In 2017, the University of Utah experienced a tragedy that accelerated already proposed changes to the physics and astronomy graduate program. This article outlines the changes made to the graduate program and discusses students' experiences with the early implementation of the new policies. In-depth, open-ended interviews were conducted with…

Physics education research to date has predominantly focused on the undergraduate level. This has left critical avenues of research in graduate education relatively understudied and has motivated much of my research. Numerous studies across the education research landscape have analyzed undergraduate admissions practices, but few have critically…

[This paper is part of the Focused Collection in Investigating and Improving Quantum Education through Research.] One of the greatest weaknesses of physics education research is the paucity of research on graduate education. While there are a growing number of investigations of graduate student degree progress and admissions, there are very few…

While graduate admissions in physics directly affects only a small number of people on an annual basis, the number of people indirectly affected is orders of magnitude greater. Those who complete graduate degrees in physics will go on to become leaders in industry, government, and academia, with the latter educating the next generation of leaders…

While new physics bachelor's degree holders have a breadth of possibilities open to them, the initial post-degree outcomes for physics bachelors generally fall into two main categories: entering the workforce or continuing their education at the graduate or professional level. About two-thirds of those continuing with their studies are enrolled in…

This is a theoretical paper in which we describe the motivation for and the design of a novel primary physics course for student teachers at kindergarten and primary school levels that uses cognitive tools such as metaphor, analogy, and narrative. The course has been taught in the master's program in teacher education at three Universities over…

The topic of women in graduate education has been central to many calls for action in increasing diversity and inclusion in science, technology, engineering, and mathematics. The field of physics has been particularly resistant to change in the significant overrepresentation of men, while also being similar to the field of astronomy which has a…

There has been little work done in exploring the variations in admissions practices between different types of physics graduate programs. In this paper, we compared admissions practices in master's programs to a parallel data set collected from doctoral departments to understand the relative importance of particular admission criteria and looked…

One argument for keeping the physics Graduate Record Exam (GRE) is that it can help applicants who might otherwise be missed in the admissions process stand out. In this work, we evaluate whether this claim is supported by physics graduate school admissions decisions. We used admissions data from five Ph.D.-granting physics departments over a…

This mixed-method study represents a broad evaluation of the physics views of Mississippi physics students and physicists, along with an analysis of graduate school data, in a search for answers which might improve physics education in Mississippi. Descriptive statistics were calculated using data from eight graduate degree programs (from Fall…

As systematic inequities in higher education and society have been brought to the forefront, graduate programs are interested in increasing the diversity of their applicants and enrollees. Yet, structures in place to evaluate applicants may not support such aims. One potential solution to support those aims is rubricbased holistic review. Starting…

Energy measurements play a fundamental role in the theory of quantum mechanics, yet there is evidence that the underlying concepts are difficult for many students, even after all undergraduate instruction. We present results from an investigation into student ability to determine the possible energies that can be measured for a given wave function…

Understanding perceptions of graduate admissions from multiple stakeholders can cultivate an improved understanding about the process of graduate induction, the role that admissions plays in restricting diversity in physics, and contribute to more informed practices for all involved. Prior studies in graduate admissions have reported on how…

Despite limiting access to applicants from underrepresented racial and ethnic groups, the practice of using hard or soft Graduate Record Examination (GRE) cutoff scores in physics graduate program admissions is still a popular method for reducing the pool of applicants. The present study considers whether the undergraduate institutions of…

This study is composed of several projects in the field of physics education research. First, investigations into flipped physics classrooms at the senior and graduate level show that students uniformly agree that the active learning techniques (peer instruction, group problem solving, etc.) were beneficial to their learning regardless of their…