Selected Topics in Physics Education Research: Overview and Methods

Course title:

The course will address the following topics:
PER and the main milestones in the history of PER.
Research methods in PER (qualitative, quantitatvie and mixed-methods research, observations, pre-post-testing, analysis of student written work using coding schemes or rubrics, interviews, think aloud protocol video analysis, model analysis, eye-tracking, etc.)
Theoretical frameworks (misconceptions framework, resource framework, cognitive linguistics framework, activity theory etc.)
Examples of research paradigms of different research groups in PER and their relationships to existing views of student learning of physics.
PER findings about student learning, attitudes, epistemology, development of scientific reasoning. Studies of experts-scientists: reasoning, problem solving, epistemology, etc.?
Possible connections between research findings and curriculum development. How does PER affect institutional transformation?

Arons, »Teaching Introductory Physics«, Wiley&Sons, 1997.
McDermott, L.C., 1991. Millikan Lecture 1990: What we teach and what is learned-Closing the gap. American Journal of Physics, 59(4), pp.301–315. Available at: http://link.aip.org/link/?AJP/59/301/2.
Redish, E.F., 1999. Millikan Lecture 1998: Building a Science of Teaching Physics. American Journal of Physics, 67(7).
Van Heuvelen, A., 2001. Millikan Lecture 1999: The Workplace, Student Minds, and Physics Learning Systems. American Journal of Physics, 69(11).
Hammer, D., 1994. Epistemological Beliefs in Introductory Physics. Cognition and Instruction, 12(2), pp.151–183. Available at: http://www.tandfonline.com/doi/pdf/10.1207/s1532690xci1202_4 [Accessed June 3, 2014].
Brookes, D. & Etkina, E., 2009. “Force,” ontology, and language. Physical Review Special Topics - Physics Education Research, 5(1), p.010110. Available at: http://link.aps.org/doi/10.1103/PhysRevSTPER.5.010110 [Accessed January 8, 2015].
Fredlund, T., Airey, J. & Linder, C., 2012. Exploring the role of physics representations: an illustrative example from students sharing knowledge about refraction. European Journal of Physics, 33(3), pp.657–666. Available at: http://stacks.iop.org/0143-0807/33/i=3/a=657?key=crossref.9671093c45d36acb50348b02a4a90ed5 [Accessed June 5, 2014].
Otero, V.K. & Harlow, D.B., Getting Started in Qualitative Physics Education Research. , pp.1–66. Available at: http://www.compadre.org/per/items/detail.cfm?ID=9122
Poklinek Čančula, M., Planinšič G., Etkina E., 2015. Analyzing patterns in experts’ approaches to solving experimental problems, American journal of physics. 83 (4), 366-374.

Students will be able to choose appropriate methods to answer hypothetical research questions in the field. Students will be able to conduct a small study using one of the PER methods for the final project.

Knowledge and understanding:
Students will develop an overview of types of research questions that can be answered in PER and the understanding of the theoretical and experimental methods to answer those.

Application:
Knowledge developed in the course can be applied in research for a doctoral thesis, curriculum development and in physics teachers’ professional development.

Reflection:
Use of developed knowledge for instructional interventions and arguments of why a particular theoretical framework is more appropriate than another for a targeted intervention.

Transferable skills:
Knowledge developed in the course is applicable to teaching any science subject. In addition research methods can be used in any interdisciplinary project that is related to social sciences.

Students will participate in whole class and small group discussions, read assigned papers, conduct literature review on a particular subject, conduct mock studies and report on them. The final project will be a mini-study inverstigating a real PER question using one of the research methods discussed in the course.

Active participation in class work
Homework: reading summaries including literature review and reflections.
Group mock project. The students working in groups will come up with a research question using reports described in the literature and make a plan of answering the question.
Capstone project. The course ends with students working in groups of 2-3 on a capstone project - a mini research project that uses research methods discussed in the course and relates to student learning of physics or experts doing physics.

prof. dr. Gprazd Planinšič:
1. JELIČIĆ, Katarina, PLANINIĆ, Maja, PLANINŠIČ, Gorazd. Analyzing high school studentsʼ reasoning about electromagnetic induction. Physical review, Physics education research, ISSN 2469-9896, 2017, vol. 13, iss. 1, str. 010112-1-010112-18, ilustr., doi: 10.1103/PhysRevPhysEducRes.13.010112. [COBISS-SI-ID 3067236]
2. GREGORČIČ, Bor, ETKINA, Eugenia, PLANINŠIČ, Gorazd. A new way of using the interactive whiteboard in a high school physics classroom: a case study. Research in science education, ISSN 0157-244X, 2017, 25 str., ilustr., doi: 10.1007/s11165-016-9576-0. [COBISS-SI-ID 3059812]
3. POKLINEK ČANČULA, Maja, PLANINŠIČ, Gorazd, ETKINA, Eugenia. Analyzing patterns in experts' approaches to solving experimental problems. American journal of physics : a publication of American association of physics teachers, ISSN 0002-9505, 2015, vol. 83, no. 4, str. 366-374, ilustr. http://scitation.aip.org/content/aapt/journal/ajp/83/4/10.1119/1.4913528. [COBISS-SI-ID 2803556]
4. PLANINŠIČ, Gorazd, ETKINA, Eugenia. Light-emitting diodes : learning new physics. The Physics teacher, ISSN 0031-921X, 2015, vol. 53, no. 4, str. 210-216, ilustr. http://scitation.aip.org/content/aapt/journal/tpt/53/4/10.1119/1.4914558. [COBISS-SI-ID 2802788]
5. PLANINŠIČ, Gorazd, GREGORČIČ, Bor, ETKINA, Eugenia. Learning and teaching with a computer scanner. Physics Education, ISSN 0031-9120, 2014, vol. 49, no. 5, str. 586-595, ilustr. [COBISS-SI-ID 2719332]