Physics Education:
This event took place on Wednesday 22 February 2006 at 15:30

Dr. Pratibha Jolly Miranda House, University of Delhi, Delhi

This event is been hosted by KMi on behalf of the Physics Innovations Centre for Excellence in Teaching and Learning (piCETL)

The International Year of Physics provided an opportunity to bring concerns about physics education centre stage across the world. The International Commission on Physics Education sponsored the conference titled World View on Physics Education: Focusing on Change in New Delhi in August 2005. This dwelt on changes in the understanding of the process, the content, context and ways of teaching-learning of Physics. Soon after, in October 2005, the International Union for Pure and Applied Physics and UNESCO organized the World Conference on Physics and Sustainable Development in Durban. A major goal of the section on Physics Education here was to stimulate physics communities in nations across the world to collaborate on finding ways that physics can best be used to benefit diverse societies. Both conferences lead to formulation of action plans which highlighted the need for sensitively taking into account the changing aspirations of societies, in particular, in the developing world. Within this framework, I will describe my own work and the initiatives to establish a vibrant program for research and innovation in physics education in India.

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About the Speaker:
Dr. Pratibha Jolly is currently the Principal of Miranda House, the college for women at University of Delhi. She gained a Ph.D in Chemical Physics from University of Delhi and taught in Miranda House for eight years before joining Department of Physics at the University of Delhi as Research Scientist to work in the area of physics education research and curriculum development at the tertiary level. Her research interests include computational physics; electronic instrumentation; use of computer-based technologies in education; development of locally produced low-cost equipment; teacher training; cognitive aspects of students? learning and diverse student populations. She has to her credit several innovative education research programs.

She was elected to the International Commission for Physics Education, an apex committee of the International Union for Pure and Applied Physics (IUPAP) in 2002 as a member and in 2005 as the Chairperson of the commission. She is also associated with the Asian Physics Education Network (ASPEN.) A Fulbright alumnus, she was awarded the Kilambi Ramavataram Fellowship by American Physical Society to enable work with leading Physics Education Research Groups at University of Maryland and Kansas State University for a year. This supplemented an earlier exposure to science education at, both, school and tertiary level in the U.K. where she worked with the Science Education Group at University of York on a Commonwealth Academic Staff Fellowship.

Dr. Jolly is the current General Secretary of Indian Association of Physics Teachers, an academic body of nearly four thousand teachers spread across the country. She is a member of apex academic committees at the University of Delhi and a key player in academic reforms and restructuring of the science programs. She regularly interacts with schools, colleges and other educational institutions. She was on the Board of School of Science, Indira Gandhi National Open University.

She organized a major International Conference on Physics Education titled World View on Physics Education in 2005: Focusing on Change in August 2005. She was also the co-chair for the section on Physics Education in the World Conference on Physics and Sustainable Development held in October 2005 at Durban.

She is currently working on programs for wider dissemination and classroom usage of her work and trying to establish a collaborative network in India for a program for Research and Innovation in Physics Education.