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University - High School Interface
for professional development and support
of physics teachers
by David Hestenes, Professor of Physics

This document describes how universities can promote educational reform by establishing an interface with local schools which helps integrate teachers into the physics community for sustained support and professional development. A local interface can be created easily, without much cost to the university or the schools.

(1) Organization and support of local physics teacher alliances

The APS Local Physics Alliance program, under the leadership of Brian Schwartz (APS) and John Russell (U Mass Dartmouth), has organized physics teachers in high schools, colleges and universities across the country into local alliances to reduce the isolation and provide support for individual teachers. This is the beginning of a teacher support system that can be enhanced by electronic networking and professional development programs. University physics departments should take advantage of this powerful mechanism for reform of high school physics by supporting alliances in their localities and helping to organize new ones when necessary.

Teacher ownership and control of each local alliance is essential, because it is a professional organization by and for the teachers. The relation of the alliance to the university should be one of partnership with the common objective of promoting improvements in physics teaching. Identification of university faculty who are willing to support this partnership is essential. Through such faculty partners the alliances can draw on the resources of the university. This could include arrangements for a suitable meeting place for the alliance as well as information and advice about physics and physics teaching.

Internet electronic networking of all teachers in an alliance should be regarded as essential. Universities are ideally situated to help organize and support such networks. Universities can also provide valuable technical advice and support for computer infusion (See the policy document Technology Infusion into High School Physics).

(2) Leadership Training

The AAPT has a leadership training program which certifies exceptionally qualified high school physics teachers as Physics Teaching Resource Agents (PTRA). The objective of this program is to prepare a cadre of teachers who are willing and able to assist others in improving their teaching. Universities can be a great help, especially by contributing to the creation and maintenance of an infrastructure through which the PTRA teachers can act effectively. The natural way is a marriage of local alliances with the PTRA and other AAPT programs.

Unfortunately, even such experienced and excellent teachers as the PTRAs are often not well informed about recent developments in physics education research, physics pedagogy and curriculum design. The Modeling Workshop program aims to remedy this deficiency with intensive training over a three year period. (See the Modeling Workshop Description for details). Teachers who complete this program will be exceptionally well prepared to conduct a similar workshop or academic course on high school physics teaching for other members of the local alliance. This can best be done under the auspices of a university for academic credit.

(3) Professional Development

Most states encourage the professional development of teachers by coupling salary levels to academic credit from universities. Unfortunately, most post-baccalaureate coursework is so incoherent that it contributes little to the enhancement of teacher expertise. Universities can do much better by coordinating course offerings with the needs and desires of local teacher alliances ­p;­p; in other works, by offering the teachers a greater role in the design of their own professional development.

The most useful university course for high school physics teachers is a Methods of Physics Teaching course which thoroughly addresses all aspects of high school physics teaching, including the integration of teaching methods with course content as it should be done in the high school classroom. Few universities offer such a course, and those few often have difficulty sustaining it. This failure can be attributed to an inadequate interface between the university and in-service teachers.

To solve this problem, the first step is to recognize that such a "Methods course" should be taught by an experienced in-service high school teacher. University faculty rarely have the time, the professional motivation and the intimate knowledge of high school teaching conditions to teach such a course properly. However, a better approach may be for a faculty member to collaborate on the course with the high school teacher. That will help the faculty get to know the teachers personally, become more sensitive to their needs, and provide an opportunity to contribute some physics expertise. Faculty participation will also be required in some universities to award academic credit for the course.

The selection and preparation of the teacher is all important for a high quality course. As argued in the previous section, the teacher should be well versed in recent educational research, physics pedagogy and curriculum design. The Modeling Workshop program provides sufficient training for that.

Sufficient enrollment for the "Methods course" can be achieved by offering it to both pre-service and in-service teachers, and by recognizing that it can provide a valuable upgrade in the background of middle school teachers. Such mixing of teachers at various stages of professional development is enriching for all.

By consulting with local physics teacher alliances, the course can be scheduled at a convenient time and place for the in-service teachers, and sufficient enrollment can be assured in advance. In a similar way, physics departments can collaborate with local alliances to plan more advanced courses tailored to teacher needs and desires for professional development. Likewise, university outreach programs will be more effective when coupled to local teacher alliances.

(4) University Interface with Rural Schools

The problems of interfacing with rural and urban schools are somewhat different. First, rural schools are too far from the university for teachers to take courses and attend meetings there during the school year. Second, rural schools are typically too small to support more than one section of physics. Consequently, the teacher is responsible for instruction in other subjects and often has minimal training in physics.

Despite the rural-urban differences, the same basic mechanisms are needed to foster physics teaching reform in rural schools. First, the teachers should be organized into alliances and electronically networked for easy and rapid communication. Second, the teachers must be regularly brought together, usually in summer, for workshops and courses promoting professional development. The teachers must know each other personally to interact effectively within the alliance. Such direct familiarity and interaction among members is what makes the alliance effectively local, though it be spread over a broad geographic region. Finally, as a basis for cooperative interaction, the teachers need a common curriculum design and teaching methodology, such as the one provided by the Modeling Workshops.

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