Teaching students to think like physicists

Abstract: 
I will discuss the two educational challenges that many physicists must confront if the field is to continue to thrive. First, how can we best train advanced students to become skilled physicists, and second, how can we effectively introduce the broad population of introductory students to the joys and value of physicist thinking.  My group’s studies of expert problem-solving by scientists has provided insights for how to achieve both these goals.  We have identified a set of 29 specific decisions that frame the process by which successful physicists and other scientists solve authentic problems in their fields.  I will present how to provide practice and feedback in making these decisions to develop advanced students into skilled physicists. I will also discuss how structuring an introductory college physics course around solving real-world problems following a template based on a subset of these problem-solving decisions allowed more students to succeed, regardless of their prior physics background.
 

Bio:

Carl Wieman holds a joint appointment as Professor of Physics and of the Graduate School of Education at Stanford University. He has done extensive experimental research in both atomic physics and science education at the university level. Wieman served as founding chair of the Board of Science Education of the National Academy of Sciences and was the founder of PhET, which provides online interactive simulations that are used 100 million times per year to learn science. Wieman directed the science education initiatives at the Universities of Colorado and British Columbia (2007 - 2017), which carried out large scale change in teaching methods across university science departments. He served as Associate Director for Science in the Office of Science and Technology Policy in the White House from 2010-12.  He has also studied student learning and problem solving and the comparative effectiveness of different methods for teaching science.

Honors & Awards
Research:
E. O. Lawrence Award (1993)
Fritz London Memorial Prize (1996)
King Faisal International Prize in Science (1997)
Lorentz Medal (1998)
The Benjamin Franklin Medal (2000)
Nobel Prize in Physics (2001)

Teaching:
Carnegie US University Professor of the Year, Carnegie Foundation for the Advancement of Teaching (2003)
Oersted Medal (2007)
Yidan Prize (2020)

Professional Education
Ph.D., Stanford University, Physics (1977)
B.S., MIT, Physics (1973)

Learn More:

• See Carl's Stanford profile page
• View his CV
• News: "Stanford professor awarded $4 million prize for education research"