In Memoriam: Professor Redish
Edward “Joe” Redish, 1942 – 2024
Edward F. Redish, an emeritus professor at the University of Maryland (UMD) who promoted “Physics Education Research” on a global scale, passed away at the age of 82 on August 24, 2024, after a four-year battle with illness. Professor Redish earned his Ph.D. at MIT in 1968 and conducted research in nuclear theory in the Department of Physics at the University of Maryland while also actively engaging in physics education.
In 1992, Professor Redish, during his sabbatical, joined the research group of Professor Lillian C. McDermott at the University of Washington, which was making advanced progress in “Physics Education Research”. After returning to the University of Maryland, he established the “University of Maryland Physics Education Research Group (UMD PERG)”. UMD PERG developed frameworks for Physics Education Research and analytical tools for cognitive modeling of student thinking, producing numerous Ph.D. graduates specializing in Physics Education Research.
Around 1997, Professor Redish participated in the development of a new teaching method for active learning in physics, led by Professor Priscilla Laws at Dickinson College, creating a variety of teaching materials and a textbook set called “The Physics Suite”. Additionally, he wrote the usage manual for this set titled “Teaching Physics with the Physics Suite,” published in 2003. Professor Redish argues that Physics Education Research should be considered one of the disciplines within the field of physics itself, and he has supported the American Association of Physics Teachers (AAPT) and the American Physical Society (APS), proposing and realizing numerous research conferences. Furthermore, he worked hard to start a series on Physics Education Research within Physical Review Special Topics, and he himself edited the first issue. He also developed the course “Introductory Physics for Life Scientists (IPLS)” for biology majors and those wishing to pursue studies in medicine, allowing students to understand physical concepts in connection with actual biological phenomena and medical applications. Professor Redish also focused on international exchange, serving as the American representative on the Physics Education Committee of the International Union of Pure and Applied Physics (IUPAP), greatly contributing to the international development of this research field.
Professor Redish’s research on physics education was introduced to Japan in 1998 with the translation of his Millikan Lecture Award-winning talk “Millikan Lecture 1998 Building a Science of Teaching Physics”, which was published in the journal “Physics Education” of the Physics Education Society of Japan (PESJ) in 2000. One of the translators, Tae Ryu, had previously interacted with Professor Redish and, in 2003, when “Teaching Physics with the Physics Suite” was published, she introduced the contents of this book in detail over two issues of the journal “Physics Education Communication” of the Association for Physics Education of Japan (APEJ). Furthermore, in 2006, she suggested inviting Professor Redish as a keynote speaker at the International Conference on Physics Education (ICPE2006TOKYO) held in Tokyo, which was successfully realized.
Several Japanese physics education professionals, inspired by Professor Redish’s books and lectures, formed a research group and continued their studies while translating ‘Teaching Physics with the Physics Suite.’ Chapters 2 and 3 of this book examine physics education from the perspective of cognitive science, introducing concepts that are unfamiliar to many in the field of physics education, making them difficult to understand. Roy Lang and Hideo Nitta, members of the research group, visited Professor Redish at the University of Maryland to hear directly from him and observe his classes. Some members of the research group conducted classes incorporating the methods of the Physics Suite and presented their results.
After two years of starting the research, a rough translation of the entire work was completed, and it was refined over the next three years. At the point when the translation was nearly finished, it was supervised by the Physics Education Society of Japan, and in 2012, it was published by Maruzen Publishing under the title “How to Teach Science: New Practices in Physics Education in the United States”. After publication, not only the Physics Education Society of Japan but also the Japan Physical Society (JPS) and the Japan Society of Applied Physics (JSAP) successively published papers citing this book.
Professor Redish’s contribution to expanding the circle of ‘Physics Education Research’ among Japanese physics educators is very significant. In particular, it is noteworthy that he helped to spread the awareness that ‘Physics Education’ is a subfield within physics. Here, we sincerely pray for the repose of Professor Redish’s soul.
The Physics Education Society of Japan