RESEARCH IN PHYSICS EDUCATION 
Department of Physics
Indiana University, Bloomington

Richard Hake

Around 1980, after spending 30-years as a hard-core condensed-matter-physics researcher (low-temperature physics, electronic properties, superconductivity, magnetism, cryogenics), I hit a pedagogical wall in attempting to convey physics to prospective elementary teachers.  After (a) discussions with Arnold Arons and (b) discovering that standard instruction was as ineffective for science as for elementary-education majors, I gradually became involved in a development, dissemination, and research program to improve introductory physics education at the local, state, and national levels.[8]

For a brief biography and a listing of both condensed matter (1956-1989) and education (1987-2007) research references see Ref. [46]. For a listing of only education-related articles see Ref. [47]; and for a guide to discussion-list posts see Ref. [48]. For publications which are available online, in addition to those listed below, see the SDI lab page. Some of this work has been done in the context of the physics department's General Physics I course, P201, for science (but not physics) majors, enrolling primarily pre-meds and pre-health professionals [1].


 
 

SDI
Socratic Dialogue Inducing Labs
REDCUBE
Research Development and Change in Undergraduate Biology Education

SDI

The development has consisted in the instruction of introductory physics courses with various innovations emphasizing interactive engagement of students, primarily Socratic Dialogue Inducing (SDI) laboratories. Ten SDI lab manuals on introductory mechani cs, most of them with accompanying teacher's guides, have now been developed. Much of this material is now available both in hard copy and electronically:
  • (a) World Wide Web, in Adobe Acrobat portable document file (pdf) form [2].
  • (b) 3.5-in disks by request, and
  • (c) CD-ROM InfoMall
  • (d) Force Motion Vector Animations on 3.5-in disk by request.
  • SDI labs have now been used successfully in several universities and high schools (see the SDI Lab page).

     The research has consisted of both quantitative and qualitative studies, intermixed in such a way as to be mutually supportive.[3] The quantitative studies have centered on student evaluations [4] and careful prepo st testing for both conceptual understanding and problem solving ability. Recently we have surveyed the effectiveness of physics introductory courses throughout the country using prepost testing with survey forms [5], interviews, and standardized conceptual and problem-solving exams in order to

  • (a) correlate test performance with the type of pedagogy,
  • (b) induce the emulation of high-gain courses,
  • (c) increase the average effectiveness of courses nationwide.
  • This survey, based on 62 courses with total enrollment of 6542 students, strongly suggests that the classroom use of interactive engagement methods can increase mechanics course effectiveness in both conceptual understanding and problem solving well beyond that achieved by traditional methods.

     Other qualitative research has involved the analysis of

  • (a) videotaped individual interviews probing both cognitive and affective states of introductory physics students, and
  • (b) videotaped SDI lab sessions, including discussions both among students and between Socratic dialogists and students,
  • (c) comments and performance of non-physical-science professors enrolled in the introductory physics course.
  • The above qualitative research has served to uncover many unsuspected barriers to learning, suggest new paths to understanding, and greatly improve the effectiveness of SDI labs.   Lessons from the physics-education-reform effort that might be relevant to engineering[9] and environmental[10] education have recently been discussed.

    REDCUBE

    More recently, I have compiled a guide [6,7] that gives non-biologists a point of entry into the vast literature and web resources relevant to research, development, and change in undergraduate biology education. The most recent 9/8/99 version contains 47 educator profiles, 446 references, and 490 hot-linked URL's, all relevant to undergraduate-biology-education reform. The references and URL's may be generally useful to teachers and education researchers.

    References

    All available in pdf format, see Ref. [2].

    1. R.R. Hake, Some P201 Course Materials [pdf format, 9K]:

    2. Adobe Acrobat Reader is downloadable from Adobe's Web site.

    3. R.R. Hake, "Towards Paradigm Peace in Physics-Education Research," [AERA-Hake_11.pdf, 4/22/00, 168K] paper presented at the annual meeting of the American Educational Research Association, New Orleans, April 24-28, 2000.  For a pdf version of the PowerPoint slides shown at the meeting see [Paradigm Slides.pdf, 4/28/00, 244K].

    4. R.R. Hake and J.C. Swihart, Diagnostic Student Computerized Evaluation of Multicomponent Courses, Teaching and Learning, Vol. V, No. 3 (Indiana University, January 1979, updated 11/97, [pdf file, 20K]).

