PER PhDs & bachelor's degrees

Abstract

Recently, the editor remarked to me that physics departments that offered a PhD with a specialization in Physics Education Research (PER) seemed to graduate more bachelor’s degree recipients than those physics PhD departments that did not have the specialization. I was not convinced. That led to quite a bit of discussion between us. He compiled a list of PhD departments that advertised a PhD specialization in PER in the 2004, 2005, 2009, and 2010 editions of GradSchoolShopper, a publication of the American Institute of Physics. Since not every department responded reliably every year, I combined the 2004 and 2005 data and the 2009 and 2010 data. I then compared the departments that advertised a PER specialization during both timeframes (2004 and/or 2005 and 2009 and/or 2010) with physics PhD-granting departments that did not indicate the specialization at all.