Educational trajectories of graduate students in physics education research

Charles Henderson,Ben Van Dusen,Ramón S Barthelemy

doi:10.1103/physrevstper.10.020106

Abstract

Physics education research (PER) is a rapidly growing area of PhD specialization. In this article we examine the trajectories that led respondents into a PER graduate program as well as their expected future trajectories. Data were collected in the form of an online survey sent to graduate students in PER. Our findings show a lack of visibility of PER as a field of study, a dominance of work at the undergraduate level, and a mismatch of future desires and expectations. We suggest that greater exposure is needed so PER is known as a field of inquiry for graduates, that more emphasis should be placed on research beyond the undergraduate level, and that there needs to be stronger communication to graduate students about potential careers.

Highlights

A growing body of literature has begun to explore the lives, working conditions, and academic persistence of members of the Discipline Based Education Research (DBER) community [1,2,3,4]
We will examine the current situations of the Physics education research (PER) graduate students
Our results showed a significant difference between the primary areas of research for PER graduate students in physics departments and those in schools of education

Summary

Introduction

A growing body of literature has begun to explore the lives, working conditions, and academic persistence of members of the Discipline Based Education Research (DBER) community [1,2,3,4]. Now is the time to ask questions, about the outcomes of a DBER graduate education (job placement, research productivity/contributions, etc.), and about best practices for educating graduate students in DBER These studies would be valuable additions to the literature, and could help to guide the development of programs in newer fields such as astronomy, biology, and geoscience education.” Few articles currently exist that address the needs and issues of the DBER community Two such articles in this area of research focus on the lives of faculty [2,3], with a third focusing on geosciences education [4]. SFES were defined as faculty in disciplinary departments that focus on education research Their findings indicated that the phenomena of SFES was on the rise, with more hires occurring in the last decade than all previous decades combined.

Methods

Discussion

Conclusion