Astronomy education

Academics in the Astronomy Research Group have led a number of education research projects, in collaboration with eSTEeM, the OU centre for STEM pedagogy. These projects focus on all aspects of teaching and learning across the physical sciences curriculum, including themes of innovative assessment, online/on-screen delivery, remote-access experiments, and supporting students. Related information can be found under the Physics Discipline’s Education Research Topic.

Entry requirements

Minimum 2:1 undergraduate degree in physics or a related subject (or equivalent). If you are not a UK citizen, you may need to prove your knowledge of English.

Potential research projects

We welcome enquiries from prospective students in the following areas:

• Evaluating online/on-screen delivery of Astronomy teaching and learning
• Developing and evaluation of pedagogies built around using remote access telescope

Please also see further opportunities.

Current/recent research projects

• Exoplanets interactive learning applets: Enhancing and Evaluating a GCSE-level module 
• Assessing the use of robotic telescopes for university-level distance learning
• Developing practice in online synchronous tuition by peer observation, feedback and reflection
• Online team investigations in Astronomy and Planetary Science

Potential supervisors

• Professor Carole Haswell
• Dr Mark H. Jones
• Dr Ulrich Kolb
• Professor Andrew Norton
• Dr Sheona Urquhart

Fees and funding

Some of our research students are funded via the UKRI Science and Technology Facilities Council (STFC) Doctoral Training Partnership; others are self-funded.

For detailed information about fees and funding, visit Fees and studentships.

To see current funded studentship vacancies across all research areas, see Current studentships.

Links

• Astronomy Discipline
• School of Physical Sciences