APS April Meeting 2014
Volume 59, Number 5
Saturday–Tuesday, April 5–8, 2014;
Savannah, Georgia
Session M10: Invited Session: AAPT: Readying Physics Departments to Engage in Teacher Preparation in Course Transformation
3:30 PM–5:18 PM,
Sunday, April 6, 2014
Room: 204
Sponsoring
Unit:
FEd
Chair: Monica Plisch, American Physical Society
Abstract ID: BAPS.2014.APR.M10.2
Abstract: M10.00002 : Sustained programs in physics teacher education
4:06 PM–4:42 PM
Preview Abstract
Abstract
Author:
Rachel Scherr
(Seattle Pacific University)
For over a decade, physics teacher education programs have been transformed
at a number of institutions around the country through support from the
Physics Teacher Education Coalition (PhysTEC), led by the American Physical
Society in partnership with the American Association of Physics Teachers. In
2012-2013, PhysTEC supported an independent study on the sustainability of
its sites after project funding ends. The study sought to measure the extent
to which programs have been sustained and to identify what features should
be prioritized for building sustainable physics teacher education programs.
Most PhysTEC legacy sites studied have sustained their production of physics
teachers. A few sites studied have thriving physics teacher education
programs, that is, programs that have continued to substantially increase
their production of teachers since the PhysTEC award. All of the studied
sites that sustained their production of physics teachers have a champion of
physics teacher education and corresponding institutional motivation and
commitment. The necessity of the champion was known from the Report of the
Task Force on Teacher Education in Physics (T-TEP report) and borne out by
this study. The necessity of institutional motivation and commitment is a
finding of this study. At some sites, PhysTEC support has precipitated an
institutional focus on physics teacher education, leveraging other resources
(including both awards and personnel) benefiting physics teacher education.
The study also documented the sustainability of components of physics
teacher education programs, such as recruitment, early teaching experiences,
and a teacher in residence. Sustained components tend to be those that have
direct benefit to undergraduates in the physics department, whereas
less-sustained components seem to be those that primarily benefit secondary
teachers. The number of sustained components does not appear to correspond
to teacher production; that is, sites that have sustained more (or fewer)
components do not produce larger (or smaller) numbers of teachers. This
result further supports the finding that the presence of the champion and
corresponding institutional motivation and commitment are the key features
of successful physics teacher education programs.
To cite this abstract, use the following reference: http://meetings.aps.org/link/BAPS.2014.APR.M10.2