INTERNATIONAL
COMMISSION ON
PHYSICS
EDUCATION
INTERNATIONAL
COMMISSION ON
PHYSICS
EDUCATION
Participant Members: P. Black, A. M. P. Carvalho, U. Ganiel, E. Lillethun, E. Redish, T. Ryu, J. Sahm, M. G. Sere, and V. Talisayon.
By Invitation: L. Jossem, K. Zhao, and on the second day S. Pak
Apologies for absence were received from: M. Kesselberg, S. Krotov, P. Lijnse, N. Mukunda and J. Seretlo.
P. Black reported on this conference and informed the meeting that the Proceedings --book and CD Rom -- have already been distributed.
K. Zhao reported on this conference and informed the meeting that the Proceedings have already been distributed.
P. Black reported on the preparations for this conference.
It had previously been decided that this conference would be recommended to the IUPAP for ICPE sponsorship in the 1998 meeting. (The IUPAP Council approved the sponsorship of this conference at its meeting on Oct. 2, 1999.)
It was decided that this conference would be recommended to the IUPAP for ICPE sponsorship.(The IUPAP Council approved the sponsorship of this conference at its meeting on Oct. 2, 1999.)
It was decided that this conference would be recommended to the IUPAP for ICPE sponsorship. The organizing committee has already been asked to change the name of the conference, since the IUPAP does not sponsor workshops. It was also suggested that the organizing committee should make contact with the Inter-American Council on Physics Education so that its president could be invited to take part in the conference. (The IUPAP Council did not approve the sponsorship. IUPAP wants international conference series changing the conference site between countries.)
There was no request to sponsor this meeting. It was not eligible because the IUPAP ruling is that conferences that it sponsors should be open to participants from all countries.
It was decided that this meeting could be put forward for consideration for sponsorship at next year's commission meeting. (Early approval for sponsorship by the IUPAP Council was given on Oct. 2, 1999.)
L. Jossem states that he had distributed more than 1500 copies of the book, Connecting Research in Physics Education with Teacher Education, on discs, and there has been a very large number of visitors from all over the world to the WEB site -- http://www.physics.ohio-state.edu/~jossem/ICPE/BOOK.html -- where the text is available for free down-load.
Jossem reported that UNESCO has provided the budget required for tranlation of the book into other languages than English and that J. Barojas was in charge of the translation into Spansih, but has been unable to complete it because of personal problems. M. G. Sére reported that A. Tiberghien has been working hard on the French translation and there are just a few problems left to be solved with some of the authors. T. Ryu described the work on the Japanese translation of the book. The Japanese teachers who were helping with this task encountered many difficulties, so the Japanese translation will take longer to complete than was anticipated.
E. Redish distributed the International Newsletter n. 37, October 1998, and a copy of Physics Education Research - American Journal of Physics, Supplement 1 to vol. 67, n. 7, Jul 1999. (He is the editor of this new research supplement to the AJP.)
P. Black emphasised the importance of the Newsletter in disseminating the work of the Commission, both to educators and to other physicists through IUPAP. He reminded the Commission that IUPAP gives an annual grant to assist the publication of the Newsletter.
E. Redish stated that he would not be able to continue as editor of the Newsletter, in part because he would be taking on the post of secretary to the Commission. Vivian Talisayon agreed to take over this task and was enthusiastically assigned the editorship. (She has already prepared issue n. 38 of the Newsletter which should be distributed in the last quarter of 1999.)
E. Redish stressed the necessity of up-to dating the Web page - he hoped to do this in September.
L. Jossem explained the preliminary conversations that had taken place with both the American Physical Society and the American Institute of Physics about the possibility of one of these organizations taking over responsibility for the technical handling of the web-site, so that the C14 editor would only have to send them the material to be put on its pages. Both organizations were willing to give the help required. Jossem and Redish agreed to make further enquiries and arrive at a final decision on behalf of the commission.
Three main ideas were discussed :
This group has been working on constructing a web resource for teachers by selecting articles from the proceedings of ICPE conferences. During the past year, the working group members in Brazil, France, and the Philippines used the proceedings of the Ljubljana and Udine conferences with their classes of pre-service teachers. The students reviewed the materials and selected those articles they found most interesting and relevant. The group reviewed the teacher's selections and found that they tended to fall into three categories:
From the list of teacher-selected articles, the group chose nine that had a strong international interest, 5 from Ljubljana, 4 from Udine. During the coming year, the group will continue its efforts. Permission will be sought from the conference organizers and authors to put the selected materials on the ICPE web-site, using electronic versions already available. (Redish)
The working group members with access to classes of teachers (Carvalho, Séré, Talisayon) will repeat the selection process using the Duisburg proceedings. At next year's meeting of the new ICPE, the continuing group of members will propose the continuation of work of this type.
