PER Literature

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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:

Research in the Resources Framework: Changing environments, consistent exploration
by M. C. Wittmann.

Find more articles introducing PER research methods in Volume 2 of Reviews in PER.

Community Resources

• PhysPort
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• Reviews in PER
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PER Programs

Browse the different PER groups and their descriptions on the PER Program Map.

For the Classroom

SEI: Upper-division Electrostatics (E&M I) Course Materials
This web site contains the research-based curricular materials on junior-level Electricity and Magnetism developed by the University of Colorado Science Education Initiative group. This course is the first semester of a two-semester course covering electro- and magneto-statics and closely follows the standard text by David Griffiths, "Introduction to Electrodynamics." The materials provided include concept tests, homework questions, tutorials, lecture notes, instructor guides, and the results of studies of student difficulties with the class.

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).

Find more assessment instruments