The National Science Foundation funded a synthesis study on the status, contributions, and future direction of discipline-based education research (DBER) in physics, biological sciences, geosciences, and chemistry. DBER combines knowledge of teaching and learning with deep knowledge of discipline-specific science content. It describes the…

The major purpose of this study was to determine if gender influences grade points earned by university students who majored in biology, chemistry, and physics. The design of the study was ex-post facto, considering the academic records of science students admitted from 2003 to 2007. The total number of subjects used for the study was 637 biology,…

The Statistical Research Center of the American Institute of Physics conducts an annual census of all degree-granting physics departments in the United States and Puerto Rico. The survey had a 95% response rate from the 751 departments that granted physics bachelor's degrees in the class of 2010. Results show that the number of physics bachelor's…

In this paper, we consider collective problem-solving challenges and a particular structuring objective: lead groups of learners to make their shared problem-solving organization explicit. Such an objective may be considered as a way to lead learners to consider building and maintaining a shared organization, and/or as a way to provide a basis for…

The aims of this study were to determine the underlying conceptual structure of the thermal concept evaluation (TCE) questionnaire, a pencil-and-paper instrument about everyday contexts of heat, temperature, and heat transfer, to investigate students' conceptual understanding of thermal concepts in everyday contexts across several school years and…

This study examines the epistemic beliefs about justification employed by physics undergraduate and graduate students and faculty in the context of solving a standard classical physics problem and a frontier physics problem. Data were collected by a think-aloud problem solving session followed by a semi-structured interview conducted with 50…

Using Roberts' (1982, 1988, 1995, 1998, 2003) seven science curriculum emphases as its framework, this investigation into Alberta's physics program-of-study found that pre-service and novice teachers reported focusing on four of the emphases--"Structure of Science"; "Scientific Skill Development"; "Science, Technology, and…

This study aims at describing and analysing systematically an interactive learning environment designed to teach Quantum Physics, a second-year physics course. The instructional design of Quantum Physics is a combination of interactive lectures (using audience response systems), tutorials and self-study in unit blocks, carried out with small…

A perceived difficulty is associated with physics problem solving from a learner's viewpoint, arising out of a multitude of reasons. In this paper, we have examined the microstructure of students' thought processes during physics problem solving by combining the analysis of responses to multiple-choice questions and semistructured student…

Previous physics education research has raised the question of "hidden variables" behind students' success in learning certain concepts. In the context of the force concept, it has been suggested that students' reasoning ability is one such variable. Strong positive correlations between students' preinstruction scores for reasoning…

This paper describes and discusses the role of practical work in science education in Ireland. The 2002 report of a government Task Force on the Physical Sciences, set up to consider the problems facing the teaching of the physical sciences in second-level schools in Ireland, has resulted in rapid reform of the science curriculum at both junior…

We present three models of equity and show how these, along with the statistical measures used to evaluate results, impact interpretation of equity in education reform. Equity can be defined and interpreted in many ways. Most equity education reform research strives to achieve equity by closing achievement gaps between groups. An example is given…

Researchers have reported persuasive evidence that students' perceptions of their classroom learning environment account for significant variance in cognitive and affective outcomes (e.g. intrinsic motivation, self-concept, liking for particular subjects and students' intention to drop out). The study reported in this paper investigated the…

In this article, the successful implementation of a development cycle for a physics teaching package based on game-like virtual reality software is reported. The cycle involved several iterations of evaluating students' use of the package followed by instructional and software development. The evaluation used a variety of techniques, including…

The aim of this paper is to introduce a simple and low-cost experimental setup that can be used to study the eddy current brake, which considers the motion of a sliding magnet on an inclined conducting plane in terms of basic physical principles. We present a set of quantitative experiments performed to study the influence of the geometrical and…