Syracuse, New York, 26–27 July 2006

The 2008 Physics Education Research Conference brought together researchers studying a wide variety of topics in physics education. The conference theme was “Physics Education Research with Diverse Student Populations”. Researchers specializing in diversity issues were invited to help establish a dialog and spur discussion about how the results from this work can inform the physics education research community. The organizers encouraged physics education researchers who are using research-based instructional materials with non-traditional students at either the pre-college level or the college level to share their experiences as instructors and researchers in these classes.

This text brings together peer-reviewed papers from the 2007 Physics Education Research Conference, whose theme was Cognitive Science and Physics Education Research. The conference brought together researchers studying a wide variety of topics in physics education including transfer of knowledge, learning in physics courses at all levels, teacher education, and cross-disciplinary learning. This up-to-date text will be essential reading for anyone in physics education research.

This volume is important because despite various external representations, such as analogies, metaphors, and visualizations being commonly used by physics teachers, educators and researchers, the notion of using the pedagogical functions of multiple representations to support teaching and learning is still a gap in physics education. The research presented in the three sections of the book is introduced by descriptions of various psychological theories that are applied in different ways for designing physics teaching and learning in classroom settings. The following chapters of the book illustrate teaching and learning with respect to applying specific physics multiple representations in different levels of the education system and in different physics topics using analogies and models, different modes, and in reasoning and representational competence. When multiple representations are used in physics for teaching, the expectation is that they should be successful. To ensure this is the case, the implementation of representations should consider design principles for using multiple representations. Investigations regarding their effect on classroom communication as well as on the learning results in all levels of schooling and for different topics of physics are reported. The book is intended for physics educators and their students at universities and for physics teachers in schools to apply multiple representations in physics in a productive way.

Adapting to a Changing World was commissioned by the National Science Foundation to examine the present status of undergraduate physics education, including the state of physics education research, and, most importantly, to develop a series of recommendations for improving physics education that draws from the knowledge we have about learning and effective teaching. Our committee has endeavored to do so, with great interest and more than a little passion. The Committee on Undergraduate Physics Education Research and Implementation was established in 2010 by the Board on Physics and Astronomy of the National Research Council. This report summarizes the committee's response to its statement of task, which requires the committee to produce a report that identifies the goals and challenges facing undergraduate physics education and identifies how best practices for undergraduate physics education can be implemented on a widespread and sustained basis, assess the status of physics education research (PER) and discuss how PER can assist in accomplishing the goal of improving undergraduate physics education best practices and education policy.

This book is about mathematics in physics education, the difficulties students have in learning physics, and the way in which mathematization can help to improve physics teaching and learning. The book brings together different teaching and learning perspectives, and addresses both fundamental considerations and practical aspects. Divided into four parts, the book starts out with theoretical viewpoints that enlighten the interplay of physics and mathematics also including historical developments. The second part delves into the learners’ perspective. It addresses aspects of the learning by secondary school students as well as by students just entering university, or teacher students. Topics discussed range from problem solving over the role of graphs to integrated mathematics and physics learning. The third part includes a broad range of subjects from teachers’ views and knowledge, the analysis of classroom discourse and an evaluated teaching proposal. The last part describes approaches that take up mathematization in a broader interpretation, and includes the presentation of a model for physics teachers’ pedagogical content knowledge (PCK) specific to the role of mathematics in physics.

Papers from an August 2003 conference report on the latest research in physics education. Some specific topics covered include empirical investigations of student understanding, the myth of gender neutrality, using mapped samples to look for sex differences, and students' representational coherence of Newton's first and second laws. Other topics ar

The papers included in these proceedings have been peer-reviewed. The 2005 Physics Education Research Conference covered a broad spectrum of current research directions including student learning of specific topics, student attitudes, and the effectiveness of various teaching methods. The emphasis was on undergraduate instruction. The theme of this conference was "Connecting Physics Education Research Teacher Education at All Levels: K-20."