The project will support the attendance of 20 physics educators (6-8 college and university physicists and 12-14 high school physics teachers) at the International Conference on Trends in Physics Education, to be held in Tokyo, Japan, August 24-29, 1986. The conference will primarily be concerned with: (1) problems of classroom implementation of the results of recent research in physics education, (2) the impact of technology on physics teaching, and (3) the problem of motivating students to the study of physics. These problems will be considered at both the secondary school and the introductory undergraduate levels. The Conference is the first of its kind in the Far East, and a large fraction of the participants are expected to be physics teachers at the high school level. The intent of the project is for U.S. Physics educators to share ideas and gain new insights about physics teaching from International colleagues. These insights will be disseminated to other physics educators in the U.S., especially those involved with curriculum development. Participants will be required to develop specific reports based upon their involvement at the International Conference. A major topic of concern will be assigned to each participant as a primary theme for the report. Topics will be under two major categories: (1) How is modern physics integrated into the curriculum in other countries? (2) How have other countries designed teacher support and intervention programs? The participants will reassemble in Jaunary 1987, in San Francisco to present these reports at the annual joint meeting of the American Physical Society and the American Association of Physics Teachers (AAPT). Specific reports will be made to Physics Teaching Resource Agents, and to the Modern Physics Curriculum Improvement Group. Following these sessions, selected participants will be prepared for working with the same groups in June 1987, to implement ideas for improvements gleaned from the reports. The Modern Physics Curriculum Improvement Group is already developing curriculum materials for physics teaching in high schools and introductory college courses. The input from the International Conference participants is likely to lead to significant changes based upon specific reports. Also, the reports will be published in the AAPT Announcer and in The Physics Teacher.
