The 4th WCPE is organised jointly by the JU Faculty of Physics, Astronomy and Applied Computer Science, the International Research Group on Physics Teaching (GIREP), and the International Union for Pure and Applied Physics, in cooperation with the Faculty of Physics and Astronomy of the University of Wrocław.
The theme of the 4th WCPE is ‘Embracing changes together’. The idea of the conference is to bring together participants involved in physics education from different perspectives and at different levels, so that they can discuss various aspects of education in a world of rapid changes and new challenges - for better mutual understanding and revival of learning of the young generation and the society as whole.
The goal of the conference will be achieved through the organisation of sessions, symposia and workshops which will provide a platform for the exchange of experience and create a framework for strengthening the teaching and learning of physics at all levels of education, addressing problems and challenges facing physics education common for educational systems in different countries all over the world. (e.g. adapting the curricula to challenges posed by the modern world, using active methods of teaching, preparing students for professions related to the development of science and technology, changes in the role of a teacher, educating teachers of physics in the age of staff shortages, etc.)
The organisers would also wish to invite to the conference a number of Polish and foreign teachers, as collaborators and partners of scholars conducting research in the field of physics education. This unique initiative is aimed at encouraging teachers to present their own innovative methods to the international community of educators and conduct their own small-scale research (as part of Practitioner Inquiry) in order to reflect on their own teaching practice. Such actions are aimed to encourage all people involved in physics education to identify their own needs and competences and strengthen collaboration, which at the moment is mostly of incidental nature, making it more difficult to adapt to the rapidly changing world.
The first World Conference on Physics Education (1st WCPE) took place in Istanbul (2012), the second in São Paulo (2016), while the third (2020) was planned to be held in Hanoi (Vietnam), but because of the pandemic it was organised online in 2021 by the Hanoi National University of Education (Vietnam), in collaboration with the University of Wrocław and the University of Guayaquil (Ecuador).