This award supports an effort by the National Research Council, Board on Physics and Astronomy, to conduct an assessment and outlook for undergraduate physics education. An expert committee will identify the grand challenges facing undergraduate physics education and examine issues underpinning the field with two main foci. First, to assist in identifying those challenges and issues, the committee will assess the current status of physics education including a summary of what is now known about learning, teaching, and assessment in physics, drawing on findings from physics education research. Second, they will use that assessment to address the future of undergraduate physics education with particular emphasis on recruiting and preparing the next generation of physics researchers, providing strong physics foundations for students pursuing other science and engineering professions, and preparing K-12 teachers of physics and physical sciences. This includes describing the current landscape of undergraduate physics education and identifying best practices in undergraduate physics education. The committee will identify and prioritize areas for improving undergraduate physics education as well as future studies in physics education research. Recommendations will address best practices for instruction, strategies for academic institutions, priorities for physics education research, and education policy. This award is funded by the Division of Physics in the Directorate for Mathematical and Physical Sciences and by the Division of Undergraduate Education in the Directorate for Education and Human Resources.
This grant provided partial support for a study by the National Research Council (NRC) that was designed to identify and address some of the principal challenges and opportunities facing undergraduate physics education and the education research communities. To approach this task, the NRC assembled a committee of experts with prestige and experience commensurate with the task. The committee met in person five times over the course of 15 months and produced a report that not only describes those challenges and opportunities, but also makes recommendations for improving the undergraduate educational system through which physics is taught and learned in the United States. Several themes emerged in the course of the study that are explored in detail in the first part of the report – (1) 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; (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; (3) Major Challenges: Current practices in undergraduate physics education do not serve most students well; important groups remain underserved by the current paradigm (women, underrepresented minorities, prospective high school teachers); (4) Improvements Exist: Substantial improvements in undergraduate physics education have been made with existing knowledge and resources in a variety of contexts; encouraging and preserving these gains requires a symphony of efforts by many different participants, and improving on them requires continuing research and development; and (5) Scientific Approach to Physics Education: Future improvement of undergraduate physics education depends critically on a vigorous physics education research enterprise and effective application of its findings. The report contains a series of suggestions and recommendations for each of these groups whose active and concerted engagement is essential to building a successful future for undergraduate physics education. These include the following—(1) Individual physics faculty should improve their courses, using objective evidence to judge success; (2) Department leadership should create a culture of continuous improvement in which educational innovation is encouraged, sustained when it succeeds, and tolerated when it fails; (3) Academic leadership should encourage faculty groups to seek improvement and should reward faculty and departments that are successful at implementing positive changes; (4) Funding agencies should support positive change at all levels and should support fundamental educational research, development, adoption, and dissemination; (5) Physics (and other) 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; and (6) Professional societies should emphasize the importance of education research and play a major role in the dissemination of its results, recognizing those who successfully improve instruction.
