Workshop: W-D

Transferring PER Results from the Domain of the Researcher to the Domain of the Practitioner

Organizers:
       Kenneth Heller (heller@physics.umn.edu), University of Minnesota
       Patricia Heller, University of Minnesota
        Edit Yerushalmi, Weizmann Institute
        Thomas Thaden-Koch, University of Minnesota

Where:  Folsom Room
When:  1:45 – 3:15 & 3:45 – 5:15, Thursday, August 5

Goal: Our goal is for participants to become familiar with fundamental difficulties of physics faculty using PER-inspired curricular materials, and with the importance of conducting research focused on physics faculty to address these difficulties. A further goal is that participants become familiar with a technique for collecting data about faculty conceptions and a useful representation of that data. Finally, we hope that an initial look at some data from the domain of physics problem solving will start a discussion about the need for other research directions.

Theme: The workshop theme is transferring knowledge about teaching and learning from the domain of the researcher to that of the practitioner. This transfer is both necessary and difficult. Although PER groups have produced research-based curricula and instructional methodologies that are superior to traditional instruction, most physics faculty have not chosen to incorporate them into their teaching. It is clearly difficult to communicate PER results in a way that is useful for physics instructors. Clear explanation, data, and coherence with accepted theory are not sufficient. In the same way that an improved understanding of students has aided the development of instructional methods more useful to students, an improved understanding of physics instructors should aid the development of curricular materials more useful to instructors. Research is necessary to guide the curriculum developer (the “transfer agent”), who must translate the results of PER from the research domain into the practitioner’s domain.

Activities: The primary activity will allow participants to experience the technique of interviewing instructors about artifacts (solutions to an introductory-level physics problem); participants will perform short, structured interviews with each other. A follow-on activity will allow participants to familiarize themselves with research results, in the form of concept maps that represent hypotheses about instructors’ beliefs about the teaching and learning of problem solving; participants will try to map results of their interviews onto the concept maps. Participants will also discuss implications for the design and packaging of instructional materials and for future research directions.