Lessons from physics education research: From the introductory classroom to reforming inter-disciplinary research

Cyrill Slezak

Associate Professor of Physics, IRB Chair

Utah Valley University

Over 40 years of physics education research has provided us with new tools and insights to re-envision the way physics can be taught. Significant barriers remain and competing interests distract from implementing many necessary changes but continual efforts across all sciences are moving towards a new paradigm. Many of the lessons learned also apply to today’s multi-disciplinary research groups, common in many life-science areas.  Heterogeneous working-groups can best address the broad scope of challenges by combining excellence from individual core disciplines resulting in a multi-faceted research approach. Within the framework of a cognitive model, external research efforts allow for the systematic elicitation of prevailing misconceptions and biases. In methodically confronting these, researchers will become aware of their own tendencies and preconceptions. Building on this awareness, effective resolution strategies can be employed thus safeguarding research integrity and promoting sound and productive interdisciplinary collaborative research.