Is it a bird? Is it a plane...?

Abstract

Honorary Editor Neither. But what exactly is Physics Education? What is its role? Such questions exercised the combined wit and wisdom of the Editorial Board at its recent meeting in October. Some facts. Among the core readership of the journal are teachers of physics in UK secondary schools, nearly all of whom teach A-level physics. Many of these who are not already Institute of Physics members benefit from a reduced subscription via membership of the Institute of Physics Schools and Colleges Affiliation Scheme or the Association for Science Education. But some readers worldwide subscribe at the full annual individual rate. In addition the journal is bought by over a thousand institutions (colleges, universities, schools) - and most of these are abroad, in North America especially. A typical issue shows a broad geographical spread of authors. Less than half of the papers submitted for publication come from the UK, the rest come from our foreign readership, with the USA in the lead. Each issue contains about eleven papers - currently we receive an average of ten articles a month, of which about 60% are ultimately published. This creditable figure hides the fact that 90% of UK submissions are accepted, whilst two thirds of 'foreign' articles are rejected by the referees. Linguistic fluency is significant here, of course. But some are rejected because they are seen as too limited in their appeal to our readers; often there is too much physics and not enough education. These decisions are made by the referees, who are all members of the Editorial Board. The main topic of discussion at the October Board meeting was whether the journal does satisfy the needs of its readership. It was generally agreed that the main question referees and editors should ask themselves is: Will this article/issue help to improve the teaching and learning of physics? We were worried that there is not enough in the journal that teachers can use in their everyday tasks of planning or delivering lessons encourages teachers to evaluate or re-evaluate their approach to teaching physics. But this depends on you, the readers. We can only publish what is written and submitted. Articles need not be 3000 words long. Short, snappy items may indeed be more effective. Tell us (and other readers) what you do when you have a particularly successful lesson. Encourage your students to tell us about a good piece of learning (see Tim Harman's article in the January issue). In this issue the articles by Jon Ogborn and Brian Davies should give us all quite a lot to think about. Pursuing this theme, in 1998 we intend to publish a special issue (November) entitled Physics from the classroom. This will be edited by real schoolteachers! They will welcome contributions. (Also look out for details of the IoP Education Group's Annual Conference (3 - 5 July 1998) on Keeping the stars in their eyes.)