Paradigms in Physics Education Research
Abstract
In this paper, we describe two paradigms in physics education research (PER): recurrence-oriented and case-oriented PER. We connect theory on research methodologies in the social sciences to interviews with physics education researchers and examples of published PER to articulate the specific assumptions of recurrence- and case-oriented PER. We show that the different assumptions made in these two paradigms bear out in specific aims and research designs taken up by physics education researchers. In particular, recurrence-oriented research seeks reproducible, representative patterns and relationships; human behavior is modeled as governed by lawful (albeit probabilistic) relationships. Case-oriented research, in contrast, seeks to refine and develop theory by linking that theory to cases; human action is assumed to be shaped by the meanings that participants make of their local environments. We briefly offer examples in which researchers take up both the recurrence- and case-oriented research paradigms.
Keywords
Cite
@article{arxiv.1307.4135,
title = {Paradigms in Physics Education Research},
author = {Amy D. Robertson and Rachel E. Scherr and Sarah B. McKagan},
journal= {arXiv preprint arXiv:1307.4135},
year = {2018}
}