. In parallel, the National Academies' Board on Physics and Astronomy recently released a report dedicated to examining the specific challenges and opportunities of undergraduate physics education, and the state of physics education research. In common with researchers in the rest of physics, the PER community is considering its field's impact, history, and trajectory for the coming decade.
The establishment of GPER will formalize and further strengthen APS's commitment to PER in the physics community and in physics departments. The group will also serve as a model for the rapid growth of educational research in disciplinary fields of all types. GPER will convene annual meetings in conjunction with the APS April Meeting, it will propose and organize PER sessions at APS meetings, and it may collaborate on the organization of meetings in conjunction with AAPT.
Whether you are a PER scholar, a faculty member who implements PER findings, or a physics education enthusiast, membership of GPER has potential benefits. If you want to join us, visit the enrollment page.
The authors are founding members of GPER. John Thompson and Jeffrey Hawkins are at the University of Maine in Orono. Eric Brewe is at Florida International University in Miami. Noah Finkelstein is at the University of Colorado in Boulder. Rachel Scherr is at Seattle Pacific University.
