2010 Physics Education Research Conference

The theme of the 2010 Physics Education Research (PER) Conference was Uncovering the hidden curriculum: Research on scientific, critical, and reflective thinking in the physics classroom. Physics education researchers are examining a broad spectrum of abilities that can be categorized as scientific thinking (i.e., reasoning skills and argumentation practices that feature significantly in physics); critical thinking (i.e., general logical reasoning as applied to, or necessary for, doing physics); and reflective thinking (i.e., thinking about one’s own thinking and learning processes). By focusing on research related to instructional goals that transcend specific subject matter, PERC 2010 provided an opportunity to highlight progress in this area and to identify important avenues for continued work.