Physics Edcuation Research(PER) Resource Page
Physics Education Research (PER) Resource Page
Journal |
Publication Period |
Impact Factor (2018) |
Scope |
The Physics Teacher |
9/year |
0.638 |
Physics-specific, sometimes research-oriented. Focused on introductory physics |
Physical Review Physics Education Research |
2/year |
1.962 |
Physics- and research-specific, all levels. Open access, financial support available. |
Physics Education |
12/year |
Not indexed |
Physics-specific, but often not research-oriented. All levels. |
Journal of Research in Science Teaching |
10/year |
3.135 |
Research-focused in sciences, readerships are researchers, then practitioners |
Science Education |
6/year |
2.897 |
International, general science (includes curriculum, policy, etc.) |
International Journal of Science Education |
18/year |
1.255 |
Early childhood education to university, general science |
American Education Research Journal |
6/year |
3.170 |
Research-focused, very general, also accepts DBER |
Educational Researcher |
9/year |
3.386 |
Research-focused, SAGE publications, general significance. |
Studies in Higher Education |
12/year |
2.854 |
Higher education-focused, general or disciplinary applicability. |
Research in Higher Education |
8/year |
1.961 |
Research-focused, broadly applicable work |
International Journal of Science and Mathematics Education |
9/year |
1.027 |
Research-focused, mostly for work concerning multiple disciplines within science/math |
For research applicable to outside a discipline, please see this comprehensive annotated list: https://teaching.mcmaster.ca/app/uploads/2019/08/Comprehensive-List-of-SoTL-Journals.pdf
Conferences
Conference |
Period |
Location |
Scope/notes |
Ontario Association for Physics Teachers |
Annual, May |
Varies across Ontario |
Across all levels of education, some sessions on research |
Western Conference for Science Education (WCSE) |
Biennial, summer |
Western University |
Sciences research and descriptions of university science teaching and learning. Western University, alternates with BCCE. |
Canadian Association of Physicists |
Annual, June |
Varies across Canada |
General physics conference with some sessions on PER. |
Physics education research (PER) largely led the charge of discipline-based education research. Catalyzed by the Space Race, the attitude toward physics shifted away from a subject that only a select few could do, and toward a subject that citizens should do. This spurred on large-scale curriculum changes across academic levels. Physics was also the first discipline to have a large, central body (American Physics Society) explicitly include disciplinary education research as a part of the discipline.
For a list of current hot topics in physics education research, please see: Docktor, J. L., & Mestre, J. P. (2014). A Synthesis of Discipline-Based Education Research in Physics. Physics Education Research.