Physics Education Research Conference 2008

PER Topical Group, AAPT Event
July 23, 2008 - July 24, 2008 in University of Alberta, Edmonton CA

PERC 2008 Theme: Physics Education Research with Diverse Student Populations

In the last ten years, the use of research-based instructional materials has moved well beyond the traditional research university.  There are two reasons for this: (1) individuals in PER are moving from positions as graduate students and post docs at research universities to beginning faculty positions at a wide variety of colleges and universities and (2) the instructional materials developed by the PER community are being used by more and more faculty members outside of PER, at their home institutions.

Despite the fact that the use of these materials is so widespread there is relatively little data documenting the effectiveness of these materials with different populations of students.  In this session we encourage those who are using research-based instructional materials with non-traditional students at either the pre-college level or the college level to share their experiences as instructors and researchers in these classes.

By inviting researchers from the education community, who specialize in these issues, we hope to establish a dialog between a diverse group of researchers in an effort to align the results from research with the instructional goals of the physics education community.

PER Conference 2008 Abstracts:  HTML - PDF

PER Conference 2008 Schedule:  HTML - PDF

PER Conference 2008 Proceedings:  Purchase - Peer Review Statistics


Participants at the 2008 PERC were encouraged to be inclusive in their definition of diverse and to consider: students from varied demographic backgrounds (cultural, socio-economic, etc); students not traditionally represented in physics (students of color, women, ...); students who do not perform well in our classes, whether at entrance or exit; students who are taking physics classes from other disciplines; and diverse environments / approaches: teaching physics in non-school / alternative school environments.

PERC 2008 Organizing Committee

Nicole Gillespie
Knowles Science Teaching Foundation

Mel Sabella
Department of Chemistry and Physics
Chicago State University

John Thompson
Department of Physics and Astronomy
University of Maine