Report on the Carrick Physics Discipline Specific Workshop
September 26, 2007, USYD
The day-long National Workshop funded by the Carrick Institute for learning and Teaching in Higher Education
was held at the University of Sydney. Ms Denise Chalmers from the Institute opened the proceedings and status
reports were presented by the Working Party Leaders. There was good national representation, with 36 delegates from
17 institutions attending (including four departmental heads and a Dean of Science). About a quarter of the participants
were early in their careers providing the project an opportunity to equip and support staff from across the career range.
World Cafe style discussion allowing all participants to contribute to all three Working Parties were used to solicit
feedback on the experiences within their departments. There is no doubt that there is substantial diversity as well
as common issues. The feedback will be used to shape the project so that it is most useful for the physics education community.
Together with the formal proceedings, the informal time provided a much appreciated opportunity to share experiences and network.
Presentations were made by Dr Jamie Quinton (Flinders) on the use of simulation with Mathematica for visualising
theoretical concepts, Dr Chris Creagh (Murdoch) on catering for diverse student needs in both internal and external modes,
Prof Mario Zadnik (Curtin) on flexible student assessment and use of Mini Whiteboards in laboratories,
Dr Gunther Andersson (Flinders) discussed questions about aims, why do we teach physics? Professor
John Rice made an informative presentation on the current Carrick funded project run by the Australian Council of
Deans of Science, Re-conceptualising Tertiary Science Education for the 21st Century.
Undergraduate Experimentation Working Group Summary.
The World Café style discussion was based around two prompts; what is best practice in physics laboratory work and how do we know. Specific features such as tutors and tutor training, integration of experimentation into broader curricula and the extent and nature of scaffolding were identified as important features. An ACELL Workshop for Physics for the 29th of November is now confirmed and will be hosted at UTS.
Service Teaching Working Group Summary
The focus question of the 'World Café' discussion was 'What constitutes good practice in subjects designed for non-physics majors?' Each participant anonymously wrote 3 indicators of good practice and these have been compared with an earlier list of indicators of good practice drawn from literature. The most popular responses are as follows, builds on students' experience, contexts employed have explicit relationships with the major area and context/site of application of the physics has meaning for the student. These are staff perspectives and will be compared with student and client department responses.
Graduate Destinations and Employer Expectations Working Group Summary
Interview questions were made available and the discussion explicitly requested feedback on the instruments and methods for data collection. Ideas such as the following were canvassed. What to do with the results? How should AIP be involved? Should the title "graduate destinations" be changed to "how did physics help you? Can information from employers be used by students to enhance their CVs? Should we keep the "location data" for jobs"-where in Brisbane (for example) do I get a job?" Should undergraduates be a "control" sample? How to interface with schools and other discipline areas? Such discussions will definitely lead to more useful outcomes.
