Speaker
Description
This presentation is based on a subset of data from a doctoral project on Physics Education Research (PER) in Canada. Current data describing the landscape of PER in Canada will be shared, offering a characterization of Canadian PER and the people who conduct it. The aim of the presentation is to increase the physics and PER community’s knowledge and understanding of this field beyond the minimal description it has previously received (e.g., young and growing).
People who engage in PER were considered the best representation of the field, and therefore all Canadian PER engagers were sought out for study participation. Methods of identifying PER people included 1) requesting names of Canadian physics education researchers from editors at the Canadian Journal of Physics and committee leaders of the Division of Physics Education and the Division for Gender Equity in Physics at the Canadian Association of Physicists, and 2) conducting an online search for Canadians engaging in PER. Specifically, content analysis, whereby text is systematically examined for variables of interest, was conducted for online faculty profiles at all 96 Canadian universities’ physics and education departments. Across Canada, 150 people were identified as having possible engagement with issues related to the teaching and learning of physics.
To confirm researchers’ PER engagement and learn the areas of research on which they focus, a survey was distributed to all 150 people. Respondents were asked questions about demographics and their PER engagement. The survey response rate was 36.6% (n=55) and results confirmed PER engagement for 42 people in Canada. Detailed results including geographic, demographic, and PER engagement data will be shared in the presentation to describe PER in Canada and the people who conduct it.