    5. R.R. Hake, Mechanics Test Data Survey Form,3/20/97, [pdf file, 22K] .

    6. R.R. Hake,Research, Development, and Change in Undergraduate Biology Education: A Web Guide for Non-Biologists[pdf, 9/8/99, 377K]

    7. R.R. Hake, "What Can We Learn from the Biologists About Research, Development, and Change in Undergraduate Education?" AAPT Announcer 29(4), 99 (1999); [WhatLearn.pdf, 1/31/2000, 204K] .

    8. R.R. Hake, "My Conversion To The Arons-Advocated Method Of Science Education,"Teaching Education" 3(2), 109-111 (1991)[MyConversion.pdf, 5/18/00, 12K].

    9. R.R. Hake, "What Can We Learn from the Physics Education Reform Effort?", ASME Mechanical Engineering Education Conference: "Drivers and Strategies of Major Program Change," Fort Lauderdale, Florida, March 26-29, 2000; [ASME.pdf,3/27/00, 436K], and also as HTML plus video at http://hitchcock.dlt.asu.edu/media2/cresmet/hake/

    10. R.R. Hake, "Lessons From the Physics-Education-Reform Effort," in Conservation Ecology, , a free "peer-reviewed journal of integrative science and fundamental policy research." (This review contains about 240 references and about 120 hot-linked URL's).

    11. R.R. Hake, "The General Population's Ignorance of Science Related Societal Issues: A Challenge for the University," AAPT Announcer 30(2), 105 (2000). [ GuelphSocietyG.pdf, 8/22/00, 2100K] (62 References).

    12. R.R. Hake, "The Need For Improved Physics Education of Teachers: FCI Pretest Scores for Graduates of High-School Physics Courses - Is it Time To Implement Curriculum S?" Physics Education Research Conference 2000: Teacher Education, Univ. of Guelph, August 2-3, 2000."[ PERC2000-HSTeach-5.pdf, 8/10/00, 929K]. (16 References).

    13. R.R. Hake, "Is it Finally Time to Implement Curriculum S?" AAPT Announcer 30(4), 103 (2000). [ CurriculumS.pdf, 3/15/01, 1200K] (400 references & footnotes, 390 hot-linked URL's). This essentially supersedes ref. 12 above.

    14. RR. Hake, "Suggestions for Administering and Reporting Pre/Post Diagnostic Tests" [ TestingSuggestions051801.pdf, 5/18/01, 44K] (42 references & footnotes, 31 hot-linked URL's].

    15. Hake, R.R. 2002. "Assessment of Student Learning in Introductory Science Courses," (click on the preceding title) in 2002 PKAL Roundtable on the Future: Assessment in the Service of Student Learning (click on the preceding for Roundtable information), Duke University, March 1-3; updated on 6/01/02. Reprint [ ASLIS.Hake.060102f.pdf] (192 K).

    16. Hake, R.R. 2002. "Whence Do We Get the Teachers (Response to Madison)" (click on the preceding title) in PKAL Roundtable on the Future: Assessment in the Service of Student Learning, Duke University, March 1-3; updated on 6/17/02; also here [ MadisonResponse-061702d.pdf] (44 K).

    17. R.R. Hake, "Comment on 'How do we know if we're doing a good job in physics teaching?' by Robert Ehrlich [Am. J. Phys. 70(1), 24-29 (2002)]," Am. J. Phys. 70(10), 1058-1059 (2002)." Preprint [HakeOnEhrlich-2.pdf] (16 kB).

    18. R.R. Hake, "Re: Problems with Student Evaluations: Is Assessment the Remedy?" AERA-D/ASSESS/EvalTalk/Phys-L/PhysLrnR/POD/STLHE-H post of 25 Apr 2002 16:54:24-0700. Slightly edited and improved on 16 November 2002 as [AssessTheRem1.pdf] (72 kB).

    19. R.R. Hake, "Physics First: Precursor to Science/Math Literacy for All?" to appear in the Summer 2002 issue of the American Physical Society's Forum on Education Newsletter. Preprint [PhysFirst-Forum-2g.pdf] (32 kB). For a more complete illustrated version see ref. 20.

    20. R.R. Hake, "Physics First: Opening Battle in the War on Science/Math Illiteracy?" Submitted to the American Journal of Physics on 27 June 2002. Preprint [PhysFirst-AJP-6.pdf] (220 kB).

    21. Mallow, J.V. & R.R. Hake. 2002. "Gender Issues in Physics/Science Education (GIPSE) - Some Annotated References", [GIPSE-4b.pdf] 220 K, about 300 references and 200 hot-linked URL's.

