Physics education

The Physics Education Research Group brings together physicists with an interest in how students learn and a passion for improving their teaching. At the OU this research theme is inevitably concerned with the full range of educational technologies, pedagogical methodologies and evaluative techniques that are required to support, sustain and improve the evidence-based teaching of physics in a large and diverse organisation.

Research students in this area are housed in the School of Physical Sciences where we work in association with the OpenScience Laboratory and eSTEeM. Areas of particular expertise are:

• online experimentation
• e-assessment and its links to learning
• development of concept inventories
• physics education in an open and distance learning environment
• public engagement and physics outreach through a range of media
• aspects of equality, diversity and inclusion in physics education.

Entry requirements

Minimum 2:1 undergraduate degree (or equivalent). If you are not a UK citizen, you may need to prove your knowledge of English.

Potential research projects

• Shared web-based representations to support learning
• A critical assessment of remote experiments in science distance teaching
• Investigating inclusive approaches to online and digital teaching for disabled students
• Investigating the impact of intersectionality and assessment on demographic gaps in UK physics degree outcomes
• Qualitative differences in responses to free-text and multiple-choice questions, and demographic variation between them
• Conceptual understanding of students in mathematically-dense physics concepts and links with teaching approach.
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Current/recent research projects

• Practical science instruction via remote and virtual experiments: relating authenticity, sociability and metafunctionality to effective pedagogy
• Establishing physics concept inventories using free-text questions
• Investigating the use of technology enhanced assessment to reduce demographic gaps in attainment in physics

Potential supervisors

• Professor Nicholas Braithwaite – laboratory-based teaching and learning
• Professor Jimena Gorfinkiel – Inclusive approaches to teaching and learning
• Dr Mark Jones – Online teaching and learning for STEM subjects 
• Professor Sally Jordan – assessment, concept inventories, demographics
• Dr Jonathan Nylk – Technology enhanced learning, conceptual understanding 
• Dr Victoria Pearson – inclusive approaches to teaching and learning

Fees and funding

Some of our research students are funded by Doctorial Training Partnerships; others are self-funded.

For detailed information about fees and funding, visit Fees and studentships.

To see current funded studentship vacancies across all research areas, see Current studentships.

Links

• eSTEeM
• Physics Education Discipline
• School of Physical Sciences