Schools and Colleges

 

Making a Difference

Policy

Policy and Consultations

The Institute is committed to improving physics education in schools and colleges. One route for doing this is to engage in debate with government and its agencies. In recent years the Education Department has drafted responses on behalf of the Institute to consultation documents from the QCA, TTA and DfES, and through the Scottish and Irish Branch Committees, to consultation documents issued by the Scottish Executive and the Irish Department of Education and Science. We try to work closely with colleagues from other organisations such as the Royal Society of Chemistry, the Institute of Biology etc. to maximise the impact of responses.

View consultation responses

 

Reports

  • Girls in the Physics Classroom

The number of girls who continue with physics after the age of 16 is a major concern. The Institute commissioned a review of the research to see if there were any strategies that might be successful in encouraging girls to study physics. The results of this review were published in June 2006.

Girls in Physics - Key Messages

Girls in the Physics Classroom: Review of Research on Girls’ Participation in Physics by Patricia Murphy and Elizabeth Whitelegg of the Open University

Girls in the Physics Classroom: A Teachers’ Guide for Action

Girls in the Physics Classroom: Videos

 

  • Shaping the Future Booklet Series

The Institute has published a set of five booklets which aim to promote debate and ideas about the way forward for physics education in schools and colleges, in the next decade and beyond.

Topics in the series span five clusters of concerns:

    • teaching specific topics in physics - from a contemporary perspective
    • pedagogical issues
    • recruiting and supporting physics teachers
    • course and institutional structures
    • responding to long term social and industrial trends

 

For more information about the five titles in the series please click on the links below:

Making Physics Connect

Physics in Mathematical Mood

Physics in Vocational Courses

The Study of Matter

Revitalising Physics Education

 

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Artwork | Image by Fred Swist