The group has the following suggestions of contents after discussing the ICPE Newsletter as a carrier of relevant information to developing countries:
More ideas would be produced. However, running such a Newsletter may require the recruitment of "assistants" to the editor. These persons would have good contacts in particular countries so that they could keep the Newsletter's main editor informed about articles to be presented about their country situation.
The above suggestions should form the base for further discussions within ICPE.
E. Lillethun agreed to be responsible for a new search for contacts in developing countries interested in physics education information. These contacts should be able to download the Newsletter and distribute copies within their country, and they could also be asked to suggest other subjects which might be included.
The group discussed which topics would be appropriate for future conferences to be sponsored by the ICPE, and/or books or readers to be prepared in the future. Many were discussed, but the group finally decided on the following list of topics, arranged in order of priority as follows:
1. Teachers, with a focus on the following issues:
2. "Science Literacy for All - particularly Physics".
3. "Physics in Context"
4. Physics and other disciplines [Book, Conference]
Remarks:
A number (11) of posters have been selected and they have been put on the web site of the American Physical Society (APS) - for which the web address is http://www.APS.org/. Japan has translated and distributed copies of the Nobel Prize Posters collection.
The idea, which had been presented last year has been developed in collaboration with a USA project, project NOVA, based at the University of Alabama. The aim is to put 4 books on teaching methods in undergraduate physics education on the Web. They will total about 1000 pages in all. P. Black distributed a disc version of one of the books - Individual Study in Undergraduate Science - Higher Education Learning Project. The work of scanning in the text of the books is already complete.
The IUPAP Council has approved a proposal to collect short articles (about 2000 words each) from the chairs of each of IUPAP's commissions, and would publish the collection under the title Physics 2000 - Physics as it enters the new Millennium. P. Black has been collecting the material, and two other editors - Len Jossem and Gordon Drake - are helping him. The Commission asked that when the booklet is published, it should also be made available on the web.
P. Black explained the electoral process and the members of the next commission, which will be starting in September, are the following (1999-2002):
The three current associate members continue their term for another year. New associate members will serve beginning with the ICPE meeting in 2001. The next commission will be asked to submit nominations for new assoicate members to the IUPAP council, who will make the final decision.
P. Black distributed copies, taken from the IUPAP Triennial Report on its commissions, of a report on C.14 - Commission on Physics Education which he had prepared.
P. Black related the main points which had been discussed in the meetings of IUPAP Council/Council with the Commission chairs meetings, and in the 23rd General Assembly, all held in Atlanta in March, 1999.
P. Black reported on the problems that arisen due to the lack of support by ICSU (the International Council for Scientific Unions - now called the International Council for Science) for liaison between the educational groups within its member commissions. Discussions led to the presentation of a proposal for the establishment and support of an "Inter-Union Science Education Liaison Committee". This proposal was led by Black and supported by education groups of the other science unions: IUPAC (chemistry); IAU (astronomy); IUGS (geological sciences); IUPAB (biochemistry); IUBS (biological sciences); IMU(mathematics) and IUTAM (applied mathematics). A copy of the proposal was distributed to the members of the Commission.
J. Sahm proposed support from ICPE for the work developed by P. Black and for the terms of the proposal. This was approved unanimously.
The agencies of UNESCO in Asia and South America are accustomed to giving financial support to some events in these regions. In earlier times, UNESCO used to finance the publications of the proceedings of conferences sponsored by ICPE, but it is no longer giving such support.
This group holds a conference in Europe every two years.
This group holds a conference every three years.
There has been little contact with activities of C13 - the IUPAP Commission for Development. However, these contacts need to be revived; given that education is one of the important factors in the development of Physics, there ought to be active liaison between C13 and C14.
V. Talisayon suggested that C14 ought to promote a closer contact with ASPEN, just as it has done with GIREP.
P. Black had not received any nomination for the ICPE medal. A new design for the medal will be explored and proposed to the new commission.
P. Black described the articulation of the work carried out in the commission. L. Jossem reminded members of the value of the documents which focus on the history of the ICPE.
P. Black thanked the members for the work they have been developing through the past three years. J. Sahm congratulated P. Black on his work as a leader of the commission.
minutes prepared by
Anna Maria de Carvalho
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web page prepared by
E. F. RedishLast corrected November 22, 1999.