Bulletin of the American Physical Society
Joint Spring 2016 Meeting of the Texas Sections of APS, AAPT, and Zone 13 of the SPS
Volume 61, Number 3
Thursday–Saturday, March 31–April 2 2016; Beaumont, Texas
Session C1: AAPT Plenary Session II |
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Chair: Tom O'Kuma, Lee College, Baytown Room: Ballroom |
Friday, April 1, 2016 2:25PM - 3:05PM |
C1.00001: A glimpse at the workings of PhysTEC Comprehensive Site and APS Bridge Program Site at UCF Invited Speaker: Talat Rahman The Physics Teacher Education Coalition (PhysTEC) comprehensive site at UCF is bringing about several notable systemic changes, thanks to the support of departmental faculty and university administrators. It appears to be working as a catalyst not only in preparing students for careers in teaching, but also in reforming physics instruction at all levels. The effort has been facilitated with the introduction of the Learning Assistant (LA) program and collaborative classrooms in the form of studios and ``mini-studios.'' Mandatory training of LAs and graduate teaching assistants in pedagogy, accompanied by semester-end poster presentations on pedagogy, has helped create a student-centered departmental environment in which research and education are intertwined. Furthermore, a survey conducted on the background and needs of physics teachers in the greater Orlando area has trigged occasional involvement of our LAs in high school lesson preparation and delivery. At the same time, the APS Bridge Program has facilitated the recruitment of several graduate students from under-represented minority groups. The strong emphasis on various forms of mentoring for the Bridge Program students has in turn made us more aware of the mentoring needs of all graduate students. In this talk I will discuss our strategies for recruiting, mentoring and retention of students in both programs, highlighting good practices that have led to successes and lessons learned from our failures. I will also comment on some of the effects these two programs have had on departmental culture, climate and attitudes towards students. [Preview Abstract] |
Friday, April 1, 2016 3:05PM - 3:45PM |
C1.00002: Replicating the UTeach Model for 10 Years: Where We Are and What We Have Learned. Invited Speaker: Jill Marshall The UTeach model of secondary STEM teacher preparation has been identified as an exemplar by divergent sides of the political and education research spectrum and is currently being replicated at 44 institutions nationwide. Established in 1997 at the University of Texas at Austin, UTeach currently has over 600 associated faculty members and on the order of 7000 students enrolled, and is approaching 1000 graduates from UT Austin alone. The model brings together collaborators from education, natural sciences, and engineering to provide STEM-based teacher training featuring early and frequent field teaching experiences supported by master classroom teachers and education researchers. UTeach has proven successful in Texas in terms of both teacher retention and teacher quality. Nevertheless, the process of replication has provided many opportunities for reflection and development, beyond the simple growth in numbers. [Preview Abstract] |
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