This project is creating a Web-based resource for physics faculty to learn best practices for the use of teaching and learning techniques and curricula based on the results of Physics Education Research (PER), so that they can teach physics more effectively. This resource, called the "PER User's Guide," is helping educators by summarizing, condensing, and translating the vast web of knowledge contained in the field of PER into a format that is easily accessible, enabling educators to quickly find and use the information they need. The development includes collecting existing resources, writing new content to help educators understand these resources, and creating a dynamic structure that allows educators to find what they are looking for as efficiently as possible. Both the content and the structure of the site are based on research into user needs and user testing to ensure that it is maximally effective. Built in is effective use of Web 2.0 technologies, which ultimately allow experts from the PER community to edit content and educators to rate and comment on content, all without the need for explicit mediation.
This project improves physics education at the college and high school levels throughout the world by providing a free, Web-based resource that delivers comprehensive, accessible, and pragmatic information about PER, including curricula, educational resources, pedagogical approaches, and research findings. The Guide gives educators access to the latest developments in education research and how to apply them in their classrooms, as well as access to the broad foundation upon which these techniques are based. The creation of the Guide is coupled with a dissemination and outreach campaign that takes advantage of collaborations with many well-known organizations to increase both awareness and use among physics educators in the United States and beyond. This project is helping the broader science education research community by contributing to the base of research on user interface design and outreach to educators, and by building a prototype design that can be used and adapted for educators in other fields of science. Future extensions of the project will build on this initial seed to include more detailed content and to target a broader audience.
The outcomes of the project include (1) a well-tested prototype Web site with content designed to help college and high school educators learn about PER, (2) a body of research on what educators need to help them use the content and infrastructure of the site effectively, and (3) a set of software tools and guidelines that can be adapted by educators who would like to design similar sites in other disciplines.
This Guide is an extension of an NSDL Pathways project, the ComPADRE Physics and Astronomy Pathway (www.compadre.org/). The Guide enhances the materials in the ComPADRE collection by presenting results and curricula of PER in the context of their application in effective teaching.
