Chronology Current Month Current Thread Current Date
[Year List] [Month List (current year)] [Date Index] [Thread Index] [Thread Prev] [Thread Next] [Date Prev] [Date Next]

Re: The "typical" high school physics teacher



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

Joe:
In this day and age of internet, I should think that every state dept of ed
has such information listed on a web-page. If not then certainly a
representative sample should be available along with addresses and phone
numbers where you could write and get the info on the rest of the states.

As the subsequent discussion reveals what is required and what actually
happens are are some variance. There are articles in the literature giving
such info (what the teachers have actually taken). I recall one on Idaho
published in Sci Ed in the 80's by a guy named Hikkenen, I believe. I
suspect that such articles on other states exist.

Dewey
PS: These requirements are in flux across the country. Some states have
already completed the conversion to the standards movement. Others are
just starting. The end result appears to be that course requirements will
not be what the state specifies anymore. The "assessments" will be
determined state by state. In Idaho for example, it appears that the
Praxis II exams from ETS will be used. So regardless of the physics
courses a student has taken and passed, if the student does not pass the
specified Praxis II exam, the student will not be endorsed to teach physics.



+++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++
Dewey I. Dykstra, Jr. Phone: (208)426-3105
Professor of Physics Dept: (208)426-3775
Department of Physics/MCF421/418 Fax: (208)426-4330
Boise State University dykstrad@email.boisestate.edu
1910 University Drive Boise Highlanders
Boise, ID 83725-1570 novice piper: GHB, Uilleann

"As a result of modern research in physics, the ambition and hope,
still cherished by most authorities of the last century, that physical
science could offer a photographic picture and true image of reality
had to be abandoned." --M. Jammer in Concepts of Force, 1957.

"If what we regard as real depends on our theory, how can we make
reality the basis of our philosophy? ...But we cannot distinguish
what is real about the universe without a theory...it makes no sense
to ask if it corresponds to reality, because we do not know what
reality is independent of a theory."--S. Hawking in Black Holes
and Baby Universes, 1993.
+++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++