    22. R.R. Hake, "Relationship of Individual Student Normalized Learning Gains in Mechanics with Gender, High-School Physics, and Pretest Scores on Mathematics and Spatial Visualization," [PERC2002h-Hake.pdf] 220K; submitted to the Physics Education Research Conference (PERC2002); Boise, Idaho; August 2002. Also available at the arXiv.org preprint center under "physics education."

    For the convenience of patrons five early articles have been made available below as refs. 23-27. Previously refs. 23-26 were available only at the SDI lab site (http://www.physics.indiana.edu/~sdi/) and Ref. 27 was available only at the Benezet Centre.

    23. R.R. Hake, "Socratic Pedagogy in the Introductory Physics Lab," Phys. Teach. 30, 546 (1992). Reprint updated on (4/27/98) [SocPed1.pdf] (88 kB).

    24. R.R. Hake, "Interactive-engagement vs traditional methods: A six-thousand-student survey of mechanics test data for introductory physics courses," Am. J. Phys. 66, 64- 74 (1998). Reprint [ajpv3i.pdf] (84kB).

    25. R.R. Hake, "Interactive-engagement methods in introductory mechanics courses," submitted on 6/19/98 to the "Physics Education Research Supplement to AJP" (PERS) but, sadly, unpublished - PER has NO archival journal. Preprint [IEM-2b.pdf] (108kB). This is a crucial companion paper to ref. 24.

    26. R.R. Hake, "Interactive-engagement vs traditional methods in mechanics instruction," "APS Forum on Education Newsletter," Summer 1998, p. 5-7. Reprint [FOEN-1e.pdf] (16 kB). Some criticisms of ref. 24 & 25, and of physics-education reform generally, are countered.

    27. S. Mahajan & R.R. Hake, "Is it finally time for a physics counterpart of the Benezet/Berman math experiment of the 1930's?" in "Physics Education Research Conference 2000: Teacher Education," online here [mahajan-hake-perc2000-7.pdf] (228 kB), and as ref. 6 at the Benezet Centre.

    28. R.R. Hake, "Socratic Dialogue Inducing Laboratory Workshop," Proceedings of the UNESCO-ASPEN Workshop on Active Learning in Physics, Univ. of Peradeniya, Sri Lanka, 2-4 Dec. 2002. Reprint [Hake-Sri Lanka-SDIb.pdf] (44kB).

    29. R.R. Hake, "Assessment of Physics Teaching Methods," Proceedings of the UNESCO-ASPEN Workshop on Active Learning in Physics, Univ. of Peradeniya, Sri Lanka, 2-4 Dec. 2002; Reprint [Hake-SriLanka-Assessb.pdf] (84 kB)

    30. R.R. Hake, "Education Articles, Materials, & Posts (1979 - 2003)," August 2003, [HakeEdPapers-081903.pdf] (64 kB).

    31. R.R. Hake, "The Arons-Advocated Method" [AronsAdvMeth-8.pdf] (144kB), submitted to the American Journal of Physics on 24 April 2004.

    32. R.R. Hake, "Educational Activities (1979 - 2003)" [EducActivity-2.pdf] (72kB)

    33. R.R. Hake, "Direct Instruction Suffers a Setback in California - Or Does It?" 11 April 2004, [DirInstSetback-041104f.pdf] (420kB), AAPT Announcer 34(2):177, Sacramento Meeting, 1-4 August 2004. For a pdf version of the PowerPoint slides shown at the Sacramento meeting click on [AAPT-Slides.pdf] (132 KB).

    34. R.R. Hake, "Design-Based Research: A Primer for Physics Education Researchers" [DBR-AJP-6.pdf] (310kB), submitted to the American Journal of Physics on 10 June 2004.

    35. R.R. Hake, "'Design-Based Research': Old PER Wine in a New Bottle," [PERC2004-Hake6.pdf] (120 kB), submitted on 16 July 2004 to the PERC 2004 Physics Education Research Conference, 4-5 August 2004, Sacramento, California.

    36. R.R. Hake, "Will the No Child Left Behind Act Promote Direct Instruction of Science?" [WillNCLBPromoteDSI-3.pdf] (256 kB), Bull. Am. Phys. Soc. 50: 851 (2005); APS March Meeting, Los Angles, CA. 21-25 March, 2005.

