Melba Newell Phillips Medal Lecture 2013: Discipline-Based Education Research-AView From Physics

Preface: In thanking AAPT for the Melba Newell Phillips Medal, I want to emphasize that the accomplishments that have been recognized by this award have resulted from many contributions over many years by past and present members of the UW Physics Education Group. Support by the National Science Foundation has been critical. On a more personal level, I am also very much honored to have my name associated with Melba Newell Phillips through this award. I remember her warm welcome at my first AAPT meeting many years ago. Although we had not met before, she did not seem too busy to express interest in my work and to offer encouragement. I was impressed then (and still am) by her accomplishments in research and teaching, her political courage, and her service to the physics academic community. This article presents an overview of research in physics education (PER) as it has been conducted by the Physics Education Group at the University of Washington. Examples from introductory physics illustrate the nature of our investigations and the application of our findings in the development of research-based and research-validated curriculum for university students and K-12 teachers. The results from our research provide strong evidence of the ongoing need for research on the learning and teaching of physics that is strongly discipline-based. (C) 2014 American Association of Physics Teachers.