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A Brief History of GIREP

In the years 1960-64 OECE (that later became OECD) arranged a series of international meetings to encourage the renewal of Physics teaching. The meetings proved to be a valuable source of inspiration for the participants. However, from 1964 OECD concentrated on other fields and stopped supporting meetings on physics education.

A number of persons who had attended the previuous meetings, led by prof. W. Knecht, Switzerland, believed that the series of international meetings on teaching physics in schools should continue. To this end they formed an international working group: GIREP was founded 15. March 1966 with Prof. Knecht as President.

At the beginning the number of members of GIREP was quite small (a few tens), but it soon grew to over 100 and now, since many years, it is quite stable at about 250.

Very soon GIREP began to organize international meetings, finding sponsorship from Universities, Ministries of Education, UNESCO; ESA and many other national and international organizations. One way the Ministries of Education sponsor the Meetings is paying for the attendance of local school teacher. Here is a list of GIREP meetings from the very beginning:

  1. Jan. 1967 (Lausanne, Switzerland): in collaboration with the International Commission of Mathematics Teaching, preliminary informal meeting on the co-ordination of mathematics and physics teaching at the secondary school.
  2. 30. Oct.-5.Nov. 1968 (Malvern, UK): Study and discussion of the Nuffield Physics.
  3. 30. July-5.Aug. 1969 (Copenhagen, Denmark): Energy in the lower secondary school, Quantum mechanics and Relativity in the higher secondary school.
  4. 16.-18. Mar. 1972 (Kiel, Germany): joint GIREP-UNESCO Meeting on the implementation of curricula in science education with sepcial regard to physics teaching.
  5. 14.-20. Oct. 1973 (Venezia, Italy): “Electricity, magnetism and mechanics in the secondary school”
  6. 6.-10. Sept. 1976 (Montpellier, France): Two main topics: “First steps in teaching physics at the beginning of secondary school”, and “Probability and Statistics in physics teaching”
  7. 14.-21. July 1978 (Oxford, UK): joint ICPE-GIREP Meeting on “The role of the Laboratory in Physics Teaching”
  8. 19.-24. Aug. 1979 (Rehovot, Israel): two topics: “Teaching Waves and Oscillations" and “Current Problems in Physics Teaching”
  9. 6.-12. Sept. 1981 (Balatonfüred, Hungary): “Nuclear Physics, Nuclear Power”.
  10. 20.-25. Aug. 1984 (Zeist, Holand): “The many faces of teaching and learning mechanics”.
  11. 18.-23. Aug. 1986 (Elsinore, Denmark): “COSMOS — an Educational”.
  12. 7.-13. Sept. 1989 (Balatonfüred, Hungary): “Energy Alternatives — Risk Education”.
  13. 19.-24. Aug. 1991 (Torun, Poland): “Teaching about Reference Frames — from Copernicus to Einstein”.
  14. 16.-21. July 1993 (Braga, Portugal): “Light and Information”.
  15. 24.-30.Aug. 1995 (Udine, Italy): joint ICPE-GIREP Meeting on “Teaching the science of condensed matters and new materials”.
  16. 21.-27.Aug. 1996 (Ljubljana, Slovenia): joint ICPE-GIREP Meeting on" New Ways of Teaching Physics”.
  17. 23.-28. Aug. 1998 (Duisburg, Germany): “Hands-On experiments in physics education”.
  18. 27. Aug - 1. Sept. (Barcelona, Spain): “Physics Teacher Education Beyond 2000”.
  19. 5.-9. August 2002 (Lund, Sweden): “Physics in new fields and modern applications”.
  20. 19.-23. July 2004 (Ostrava, Czech Republic) “Teaching and Learning Physics in New Contexts”.
  21. 20.-25. August 2006 (Amsterdam, Netherlands): “Modelling in Physics and Physics Education”.
  22. 18.-22. August 2008 (Nicosia, Cyprus): “Physics Curriculum Design, Development and Validation”.

SEMINARS and GIREP-EPEC Conferences

  1. 2-6 September 2001 (Udine, Italy): “Developing Formal Thinking in Physics”
  2. 1.-6. September 2003 (Udine, Italy): “Quality Development in Teacher Education and Training”
  3. 5.-9. September 2005 (Ljubljana, Slovenia): “Informal Learning and Public Understanding of Physics”
  4. 26.-31. August 2007 (Opatija, Croatia): “Frontiers of Physics Education”, GIREP-EPEC Conference

Since 1969 all Meetings published Proceedings, that were distributed to all members. But occasionally Proceedings of other Conferences were also distributed: for example of ICPE Conference on Education for Physics Teaching, Trieste 1980; Microscience Conference on Computers in Science Education, Balaton 1985; ICPE Teaching Modern Physics Conference on Condensed Matter, Munich 1988; and presently RIO FOLLOWUP - International science education conference on environmental issues, Eger 1994.

