Teaching, Learning and Physics Education Research: Views of Mainstream Physics Professors

This paper presents the preliminary results of interviews with four thoughtful senior faculty who are not part of the Physics Education Research (PER) community. The interviews focused on their general beliefs about teaching and learning as well as their use of and attitudes towards PER and PER-based instructional strategies. We found that these instructors have beliefs about teaching and learning and instructional goals that are more PER-compatible than their self-described instructional practices. We hypothesize that one factor impeding more complete incorporation of PER is instructors’ either misinterpreting or having a low opinion of the trustworthiness of educational research results.