Abstract:
Over the last several decades, research has been conducted in the United States to better understand how teaching strategies affect student learning outcomes in introductory college-level physics courses. This extensive physics education research (PER) was followed by the development of a large number of curricula, teaching styles, and pedagogies that have been tested and shown to improve student learning. Such studies produced metrics for conceptual understanding, problem-solving skills, and student attitudes. The research-based assessment instruments (RBAI) came out of the necessity to quantify students’ understanding of physics concepts and to monitor their progress in such classes by measuring learning gains. The Force Concept Inventory (FCI) was used to measure students’ mastery of force concepts and the Conceptual Survey of Electricity and Magnetism (CSEM) provided guidance for research directions into students’ common-sense conceptions of electricity and magnetism. Fulbright projects represent an opportunity for researchers’ professional development and give the chance to each researcher to reach and re-enforce professional maturity. The aim of this paper is to disseminate the experience of such a project and to emphasize some of the benefits of engagement teaching for students’ progress.
