Physics Education Research @ Monash (PERM)

PACE

The Physics Education Research Group at Monash studies the teaching and learning of physics. Researchers in the group aim to understand how we can best support students in learning physics. To do that work, we aim to not only understand how students learn content, but also to understand how students come to engage in the practices of doing physics. With a focus on computational physics education research and issues of diversity, equity and inclusion, the group uses qualitative and quantitative methods to understand students’ learning, engagement and retention. Our work has a direct impact improving physics education at Monash and beyond.

Anna Phillips 

Head of Group

Associate Professor Anna McLean Phillips

  • Student engagement in physics practices
  • History and philosophy of physics
  • Retention of marginalised groups in physics
  • Computational physics education
  • Student reasoning in physics laboratories
Istvan Laszlo 

Lecturer

Dr Istvan Laszlo

  • Computational physics education
  • Reflective practices for improving student learning
  • Reflective laboratory

Current PhDs

  • Abdulah Alseiari

Select Publications

Physicality, modeling, and agency in a computational physics class. A. M. Phillips, E. J. Gouvea, B. E. Gravel, P.-H. Beachemin, and T. J. Atherton Phys. Rev. Phys. Educ. Res. 19, 010121 – Published 30 March 2023. https://journals.aps.org/prper/abstract/10.1103/PhysRevPhysEducRes.19.010121

Disciplinary Inqu [ee] ry in Computational Physics. Phillips, A. M., Gouvea, E., Gravel, B., & Atherton, T. J. In Physics Education Research Conference, 2022 (pp. 353-358). (2022, September). https://www.per-central.org/items/detail.cfm?ID=16234

Science Education in the Post-Truth Era. Holmes, N. G., Phillips, A. M., & Hammer, D. In Connecting Research in Physics Education with Teacher Education: Students and teachers as learners in Physics (pp. 240-254). The International Commission on Physics Education, 2022. https://zenodo.org/record/5792968

A critical examination of “expert-like” in physics education research  Phillips, A. M., & O’Donnell, C. In Physics Education Research Conference Proceedings (pp. 339-346). 2021, August. https://www.per-central.org/items/detail.cfm?ID=15778

Not engaging with problems in the lab: Students’ navigation of conflicting data and models. Anna McLean Phillips, Meagan Sundstrom, David G. Wu, and N. G. Holmes Phys. Rev. Phys. Educ. Res. 17, 020112 – Published 26 August 2021. https://journals.aps.org/prper/abstract/10.1103/PhysRevPhysEducRes.17.020112