GIREP Summer School for PhD students and junior postdocs in PER, Glasgow, Scotland
The third GIREP Summer School will be held in Glasgow, Scotland. The Summer School precedes the GIREP-EPEC 2027 Conference. It is organized by the International Research Group on Physics Teaching – GIREP [Groupe International de Recherche sur l’Enseignement de la Physique], the European Physical Society Physics Education Division (EPS), and the Scottish Universities Physics Alliance (SUPA). The local organising committee consists of staff from three universities (Edinburgh, Glasgow and Strathclyde) and IOP Scotland.
The GIREP Summer School is a PER-specific convening that aims to open opportunities for developing community among novice and experienced researchers. The programme is planned from Thursday at 9:00 AM through Sunday at lunch. Saturday is devoted to a subsidized excursion for all Summer School members.
The core of the School is working groups consisting of 5-6 PhD students or postdocs in PER and 3-6 experienced researchers. The novice researchers take turns presenting their work and questions, and receiving suggestions from the group members. Ground rules serve to establish norms and ensure a safe place to discuss dilemmas of PER practice.
The Summer School consists of two types of sessions:
- Working-group sessions: Each session lasts 90 minutes and focuses on the work-in-progress of a single PhD student.
- One-half of each session is devoted to a PhD student presenting their work (either in the form of a 45-minute presentation, or in the form of a 15-minute presentation followed by 30 minutes of workshop activities anchored in participant artifacts (e.g., bottom-up analysis of interview transcripts; analysis of respondents’ data with a coding scheme, etc.)).
- The second half of the session is devoted to discussion with junior and expert researchers focused on the presenter's dilemmas.
- Whole-group sessions, in which participants from different working groups will meet, such as
- Reflection sessions focused on participants' experiences and challenges as newcomers to the community
- Plenary sessions focused on educational research practices
- Social sessions focused on building community and strong connections among researchers.
Cost: Though the budget has not been finalized, we expect that the cost per participant will be approximately 200-250 Euro. Dinners on Thursday and Friday, as well as breaks and lunch on Thursday, Friday, and Sunday morning, will be provided. Accommodation costs are subsidized for the all Summer School participants.
Eligibility:
PhD students should meet two criteria. (a) They should have at least second-year standing in their PhD studies by the time of the Summer School and have passed the PhD proposal stage; and b) They are no closer than nine months away from submitting their PhD dissertation.
NEW! Postdocs who received their PhD in a different field than PER and who have no more than two years' experience in PER are welcome to apply. In addition to submitting an abstract just as the PhD students, they should also submit a letter from their current faculty supervisor indicating the supervisor's agreement for them to participate in the Summer School. PhD students receive first priority in the School; postdocs that meet the eligibility requirements will be accepted, based on availability.
Supervisors of participating PhD students and postdocs are most encouraged to attend.
Other PER researchers may apply.
See important dates.
See application instructions for PhD students; for supervisors of PhD student participants; for other researchers.