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Re: The "typical" high school physics teacher



In Texas one place to start is the Texas education agency. http://www.tea.state.tx.us/
You can also try TENET (Texas Education Network) www.tenet.edu with links to other states.
Actual physics teachers often come from the ranks of other science teachers as well as being trained in physics, and then of course there are the fill ins (coaches etc.). The good news is that Laws, Thornton and Sokoloff have been evaluating teachers at their workshops, and they claim that physics teachers have a high level of understanding of the concepts. I think the end product is more important than the route to get there.

The required training is important because of the ETS report www.ets.org/research on "How Teaching Matters". It shows that student test scores rise when the teachers are well prepared. However, when the preparation requirements for teacher rise, the number of graduates that meet the requirements fall. The net result is that more exceptions are allowed. The ETS web site also has some papers on teacher preparation that might have references that you could pursue.

John M. Clement


Hello.

My name is Joe Taylor. I am conducting research at Penn State
University on
the nature of high school physics teacher preparation in the US. I am
having difficulty finding information as to the average number of
mathematics, statistics, and physics courses that the "typical"
high school
physics teacher is required to take as a part of his or her undergraduate
preparation.

Can someone point me in the right direction?

Thank you very much.

Joe