10.06.2026 - Dr. Thomas Weatherby

Teaching University Physics: A Toolbox of Evidence-Based Methods

University physics teaching often has to balance conceptual depth, mathematical fluency, limited contact time, and very diverse student prior knowledge. This talk offers a compact overview of evidence-informed teaching methods that can support this balancing act, including peer instruction, Just-in-Time Teaching, flipped-classroom approaches, structured problem solving, and other active-learning formats.
Rather than presenting these methods as a checklist of fashionable techniques, the talk asks a more practical question: which teaching method is useful for which teaching problem? To support this, we will briefly connect selected methods to underlying ideas from learning theory, including forgetting and retrieval, multiple encodings, cognitive activation, representational competence, and the role of interaction in conceptual change.
The session is intended as a 45-minute whirlwind tour: not a full training course, but a map of the terrain. The aim is for participants to leave with a clearer sense of what different methods are designed to achieve, what evidence exists for their effectiveness in university physics teaching, and how to choose small, realistic interventions that fit their own courses.

Local Host: Prof. Dr. Thomas Wilhelm