Physics Education Research Conference 2012

August 1, 2012 - August 2, 2012 in Philadelphia, PA

Cultural perspectives on learners’ performance & identity in physics

As new research questions have emerged related to the variability of student reasoning and practices across contexts, the PER community has begun to attend to the relevance of culture and identity in the physics learning community and to draw results and methodologies from fields such as social psychology, anthropology, linguistics, and sociology.

In particular, these fields offer new ways of thinking about performance and may suggest different accounts of student understanding that are in tension with each other (or seemingly incongruent).  Additionally, the PER community has also begun to explore identity as a lens for understanding student development and participation in physics.  Students' past patterns of engagement may offer productive ways to examine and characterize identity drawing on data beyond the individual and using methodological tools that can account for this broader scope.

One of the conference goals was to highlight these emerging research directions and to draw attention to the theoretical tools and methodological considerations of cultural practice perspectives on learning and performance.

PERC 2012 Feedback Survey

The conference organizers request that attendees please fill out the PERC 2012 feedback form.

PERC 2012 Schedule

* Online Conference Schedule
* Full Conference Program (.pdf download)
* Brief Conference Program (.pdf download)
* Conference Abstracts

Organizing Committee

The 2012 Organizing Committee is:
Ayush Gupta, University of Maryland, College Park
Eleanor Sayre, Kansas State University
Chandra Turpen, University of Maryland, College Park
Jessica Watkins, Tufts University