How can I teach a graduate class on the basics of physics education research?
posted March 23, 2016 and revised May 14, 2020
by Sam McKagan, PhysPort Director![](images/e-learning_project1.jpg)
Several leaders in physics education research (PER) have put together "Intro to PER" courses for graduate students and advanced undergraduates. If you are teaching a course like this, this collection of course websites and syllabi contains lots of good ideas for what to do in your course:
- The University of Washington and Seattle Pacific University offered a course on "Ten essential readings in physics education research”: instructor's guide
- Kansas State University offers both a course on applying the results of PER to teaching, and a course on PER research methods: syllabus for Teaching University Physics and syllabus for Research Methods in Physics Education
- Michigan State University has offered an intro to PER course: syllabus
- The University of Colorado at Boulder regularly offers a course on teaching and learning physics: course website
- The University of Maine has published two papers about their graduate-level course in physics, pedagogy, and education research: 2008 paper and 2011 paper.
- The University of Maryland had a course on Teaching College Physics for Physicists in 2000, which is out of date, but interesting from a historical perspective: syllabus
Image ©University of the Fraser Valley via Flickr CCBY