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Pages 1-7

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From page 1...
... and will discuss how PER can assist in accomplishing the goal of improving undergraduate physics education best practices and education policy. THEMES In the course of the committee's work several themes emerged: • PHYSICS IS FUNDAMENTAL AND FOUNDATIONAL: Undergraduate physics education provides students with unique skills and ways of thinking that are of profound value to the students and to society.
From page 2...
... • SYSTEMIC TENSIONS: The familiar college environment in which ­physics is currently taught is threatened by powerful, rapidly changing external forces, and U.S. physics departments will either adapt and improve or fade.
From page 3...
... d. Implementing change will require concerted efforts at a range of levels, from individual physics faculty and departments to top administrative levels in universities, state and federal governmental agencies, research funding sources, and professional associations.
From page 4...
... • Engage students in a discussion of why and how evidence-based methods that engender effective learning require changing the teaching and learning processes. Recommendations for Physics Department Leadership Department leadership should create a culture of continuous improvement in which educational innovation is encouraged, sustained when it succeeds, and tolerated when it fails.
From page 5...
... • Include, for all faculty who teach, education research and development among the factors considered in reward structures, not just for those faculty who conduct discipline-based education research. Recommendations for Funding Agencies Funding agencies should support positive change at all levels and should support fundamental educational research, development, adoption, and dissemination.
From page 6...
... education researchers should focus some of their efforts on critical areas, including improving fundamental understanding of learning and instruction, and developing and disseminating improved assessment tools and instructional methods and materials. Researchers should: • Develop assessments to include all components of expert physics learning, including physics reasoning, problem solving, experimental practices, effec tive study habits and attitudes, and other capabilities important for a good education.
From page 7...
... and review in society journals other types of teaching-learning applications in addition to textbooks. • Expand at meetings the presence of sessions on educational innovations and practices.


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