Physics Education

Chair: Harrie Eijkelhof (UU, Utrecht)

This session is a follow-up of the plenary presentation of Carl Wieman on his Science Education Initiative (http://www.cwsei.ubc.ca/ ). Mieke de Cock (KUL, Leuven) and Peter Dekkers (UU, Utrecht) will relate his Initiative to physics education developments in Belgium and the Netherlands.

In addition, key findings of the TIMSS-Advanced 2008 Study on Physics (http://www.iea.nl/timssadvanced20080.html) will be presented by Marjolein Drent and Martina Meelissen (University of Twente) as they might function as international benchmark for physics learning in senior secondary education.

The discussion will focus on what students should learn, what they actually learn and which instructional materials would improve learning.