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
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Last corrected November 22, 1999.