The Presidence of GIREP from foundation 1966 was held by

1966 - 1969 W. Knecht (Switzerland)
1969 - 1972 Soren Sikjaer (Denmark)
1972 - 1979 Poul Thomsen (Royal Danish School of Educational Studies, Copenhagen, Denmark)
1979 - 1984 Arturo Loria (University of Modena, Italy)
1985 - 1991 Paul Black (King's College, London, UK)
1992 - 1995 George Marx (R. Eoetvoes University, Budapest, Hungary)
1995 - 1999 Karl Luchner (University of Munich, Germany)
1999 - 2002 Manfred Euler (Department of Physics Education, IPN (Institute for Science Education), University of Kiel, Germany)
2002 -        Ton Ellermeijer (AMSTEL Institute, University of Amsterdam, The Netherlands)

Statutes of GIREP

Adopted 1972, revised 1989 and 1995

The Statutes were adopted in Kiel, Germany on March 17, 1972, then revised by the General Assembly on September 12, 1989 in Balatonfüred, Hungary (articles 2 and 11) and revised again by the General Assembly on August 29, 1995 in Udine, Italy (article 17).

Art. 1

The International Research Group on Physics Teaching (GIREP) is an international body of physics professors and teachers who want to cooperate in their work on physics teaching.
It enjoys legal status according to the Swiss Common Law.

Art. 2

The principal aims and purposes of GIREP are:

Art. 3

The Group is formed of ordinary members, subscribing members and possibly honorary members.

Art. 4

The ordinary members are individuals or groups.
The individual members are physics teachers or professors.
The groups are societies of physics teachers or professors or broadly speaking, national or international scientific bodies interested in the same field of activity as GIREP.
The subscribing members are persons, associations, companies or firms who accept to support financially the activities of GIREP but do not participate in its activities.

Art. 5

It is within the General Assembly(s competence to elect as honorary member of the Group any person whose especially valuable work in favour of physics teaching or GIREP deserves recognition.
The honorary members do not pay any membership fee and enjoy the same rights as the ordinary members.

Art. 6

Membership is granted to any candidate who applies for it to the Committee and as soon as this application is accepted by the Committee.
The members are not personally responsible for the liabilities of GIREP. These liabilities are warranted by the credit of the Group.

Art. 7

The different organs of GIREP are:

1) The General Assembly formed of all the active members and the possible honorary members;
2) The National Sections, each of them being formed of the members of the General Assembly living in the same country;
3) The Committee;
4) The Commission of Representatives formed by the Committee and the delegates of the National Sections;
5) The Commission of Auditors.

Art. 8

GIREP works mainly through:

1) The working seminar of the Commission of Representatives;
2) The information bulletins draught by the National Sections;
3) The possible international symposiums organised in collaboration with other international institutions.

Art. 9

The General Assembly is the highest authority of the Group. It is consulted by letter as often as necessary. The General Assembly delegates its authority to the Commission of Representatives when the latter sits and for the duration of the session.

Art. 10

The Commission of Representatives holds an administrative meeting at the same time as the working seminar organised in turn every two years in the various countries represented. It is presided over by the President of the Committee. It takes decisions at the simple majority of the participating members. If necessary the vote of the President will help to sway the decision.
The programmes of the working seminars are prepared by the Committee. The Committee convenes the Commission of Representatives. The Chairman of the working seminar is the President of the National Section of the host country.

Art. 11

The Committee is the executive organ of the Group. Its members are elected by the General Assembly for four years. They are reelegible. The Committee is formed of the President, two Vice-presidents, the General Secretary and the Treasurer. The President and the Vice-Presidents belong to different countries and, if possible, to two different linguistic regions. The joint signatures of the Treasurer and another member of the Committee involve the financial responsibility of the Group.

Art. 12

Each National Section is constituted and is financially run according to its choice. It elects in particular a President, a Secretary and a Treasurer. Several offices may be held by the same person.
Once a year - at a seminar or by letter - each National Section will submit to the Committee in the form of an "Information Bulletin" a concise report on the activities carried out in the country in favour of physics teaching.
The National Sections represent GIREP before their national authorities and professional associations in their respective countries. A standing invitation is extended to the President of the Committee to participate in the meetings of the National Sections.

Art. 13

The Commission of Auditors is formed of two members who are elected in the same way and for the same period as the Committee. Two substitutes are elected for the same period. The Auditors do not reside in the same country as the Treasurer and are not members of the Committee. The same rule applies to the substitutes.

Art. 14

GIREP may invite to all or part of the meetings of its various organs any person whose collaboration is thought to be valuable. In particular, representatives of the international organisations are invited to the most important meetings when their field of activity is connected with that of GIREP.

Art. 15

When decisions are made by letter, the simple majority of the expressed opinions is required; the documents are kept in the GIREP Records and may be consulted at any time by the members. The decisions made my letter are considered as being made at the headquarters of GIREP.

Art. 16

The yearly accounts of GIREP are kept by the Treasurer. The financial year begins on 1st January. Every year the balance sheet and the report of the auditors are sent to the members who may return the sheet within 14 days in case of disapproval. The account books are kept with GIREP(s records.

Art. 17

In the October each year, those members who have not paid for the previous two years will be removed from the membership list.

Art. 18

The Committee, as well as the General Assembly, may exclude any member of GIREP for serious offence.

Art. 19

The present Statutes may be revised by a 2/3 majority of the General Assembly or of the Commission of Representatives entitled to act on the authority of the General Assembly.

Art. 20

The dissolution of the association may be decided under the same conditions as the revision of the Statutes. In case of dissolution the credit of GIREP will be given to an international association, whose activities are in favour of physics or scientific teaching.