This is a vibrant and exciting time to be engaged in physics education in Canada. For the past several CAP Congresses, education sessions have been among the most popular and have featured a rich sharing of innovative and effective teaching approaches. In addition, the Division of Physics Education (DPE) Teachers’ Workshops, held in Victoria, Québec City, Charlottetown, Montreal and Winnipeg, have helped to bring together university, college and high school physics teachers for a fruitful exchange of ideas. The DPE has also helped to lead a physics revitalization project that has provided leadership both in terms of how we teach physics and curricular content at all levels. As part of this revitalization process there have been several discussions on physics education among CAP Council, Physics Department Chairs and other groups, including a series of regional meetings that are about to take place. Through these varied forums, it is evident that there is a wide variety of innovative approaches in use in university physics courses across Canada: peer learning, collaborative learning, studio physics, experiential physics, computer assisted tutorials, and interdisciplinary approaches, among others. This special issue is designed to reflect this innovation and diversity and the exciting developments underway in physics education in Canada.
The article in this issue by Alan Slavin includes a survey of interactive approaches in use in Canadian universities. While any survey is necessarily incomplete, it indicates that 28 different faculty at 12 different universities are involved in some form of interactive/non-traditional teaching approach. The situation with respect to the use of computer-enhanced teaching of physics in Canada is similarly rich and diverse. The survey in the article by Hans Laue indicates some application in 28 different Physics Departments. It is interesting that there is a great diversity of approaches and software in use, however, with only a few institutions using any one piece of software. In his article, Laue calls for increased coordination and sharing of expertise and computational modules, a call that we would like to echo.
Over the past few decades Physics Education Research (PER) has come into its own as a mature and respected field of inquiry. Alan Slavin, as well as Peter Williams and his coauthors, have pointed out in their articles that PER offers well-informed guidance on how we can all teach more effectively. Williams et al, for example, provide an invaluable description of how PER-guided approaches have been successfully implemented at Acadia University and Mount Allison University. As these articles demonstrate, there are pockets of PER activity in Canada, and this is an area that we hope will see increased attention in the coming decade. The NSERC CRYSTAL initiative, which will see the establishment of up to six science education research centres in Canada, will help promote such activity.
Education research tells us that we are effective teachers when we recognize the varied learning styles present in our classroom. For some learners, visualization is a critical component in the process, and most physicists can attest to the utility of, and excitement generated by, an effective lecture demonstration. Ernie McFarland eloquently makes the case for demonstrations in physics teaching in his article, and in particular, how we can maximize the learning opportunities that they offer.
While a special issue such as this and physics education sessions at the CAP Congress serve to provide a means of exchanging ideas on effective teaching, too often we approach challenges of physics education in isolation. The article by Marc Nantel, using Photonics Research Ontario as a model, explores how we can effectively network to facilitate enhanced instructional experiences for our students. In addition, the article by Randall Brooks and Helen Graves Smith encourages us to broaden our perspective in considering the learning opportunities available outside the walls of our classrooms and laboratories. Brooks and Graves Smith explore the many possibilities created by resources available at science museums and centres.
In Canada, as well as in a number of other countries, the under representation of women in physics, especially at the graduate level, is a serious problem. This under representation has made our profession less than it could be; generations of creative women have gone into other areas of study and we are all the poorer for it. While this is a complex issue, Amy Rowat in her article offers clear and eloquent advice on ways in which we can promote an inclusive learning environment. Rowat encourages each of us to find ways of better representing the creative and collaborative nature of our discipline in our teaching, for the benefit of all our students.
Physics is becoming increasingly interdisciplinary in nature, and research opportunities in the next decade will be particularly rich in those areas in which physics interweaves with other subjects. In some of our institutions, teaching of physics has not adequately portrayed this interdisciplinary character in our classes. In the article by Pedro Goldman, Ross Hallett and Bill Harris, three very different, but each incredibly effective, forays into teaching physics to audiences that are predominantly not physics majors are described.
Lastly, we felt that a special issue on physics education would be lacking if it did not provide a forum for a sampling of student voices to be heard. Therefore, in addition to the article by Rowat, the final article by O’Meara and Hébert reports on the outcome of the Canadian undergraduate physics survey. This was the first significant survey of its type in Canada, and one of the larger surveys of physics student attitudes anywhere. With more than 600 responses from physics and astronomy majors and representation from almost all Canadian universities, it provides an interesting glimpse of what physics students think about their discipline and how it is taught. O’Meara and Hébert distill this national feedback to extract some direct advice from our students with respect to how we teach physics.
We hope that you will find this special issue on Physics Education interesting, helpful, and thought provoking. We as guest editors and all of the authors welcome your reflections as we all work together to try to further enhance physics education for our students.
Bob Hawkes, Mount Allison University
Joanne O’Meara, University of Guelph
Guest Editors, Physics in Canada
The comments of readers on this Editorial are more than welcome.
Editorial Board welcomes articles from readers suitable for, and understandable to, any practising or student physicist. Review papers and contributions of general interest are particularly welcome.