Transforming Instruction and Ensuring Sustainability: Ongoing Evolution of a Model Program to Improve the Learning of Physics

该项目是一个长期愿景的一部分，旨在对从小学到研究生院的学生和教师产生影响。该项目的主要目标是提高学习本科物理的所有学生的学习。相关目标是提高研究生和教师的教学效率，加强K-12教师教授物理和物理科学的能力，并支持研究生，博士后和教师在华盛顿大学（UW）和其他地方从事物理教育研究。该项目由西澳大学物理系物理教育小组（PEG）进行。该小组由三名教授，一名研究助理教授，博士后研究助理，一名常驻高中科学教师，研究生，访问教师和一小部分行政人员组成。 每年，该小组都与许多机构的大量教师合作，并作为物理教育研究和课程开发的中心。智力价值：PEG正在努力实现该项目的主要目标：（A）扩大教学材料的范围，包括更多种基于研究和研究验证的改革教学的选择;（B）研究学生对物理的理解，以指导教学材料的设计，并确保它们在广泛的教学环境中有效;（C）开发一套全面的在线和印刷资源，以帮助教师有效地实施材料;（4）建立支持教学资源传播和支持物理学科教学改革的多层次计划。 该项目是在公共工程学院先前在研究以及编制和传播两个研究型课程方面取得的成就的基础上开展的：《物理学入门教程》（普伦蒂斯霍尔）和《探究式物理学》（威利）。目前的项目涉及通过扩大学习和教学的研究基础，扩大和完善现有的教程，并开发辅助材料，使教师能够灵活地将研究验证的策略纳入其课程的所有组成部分（例如，讲座、实验室和家庭作业）。一个重要的新重点是为教师提供一套连贯的、可访问的在线和印刷资源（例如，在线教师指南和评估学生成绩的工具），以及建立提供持续支持的机制（例如，通过讲习班和用户小组）。该项目的结果也有重要的意义，物理探究的发展，这是为准备和专业发展的K-12教师。 此外，该小组正在编写材料，以满足物理学上层基于研究的互动参与的需要。 这些材料正在量子力学、电学和磁学、狭义相对论和热力学方面进行开发，它们为在入门课程中使用互动参与材料的学生提供了在高级课程中的连续性和广度。正在制作的教学材料加强了理工科专业和低年级大学生物理学入门课程的学习，物理专业的高年级课程。然而，该项目是嵌入在一个更大的整体努力，有助于确保更广泛的影响。在制定和评估课程的过程中，该小组与服务于广泛学生群体的各种机构的教师合作，从而促进所有学生的学习。该项目对未来的教师有直接影响（例如，研究生助教），他们通过让学生参与主动学习的教学方法获得经验。除了为研究基地做出贡献外，该项目还通过研究生、博士后和访问者的专业发展，帮助建立基于学科的教育研究能力，该小组在物理教育研究方面发挥国家领导作用。

This project is part of a long-range vision designed to have an impact on students and teachers from elementary through graduate school. The primary goal of the project is to improve learning by all students who take undergraduate physics. Related goals are to enhance the teaching effectiveness of graduate students and faculty, to strengthen the ability of K-12 teachers to teach physics and physical science, and to support graduate students, post-docs, and faculty engaged in physics education research at the University of Washington (UW) and elsewhere. The project is conducted by the Physics Education Group (PEG) in the UW Physics Department. The group consists of three Professors, a Research Assistant Professor, Post-doctoral Research Associates, a resident high school science teacher, graduate students, visiting faculty, and a small administrative staff. Each year the group works with a large number of faculty at many institutions and serves as a center for physics education research and curriculum development.Intellectual merit: The PEG is working toward the project's primary goal by: (A) expanding the range of instructional materials to include a greater variety of research-based and research-validated options for transforming instruction; (B) conducting research on student understanding of physics to guide the design of instructional materials and to ensure they are effective in a wide range of instructional environments; (C) developing a comprehensive set of online and print resources to help instructors implement the materials effectively; and (D) establishing a multi-tiered program for supporting dissemination of the instructional resources and sustaining instructional transformation in physics courses and departments. The project builds on the prior accomplishments of the PEG in research and the production and dissemination of two research-based curricula: Tutorials in Introductory Physics (Prentice Hall) and Physics by Inquiry (Wiley). The current project involves increasing the impact of the Tutorials by extending the research base on learning and teaching, expanding and refining existing tutorials, and developing ancillary materials that give instructors flexibility in incorporating research-validated strategies into all components of their courses (e.g., lectures, labs, and homework). A significant new emphasis is on providing a coherent, accessible set of online and print resources for instructors (e.g., an online instructor's guide and tools for assessing student achievement), as well as on establishing mechanisms for providing ongoing support (e.g., through workshops and a Users' Group). The results of this project also have important implications for the development of Physics by Inquiry, which is for the preparation and professional development of K-12 teachers. In addition, the group is developing material that addresses the need for research-based interactive engagement at the upper level in physics. These materials are being developed in quantum mechanics, electricity and magnetism, special relativity, and thermodynamics, and they provide students who have used interactive engagement materials in the introductory courses continuity and breadth in the upper-level courses.Broader impact: The instructional materials being produced strengthen the learning of physics by undergraduates in introductory physics courses for science and engineering majors and in lower and upper division courses for physics majors. However, the project is embedded in a larger overall effort that helps ensure an even broader impact. In the process of developing and assessing curriculum, the group works with faculty at a wide range of institutions that serve a wide spectrum of student populations, thus promoting improved learning by all students. The project has a direct effect on future faculty (e.g., graduate teaching assistants), who gain experience with an instructional approach that engages students in active learning. In addition to contributing to the research base, the project helps build the capacity for discipline-based education research through the professional development of graduate students, post-docs, and visitors to the group, and the group provides national leadership in physics education research.