Education research is our focus
Welcome to PER-Central, a resource collection for physics education researchers. Here you may find articles, theses and dissertations, research groups, curricular material, and news and events of interest to the PER Community. Learn more about PER-Central.
PER Literature
Search the literature by:
Or find an article by topic:
- Basic Research
- Achievement
- Alternative Conceptions
- Assessment
- Behavior
- Cognition
- Communication
- Learning Theory
- Problem Solving
- Research Design & Methodology
- Sample Population
- Societal Issues
- Student Characteristics
- Teacher Characteristics
- Applied Research
- Active Learning
- Careers
- Classroom Management
- Curriculum Development
- Informal Education
- Instructional Material Design
- Learning Environment
- Pedagogy
- Professional Development
- Recruitment
- School Improvement
- Teacher Preparation
- Technology
By Topic:
Astronomy, Classical Mechanics, Electricity & Magnetism, Fluid Mechanics, General Physics, Mathematical Tools, Modern Physics, Optics, Oscillations & Waves, Other Sciences, Quantum Physics, Relativity, Thermo & Stat Mech
Reviews in PER
Volume 2 of Reviews in PER is dedicated to helping researchers get started in Physics Education Research.
In this review article, a member of the PER community presents an overview of an area of PER:
An Introduction to Classical Test Theory as Applied to Conceptual Multiple-choice Tests
by P. V. Engelhardt.
Find more articles introducing PER research methods in Volume 2 of Reviews in PER.
Community Resources
PER Programs
Browse the different PER groups and their descriptions on the PER Program Map.
For the Classroom
Connecting Meaning and Mathematics
This page contains step-by-step tutorials and guided inquiry activities designed to help students discover physical properties and concepts by developing understanding from mathematics. Most of this material is written for upper level classical mechanics courses. Connections are made with the Intermediate Mechanics Tutorials by Ambrose and Wittmann.
Find more PER-based Curricular Materials: Course Packages | Student Activities | Pedagogy Guides
Research Instruments
Representational Variant of the Force Concept Inventory (R-FCI)
The R-FCI, developed by Nieminen, Savinainen, and Viiri, is designed to investigate students' ability to interpret multiple representations consistently in the context of four force concepts: Newton's first, second, and third laws, and gravitation. It is based on nine FCI items that have been redesigned using various representations (such as motion map, vectorial, and graphical).
PER Events 
Physics Education Research Conference 2025
PERC 2025 will be held August 6-7, 2025 in Washington, DC. The theme will be "A PER lens on the International Year of Quantum Science and Technology."
