Physical Review Physics Education Research

A comprehensive cross-cohort study reveals that most students’ interest in physics is driven by relatable contexts rather than the content itself, offering educators a clear framework to design more engaging lessons.

Through think-aloud interviews, this study explores how students learn quantum computing, identifying three key cognitive resources they activate and occasionally misapply when reasoning about the CNOT gate.

By introducing a unified “Encoding-Evolution-Readout-Estimation” schema, this study demonstrates how to successfully bridge classical and quantum concepts to cultivate cross-disciplinary measurement literacy in physics and engineering students.

Using in-depth, task-based think-aloud interviews and 3D materials, researchers uncover the specific, often hidden alternative mental models high school students use to explain the Sun’s apparent motion.

Interviews with physicists teaching a master’s program reveal a framework for the math-physics interplay, highlighting how mathematical conflicts can drive scientific discovery.

An evaluation of introductory physics courses utilizing SCALE-UP, ISLE, and Tutorials finds no clear relationship between an instructor’s fidelity of implementation—measured via classroom observation networks—and their students’ conceptual learning gains.

A field study of ninth-grade physics students shows that interactive AI chatbots and tiered support significantly reduce perceived cognitive load compared to traditional textbook explanations.

Distance-learning students in astrophysics and space science report that online team-working activities provide valuable preparation for future employment, despite experiencing anxieties about unequal contributions and participation in group assessments.

Discover how physics teaching assistants frequently overestimate the conceptual errors of introductory students and how this impacts classroom instruction.

Moving beyond the traditional coherence-versus-fragmentation debate, this study shows that combining cognitive and sociocultural theoretical models creates a richer, highly nuanced map of a student’s evolving understanding of the Earth-Moon-Sun system.

The first comprehensive map of the U.S. graduate quantum curriculum reveals that while core quantum topics are highly standardized, access to essential Quantum Field Theory courses is largely dependent on a program’s size and research classification.

Generative AI-mediated Socratic dialogue enhances critical thinking in kinematics, driving consistent improvements in student rubric scores and self-efficacy.

An in-depth phenomenological analysis of an online project-based physics course reveals how preservice teachers’ individual character traits deeply shape their self-efficacy and professional growth.

A case study using the Physics Measurement Questionnaire reveals that while preceding a closed-response question with an open-response prompt does not alter students’ final selections, the two formats measure fundamentally different aspects of student reasoning.

This study demonstrates that physics students interacting with a prompt-engineered, student-centered AI agent achieve higher learning performance, experience greater flow, and report lower extraneous cognitive load compared to those using a traditional teacher-centered agent.