Targeted Poster Session: TP-A

Goals and Assessment in the PhysTEC project: Drawing from Research and Systematic Self-assessment to Promote Inquiry-Oriented Teacher Education

Organizers:
       Laura Lising (llising@towson.edu), Towson University
    Noah Finkelstein, University of Colorado, Boulder
    Bob Poel, Western Michigan University
    Ted Hodapp, American Physical Society

Where:  Union Collegiate

When:  8:15 – 9:45 & 1:45 – 3:15, Thursday, August 11

Theme:  The Physics Teacher Education Coalition (PhysTEC) is a national effort aimed at improving and promoting the education of future physics and physical science teachers. One of the main goals is to develop programs that are capable of producing more better-prepared elementary, middle, and high school teachers, committed to interactive, inquiry-based approaches to teaching. This involves collaboration between physics and education faculty, establishing a network of institutions, and assessing the success of various ideas, methods, and program elements, which can then be disseminated. The project, overseen through the American Physical Society, and funding by the APS, NSF, and a national campaign, currently consists of eight Primary Program Institutions and a number of institutions forming a Coalition that are deeply engaged in teacher preparation. The eight primary institutions have been drawing from PER and other educational research and the expertise of local practicing teachers (who spend a year as a teacher-in-residence at each institution) to develop programs to meet the project goals.

Goals:  In working toward more inquiry-focused teacher preparation, each institution must develop or adopt various types of assessments to evaluate the successes and challenges they are having. During this session, several of the primary program institutions will discuss their programs, the assessment instruments they are using, their results so far, and the questions that are being raised for future work. One of the strengths of this project and our assessment efforts is that the various institutions, while focusing on the same clearly articulated goals, are taking approaches that vary widely in some aspects and in other aspects are quite similar, with just a few key differences. This allows us to communicate, compare, and learn from each other, gaining insights into subtleties of our results that might be less accessible in a smaller, less varied project context. With this poster session, we hope that by sharing our results and current questions with the PER community, we can further broaden the dialogue.

Individual Poster Abstracts

TP-A1
Promoting science as inquiry in Towson University s preservice elementary teacher education program
Laura Lising (llising@towson.edu), Towson University
Lisa Tirocchi, Towson University, Baltimore Public Schools
Cody Sandifer, Towson University
Abstract: PhysTEC at Towson is focused on improving the preparation of elementary teachers for teaching science as inquiry. We had the following primary goals for 2004-2005: building a community of schools for science teaching internships; improving and integrating the internship course and the concurrent physical science/science methods course; and assessing the science teaching and mentoring that occurs during student teaching. To work on these goals we drew from many research findings from within PER and the larger educational research community. For instance, our courses use video teaching tools from the Case Studies in Elementary Inquiry in Physical Science, developed at Maryland, and draw from the work of the San Diego group and from the Powerful Ideas curriculum. To make the assessments we needed as starting points for our work, and to assess the effectiveness of our activities, we collected a wide variety of qualitative and quantitative data. We have notes from teacher discussions, journals of students from their student teaching and internships, and results of extensive teaching observations (done using a protocol we developed and tested based on the National Science Education Standards). We also developed several surveys, which have been administered in several rounds. These instruments help us measure pre-post course shifts as well as changes from semester to semester. Preliminary results will be presented..

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TP-A2
Coupling research and pre-service teacher preparation: The Colorado PhysTEC program
Noah Finkelstein (finkelsn@colorado.edu), University of Colorado
Valerie Otero, University of Colorado
S. Pollock, University of Colorado
M. Dubson, University of Colorado
C. Keller, University of Colorado
C. Turpin, University of Colorado
Abstract: The Colorado PhysTEC Initiative [1] is comprised of two fundamental components: i) a coordinated program for developing, preparing and supporting undergraduate (and graduate) physics majors for their roles as future educators, and ii) to research and document these efforts. The University of Colorado at Boulder builds on increasing attention to education in the physics department, strengthening ties between the school of education and the department, a new program in physics education research, and several initiatives on campus (particularly the STEM-Colorado program [2]) that bring significant resources and interest to this endeavor. We have implemented several proven reformed classroom approaches in our introductory large enrollment (500+) calculus based physics classes, including peer instruction with student response system in lecture[3], and Tutorials[4] with trained undergraduate learning assistants [2] in smaller recitations. To assess course transformations, we are collecting extensive survey data along with validated pre/post content- and attitude-surveys to investigate complementary effects of our multiple reforms. Here we present the impacts in terms of measured learning gains (e.g. median normalized gain on the FCI was 0.67) with special emphasis on isolating correlations with specific reform components, as well as with student attitudes and beliefs. We also focus on the impact of partnering undergraduate Learning Assistants with these reforms. Outcomes include increased student participation in teaching, enrollment in the School of Education, and improved pedagogical content knowledge. We also report on other course transformations, such as the implementation and assessment of Teaching and Learning Physics (an upper division / graduate physics course), the development of an active Teacher Advisory Group, and fundamental research studies on student learning, use of computer simulations in the classroom and replication of known reforms.

[1] Supported by APS and PhysTEC.
[2] Supported by NSF-STEMTP.
[3] Peer Instruction, E. Mazur Prentice Hall '97
[4]Tutorials in Introductory Physics, McDermott and Shaffer, Prentice Hall '02

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TP-A3
Introductory Physics Course Reform at Western Michigan University
Charles Henderson (charles.henderson@wmich.edu),
Alvin Rosenthal, Western Michigan University
Norah Berrah, Western Michigan University
Lisa Paulius, Western Michigan University
Abstract: The calculus-based introductory courses have been modified to include new curricula; a completely new set of laboratory experiences based on a predict-confront-resolve approach; small group work; a conceptual focus on homework and exam problems; interactive lectures and lecture demonstrations; reading questions; and recently, personal response systems. The effects of these reforms have been assessed using standardized instruments (FCI, CSEM) and compared (when possible) to regularly taught courses at the same time at our institution. Formative evaluations of student perceptions of some reform elements were also made. We have found that, after a start-up period, significantly improved normalized gains are obtained for the reformed courses as compared to the regularly taught courses. Data shows an increasingly good performance over time. Retention issues will be reported. Other issues such as faculty receptivity and student satisfaction for which hard data does not exist will also be addressed.

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TP-A4
Physics Teacher Education Coalition Overview
Warren Hein (whein@aapt.org), American Association of Physics Teachers
John Layman, Professor Emeritus, University of Maryland
Abstract: The Physics Teacher Education Coalition is a program to improve physics and physical science preparation of future K-12 teachers. A collaboration between APS, AAPT and AIP, the program has two thrusts: PhysTEC and PTEC. PhysTEC (http://www.phystec.org) provides funding to institutions committed to building quality teacher preparation programs through a set of activities that include establishing bridges between physics and education departments and school districts, utilizing K-12 teachers in a university setting to connect the university to the schools, reforming undergraduate physics and education courses to emphasize interactive engagement and student-centered approaches to learning, and promoting institution involvement in the continuum of activities necessary to successfully educate, and engage physics and physical science teachers as an undergraduate and later in the classroom. PTEC (http://www.phystec.org) is a coalition of institutions coming together to help explore, share, adapt, and disseminate creative ideas that advance physics and physical science teacher preparation. The coalition holds an annual conference, publishes information through a variety of venues, and runs programs aimed at supporting these efforts.

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