    37. R.R. Hake, "The Physics Education Reform Effort: A Possible Model for Higher Education?" 10 February 2006 [NTLF42.pdf] (100 kB). This is a slightly edited version of the article that was: (a) published in the December 2005 issue of the National Teaching and Learning Forum, online at http://www.ntlf.com/, and (b) disseminated by the Tomorrow's Professor list as Msg. 698 on 14 Feb 2006. I welcome comments and suggestions directed to rrhake@earthlink.net.

    38. R.R. Hake, "Measuring Teaching and Learning Performance: Interconnected Issues," 18 February 2006 [ICMEEk-2006.pdf] (230 KB) in "Proceedings of the Third International Conference on Measurement and Evaluation in Education (ICMEE 2006)," Penang, Malaysia, 13-15 February. I welcome comments and suggestions directed to rrhake@earthlink.net.

    39. R.R. Hake, Review of Stephen Swidler's "Naturally Small: Teaching and Learning in the Last One-Teacher Schools," 2 June 2005 [RevSwidler25.pdf] (36 kB) in Education Review.

    40. R.R. Hake, "Promoting Student Crossover to the Newtonian World," Am. J. Physics 55(10): 878-884 (1987) [PromotingCrossover.pdf] (788 kB).

    41. S. Tobias & R.R. Hake, "Professors as physics students: What can they teach us?" Am. J. Phys. 56(9): 786-794 [ProfsAsStudents.pdf] (1 MB).

    42. R.R. Hake, "More on Coriolis myths and draining bathtubs," letter to the editor, Am. J. Phys. 62: 1063 (1994) [CoriolisMyths.pdf] (112 kB). [See also SDI Lab #3 Appendix: "Rotating Reference Frames".]

    43. R.R. Hake, "Should We Measure Change? Yes!" [Hake-MeasChangeS.pdf] (2.6 MB). To appear as a chapter in Evaluation of Teaching and Student Learning in Higher Education, a Monograph of the American Evaluation Association.

    44. Letter to the Indiana Representatives Lee Hamilton, Frank McCloskey, Tim Roemer, and Legislative Assistant Molly J. Moran, 9 May 1994, following a visit of 21 April 1994 during the Washington meeting of the American Physical Society [Congress1994c.pdf] (16 kB).

    45. R.R. Hake, "Design-Based Research in Physics Education Research: A Review," in A.E. Kelly, R.A. Lesh, & J.Y. Baek, (in press), Handbook of Design Research Methods in Mathematics, Science, and Technology Education. Erlbaum [DBR-Physics3.pdf] (1.1 MB).

    46. Brief biography and a listing of both condensed matter (1956-1989) and education (1979-2007) research references [VITA-070207h.pdf ] (1.2 MB)). "

    47. Education Articles (1979-1970) [EdArticles1979-2007c.pdf] (352 kB).

    48. Guide To Education-Related Discussion List Posts (1998-2007) [Posts3.pdf] (312 kB).

    49. "Over Sixty Academic Discussion Lists: List Addresses and URL's for Archives & Search Engines" [ADL-L.pdf] (637 kB).

    50. R.R. Hake, "Can Scientific Research Enhance the Art of Teaching?" [Sci&Art3.pdf] (1.2 MB), invited talk, AAPT meeting at Greensboro, N.C., 31 July 2007.

    51. R.R. Hake, "Cognitive Science and Physics Education Research: What We've Got Here Is Failure to Communicate" [CS&PER-JLS7.pdf] (532 kB), submitted to the "Journal of the Learning Sciences" on 10 October 2007.

    52. R.R. Hake, "Six Lessons From The Physics Education Reform Effort" [SixLessonsD.pdf] (684 kB), Latin American Journal of Physics Education 1(1), September 2007; also online as published (with AIP style numbered referencing) at HAKE Final.pdf (164 kB).

    53. R.R. Hake, "Can Distance and Classroom Learning Be Increased?" IJ-SoTL 2(1): January, The International Journal of Scholarship of Teaching and Learning, an open, peer-reviewed, international electronic journal containing articles, essays, and discussions about the scholarship of teaching and learning (SoTL) and its applications in higher/tertiary education today.

    54. R.R. Hake, "Language Ambiguities in Education Research" [LangAmbigEdResC.pdf] 1.2 MB, submitted to Journal of the Learning Sciences on 21 August 2008.

