University of Connecticut · Department of Physics
Xian Wu
Associate Professor In Residence
Physics educator and researcher exploring how students learn, how instructors teach, and what makes a meaningful physics education.
About
Educator · Researcher · Mentor
I see myself as an educator, with broad interests across diverse areas of education research. Through endeavor in both teaching and scholarship, I hope to be closer to some of the field's most fundamental questions:
- What defines a better education?
- Is it teaching or learning?
- How do we balance the art and science of education?
I welcome graduate students who are curious about these questions and eager to explore them through collaborative research.
Education
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2016
Ph.D., Physics Kansas State University
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2012
M.S., Physics University of New Hampshire
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2007
B.S., Physics Wuhan University — National Scientific Base for Talented Candidates
Research
Physics Education Research
My research in physics education spans how students build conceptual understanding, how multimedia and multimodal representations support problem solving, and how instructors can foster effective and inclusive group work in introductory courses. I draw on psychometric tools — including Item Response Theory — to better understand the dimensionality of widely used physics assessments such as the Energy and Momentum Conceptual Survey, and to translate those insights into practical guidance for the classroom.
Projects & Sites
Selected Publications
Recent work
Recent work
Contact
Storrs Campus · Department of Physics
- [email protected]
- Fax
- (860) 486-3346
- Office
- S323
- Campus
- Storrs
- Research Interests
- Physics Education Research
- Mailing Address
-
Department of Physics, University of Connecticut, Unit 3046
196 Auditorium Road
Storrs, CT 06269-3046