Physics Professor Using Fulbright for Research, Teaching in Ireland
Contact: John Thompson, 581-1030; George Manlove, 581-3756
ORONO — UMaine assistant physics professor John R. Thompson has been awarded a Fulbright Scholar grant to teach and conduct research on the learning and teaching of physics — also known as physics education research — at Dublin Institute of Technology (DIT) in Ireland during the 2008-2009 academic year.
Thompson will compare physics education research methods in Ireland with those in the U.S. and investigate how teaching strategies based on physics education research results might affect student learning of science at both the undergraduate and graduate level.
At UMaine, Thompson, who also has a cooperating appointment in the College of Education and Human Development and is a member of the Center for Science and Mathematics Education Research, has focused on the learning of specific concepts in science, and on the development of guided-inquiry curricular materials for physics courses.
Thompson’s host research group in Dublin has implemented a teaching method called “problem-based learning” — asking students to solve a real math or scientific question — on the premise that it is more effective than merely memorizing facts and formulas.
“I want to look at whether they learn differently in Ireland as a result,” says Thompson, whose research also involves studying how upper-level students learn subjects like thermodynamics.
Thompson will continue ongoing Orono-based research projects and forge new collaborations with faculty and researchers in Dublin. One such collaboration will involve courses that prepare teachers and faculty for teaching science more effectively. Both UMaine and DIT offer similar courses; Thompson will teach and exchange course materials while in Dublin.
“I expect some of the things I learn there I can bring back to my courses here and it will alter my teaching, and I can share it with other faculty,” Thompson says.
The Fulbright Scholar grant provides partial living expenses for Thompson, his two children and wife Kate Dickerson, a research associate at the Margaret Chase Smith Policy Center at UMaine.
The visit, he says, “is a cultural exchange as well as an intellectual exchange.”