    55. R.R. Hake and Mallow, J.V. 2008. "Gender Issues in Science/Math Education (GISME): Over 700 Annotated References & 1000 URL's: Part 1 - All References in Alphabetical Order [GISME-5t-Part1.pdf] (8.5 MB); Part 2 - Some References in Subject Order [GISME-5t-Part2.pdf] (4.8 MB)."

    56. R.R. Hake, "The Case for Classroom Clickers - A Response to Bugeja" [CaseForClickersJ.pdf] (716 kB), 15 December 2008.

    57. R.R. Hake, "Over Two-Hundred Education & Science Blogs" [ Over200EdSciBlogsU.pdf] (2.6 MB), 30 March 2009.

    58. R.R. Hake, "Over Two-Hundred Annotated References on Systems Thinking" [200RefsSystems2c.pdf] (1.7 MB), 17 December 2009.

    59. R.R. Hake, "Helping Students to Think Like Physicists in Socratic Dialogue Inducing Labs" [ ThinkLikePhysicistInSDILabsA.pdf] (365 kB), submitted to the Physics Education Research Conference 2010 (PERC2010) on 28 June 2010.

    60. R.R. Hake, "Education Research Employing Operational Definitions Can Enhance the Teaching Art [ OperatDefEnhanceArtM.pdf] (3.8 MB), invited talk AAPT Portland Meeting, 19 July 2010).

    61. R.R. Hake, "A Guide to the ADLsphere: Over Eighty Academic Discussion Lists With Links to Their Archives & Search Engines [ GuideToADLsphereB.pdf] (3.7 MB).

    62. R.R. Hake, "Helping Students to Think Like Scientists in Socratic Dialogue Inducing Labs [HelpStudThink-L.pdf] (446 kB).

    63. R.R. Hake, "Should the Culture of University Science Education Be Changed?" [ CultureSciEdChangeE.pdf] (3.8 MB).

    64. R.R. Hake, "The Impact of Concept Inventories On Physics Education and It's Relevance For Engineering Education" [ ImpactCI-D.pdf] (8.7 MB).

    65. R.R. Hake, "Early History of High Field Superconductivity: 1930-1967 - A Tragicomedy in Twelve Acts: Part #1. [ HakeHistFullA.pdf (8.8 MB).

    66. R.R. Hake, "Bao et al.'s Comparison of Learning and Scientific Reasoning in Chinese & U.S. Schools: Alternate Conclusions and Recommendations" [BaoCritA.pdf] (385 kB).

    67. R.R. Hake, "Direct Instruction rocks: Or does it?" [ HakeRespondsToKlahr-7.pdf] (119 kB).

    68. R.R. Hake, "Next Generation Science Standards: Good or Bad For Science Education?" [NGSS26.pdf] (221 kB)

    69. R.R. Hake, "Where Is Everybody? Failure to Detect Intelligence in the Universe is Due to Failure of Universities Throughout the Universe" [ Where-Is-Everybody-C.ppt] (6.8 MB).

    70. R.R. Hake, ImpactConceptInventoriesB.pdf [(2.7 MB)].

    71. R.R. Hake, Curmudgeonly Comments Concomitant to Corrigan's "To Lecture or Not to Lecture?" [(2.9 MB)].

    72. R.R. Hake, "Vague Labels for Pedagogical Methods Should Be Supplemented with Operational Definitions and Detailed Descriptions" [ VagueLabelsE-a.pdf] (475 KB)

    73. R.R. Hake, "Can the Cognitive Impact of Calculus Courses be Enhanced?" [ CanCogImpactCalc-5.pdf] (2.8 MB)

    74. R.R. Hake, "What Might Psychologists Learn from the Scholarship of Teaching and Learning in Physics?" [SoTLinPsych-Weak-L.pdf] (246 KB) accepted for publication in the March 2015 issue of the Journal of Teaching and Learning in Psychology. This is a *weak* version of my article that's been eviscerated by being forced into conformity with the overly prescriptive APA style. For the original *strong* submitted version see entry #75 below.

    75. R.R. Hake, "What Might Psychologists Learn from the Scholarship of Teaching and Learning in Physics?" [SoTLinPsych-Strong-N.pdf] (393 KB) submitted on 18 Feb 2015 to the Journal of Teaching and Learning in Psychology. This is a *strong* version of my article that was rejected because it was too long and did not adhere to the overly prescriptive dictates of APA Style.


    For more information:
    Dick Hake, Emeritus Professor of Physics, Indiana University;

    24245 Hatteras Street, Woodland Hills, CA 91367, USA
    phone: 818-992-0632
    e-mail: rrhake@earthlink.net