Mission: Our mission is to strengthen physics education through a coordinated research infrastructure that integrates research and teaching, advances evidence-based practices, and fosters meaningful collaboration. We pursue this mission by aligning graduate research around shared themes, generating actionable insights from national and international datasets, building partnerships among academics, teachers, and institutions, leading large-scale interdisciplinary projects with sustainable funding, promoting science literacy and public engagement, and enhancing the national and international visibility of our work.
Vision: To be a nationally and internationally recognized research group that advances equity, quality, and sustainability in education through innovative, evidence-based research in physics education.
Our Approach: PERG@METU operates on a set of core principles designed to maximize impact and ensure sustainability:
- Integrating Graduate Research: We strategically align graduate theses with shared research themes. This strengthens students’ research capacity and ensures that individual studies complement one another, amplifying the collective impact of our research.
- Promoting Evidence-Based Decision-Making: By analyzing large-scale national and international datasets, we provide research-driven insights that inform teaching practices and educational policy, enhancing both efficiency and accountability.
- Building Sustainable Collaborations: We develop long-term partnerships between academics and teachers to support professional development and facilitate the translation of research findings into classroom practice. Interdisciplinary collaborations within METU and with external partners enrich our projects scientifically and enhance their societal impact.
- Leading Comprehensive Projects: By centralizing project development and funding coordination (e.g., TÜBİTAK, Horizon Europe, Erasmus+), we maximize resources to enable large-scale, multi-partner, and sustainable initiatives.
- Bridging Research and Teaching: We develop research-based instructional materials and strategies to directly support classroom practice, enhancing teaching quality and student learning outcomes.
- Enhancing National and International Visibility: High-quality thematic research and interdisciplinary collaborations advance the academic profile of METU and Turkey in the field of physics education.
- Contributing to Society and Science Literacy: Through our outreach programs, we promote science literacy, enhance STEM awareness, and strengthen school-university collaboration.