Rutgers University Department of Physics and
Astronomy
2006-07 Handbook for
Physics and Astronomy Graduate Students
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Research Programs
Physics and Astronomy Education Research
Professor Eugenia Etkina
I am an associate professor of science education in the Graduate School of
Education but my training is in physics, astrophysics and pedagogy. I spent 15
years teaching physics and astronomy to high school and college students and
doing research in student learning. After I received my Ph. D. in physics
education from Moscow State Pedagogical
University (Moscow, Russia)
I joined the Rutgers Graduate School of Education. While working in a high
school I developed an approach to teaching physics which mirrors processes that
physicists use to construct knowledge. I did research on the effectiveness of
this approach on student learning of physics concepts, development of their
epistemology, and scientific abilities. Now I work in close cooperation with
physics faculty to incorporate this approach into introductory physics courses.
I am also the coordinator of Rutgers Physics Teacher Preparation Program. This
is a unique program as it combines physics and pedagogy to prepare a new
generation of physics teachers - those who not only understand physics but know
how help students learn it. Rutgers
University now is a
national leader in physics teacher preparation. Currently I am interested in
the transfer of scientific abilities that undergraduate students acquire in
modified introductory physics courses (we just received an NSF grant to study
this) and in the transfer of pedagogical content knowledge by physics teachers.
I publish in physics education journals such as American Journal of Physics,
Physics Education Research supplement to the American Journal of Physics, The
Physics Teacher, and in science education research journals such as Journal of
Research in Science Teaching, Science Education, etc. I chair dissertations of
students in the Department of Physics and Astronomy working on Physics
Education Research Projects and dissertations of students in the Graduate School of Education.
Professor George K. Horton
Our department has a long record of achievement in instruction. The
textbooks "Elementary Modern Physics" and "Elementary Physics:
Classical and Modern" by Richard Weidner and Robert Sells, both Professors
at Rutgers, were classics in their day. In the
last twenty years, I have been active in a variety of instructional projects
and in PAER. Over this period I have been one of the principal participants in
the creation of a successful program to help at-risk students and women to
succeed in introductory physics, called extended physics for science and
engineering majors. (see Holton and Horton in "The Rutgers Physics
Learning Center: Reforming the Physics Course for First Year Engineering and
Science Students in the Physics Teacher" 34 (3), 138-143 1996, and
"Lessons Learned: A case study of an integrated way of teaching
introductory physics to at-risk students at Rutgers University" by Etkina,
Gibbons, Holton and Horton in the American Journal of Physics 67 (9), 810-818,
1999 and later articles). This project has recently been extended to the second
year for engineering majors. Another of my projects was the creation of the Physics Learning
Center, now the Math and Science Learning Center.
This was followed by the introduction of mini-labs into the first year physics
courses for engineering majors (see "The Minilab as a Tool in Physics
Instruction" by Etkina and Horton in the Physics Teacher, 38, 136-138,
2000). Simultaneously, with colleagues Holton and Etkina, we pioneered the
"discovery labs" which departed from the familiar cookbook labs of
the past. Another innovation was the creation of the course "Great Ideas
that Shook Physics and the World" as part of the comprehensive program to
promote scientific literacy of non-science students in collaboration with
colleagues in the Biology, Chemistry and Mathematics Departments. This work
will appear in the International Journal of Science Education. Further, I have
published a series of ten articles on various topics such as new
demonstrations, physics policy, instructional innovations in the Physics
Teacher. (for example, see Etkina, Holton and Horton, The Physics Teacher 36,
135-138, 1998). I have made it a practice to encourage undergraduate students
to clarify pedagogical questions-several have led to published articles, e.g.
Daly and Horton, The Physics Teacher 32, 306-308, 1994. All this work has been
made possible by grants from the State of New Jersey,
Rutgers University, The National Science
Foundation, The Fund for the Improvement of Post-Secondary Education and the
General Electric Foundation. This seven figure funding, and the supportive
Rutgers Administration has made it possible for me to assemble one of the most
distinguished PAER groups in the country including Adebaki and Suzanne Brahmia,
Eugenia Etkina, Kathy Scott, and Alan Van Heuvelen, who work in concert with
Professors Joel Shapiro and Mohan Kalelkar. With our weekly seminar, post-docs
and graduate students we are a new and vibrant part of our department and
university.
Professor Mohan Kalelkar
Professor Joel A. Shapiro
Joel Shapiro has long been interested in issues of Physics Education. In the
early '70s, along with Prof. Watts, he developed a Keller plan self-paced
course (323-324). He has worked on many tools for using computers for
assessment and pedagogy. In the mid 1990s, he designed and built the university's
first "Student Response System", and since that time he has been
working on computer based tutorial systems. He is responsible for a major
component of the Andes2 homework tutorial system, and is collaborating with
computer scientists on more flexible systems to handle algebraic interaction
with physics students.
Professor Alan van Heuvelen
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Please send any comments on this page to graduate@physics.rutgers.edu.
Revised September, 2006