Postgraduate Research

The Astronomy & Physics Education group invites applications to join postgraduate research projects on the following topics:

  • Meaningful and inclusive assessment
  • Student learning experience and engagement
  • Sense of belonging and identity
  • Teaching and learning practical skills in the post-covid area
  • Enhancing the curriculum

Successful applicants will normally have obtained a 2.1 Hons degree (or equivalent) in Physics and/or Astronomy and be able to demonstrate good knowledge and understanding of learning and teaching of physics and/or astronomy at higher education level.

A more detailed description of these projects follows.

The application procedure is outlined at https://www.gla.ac.uk/schools/physics/research/postgraduate/

PhD Projects

Meaningful and inclusive assessment in Physics & Astronomy

The covid-19 crisis has brought about a major opportunity in rethinking teaching and learning in higher education institutions across the world, in particular with online delivery and assessment. This PhD project will investigate how these changes have affected learning and teaching in physics and astronomy at university with a particular focus on how learners are assessed and what opportunities they have to demonstrate learning outcomes.

There are outstanding challenges that need to be addressed carefully to ensure that:

  • Assessment is meaningful, fair and inclusive so that all students have a chance to demonstrate their achievements in various ways at various points in their studies.
  • The integrity of all forms of assessment is guaranteed.

The project will involve surveying the most recent literature and practice nationally and internationally to identify successful approaches and where improvements are needed. A programmatic approach to assessment design will be taken. Pilots will be set up to enhance assessment practice in areas with the most needs. Working in partnership with university staff and students, the successful candidate will design, implement, and evaluate approaches, and disseminate practice which can be embedded on the long term in the School of Physics & Astronomy and other similar departments.

Successful applicants will normally have obtained a 2.1 Hons degree (or equivalent) in Physics and/or Astronomy and be able to demonstrate good knowledge and understanding of learning and teaching of physics and/or astronomy at higher education level.

Applications should be submitted as soon as possible and will be accepted until the position is filled.

For any enquiry please contact Nicolas.Labrosse@glasgow.ac.uk.

MSc by Research Projects

Student learning experience and engagement

Projects in this area would contribute to developing our understanding of effective measures to support our students learning, e.g. how complex or abstract physical or mathematical concepts can best be communicated or visualised?

Belonging and identity

A research project running over several years to understand the factors involved in students settling into university and into more advanced study in Physics. This is part of a study undertaken across several institutions in the UK which we joined in 2019-20. We’ve already accumulated a lot of data and its analysis allowed us to identify changes which can be introduced in our undergraduate teaching. There are exciting prospects to follow an entire cohort over several years, from entry to university up until graduation, to understand how the sense of belonging and identity as a physicist develop.

Teaching and learning practical skills

Since 2020 colleagues have worked hard to teach practical skills and a lot of innovative thinking has gone into this which could be expanded even more.

We are also researching how students engage with coding to inform future developments in how coding is taught in a physics degree. For this we are looking both at the hard and soft barriers, where “hard” barriers would be more about syntax and structures, while “soft barriers” would concern socio-economical backgrounds, as well as other perception or contextual issues which could prevent or affect successful engagement with coding.

Enhancing the curriculum

Projects can be offered depending on the student’s interest in the areas of

  • equality, diversity and inclusion
  • decolonisation
  • decarbonisation and sustainability

For any enquiry please contact phas-ape-enquiries@glasgow.ac.uk