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Reflections on the Road Less Traveled: Physicist to High School Physics Teacher

Reflections on the Road Less Traveled: Physicist to High School Physics Teacher By Christopher Olszewski, Ph.D. SUNY-Buffalo State College. This project was supported in part by NSF DUE- 0302098 (STEMTP, and partially satisfied requirements for PHY690: Masters Project. Overview

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Reflections on the Road Less Traveled: Physicist to High School Physics Teacher

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  1. Reflections on the Road Less Traveled:Physicist to High School Physics Teacher By Christopher Olszewski, Ph.D.SUNY-Buffalo State College This project was supported in part by NSF DUE- 0302098 (STEMTP, and partially satisfied requirements for PHY690: Masters Project Overview In this paper, I describe changes to my ideas of good teaching as a result of my participation in an alternate teacher certification program for high school physics teachers at the State University of New York (SUNY) - Buffalo State College. My perspective is that of a career-changing professional after 20 years in the telecommunications industry, but is unusual in that I already have my doctorate in physics. My initial ideas of good teaching were fairly traditional and based on my own experiences as a student, but my ideas of good teaching were changed radically by my participation in the alternative certification program. The heart of the program is a summer academy suite of modeling courses and has additional components of an introduction to physics education research, educational courses, and field work. Key elements of my current ideas of good physics teaching are to provide different kinds of knowledge about a topic to students (e.g., kinesthetic, visual, mathematical, etc.); to encourage students to verbalize their thinking; and to employ open-ended and unstructured laboratory activities. These and other changes to my conceptions can be partially traced to the themes of the program which include student-mode experiences, extensive exposure to pedagogical content knowledge, a marked student-centric emphasis, strong promotion of student discourse and white boarding, and related guided reflections on learning and teaching during the program’s summer academy courses. Table 2. The effect of program elements on my reflections about good physics teaching A – Event triggering of changed thinking; B – Necessary component of changed thinking; C – Strong support of changed thinking; D – Support of changed thinking Table 1. My beliefs of good physics teaching and learning before and after the alternative teacher certification program for high school physics teachers. References Abd-El-Khalick, F. (2003). Alternative pathways to teaching: Quality teachers versus warm bodies in classrooms. Unpublished article available from the author. Arons, A. B. (1997). Teaching introductory physics (8th ed.). New York. John Wiley & Sons. Bruner, J. (1966). Toward a Theory of Instruction. Cambridge, MA: Harvard University Press. Etkina, E. (2005). Physics teacher preparation: Dreams and reality. Journal of Physics Teacher Education Online 3(2), 3-9. Gardner, H. (1983). Frames of mind: The theory of multiple intelligences. New York. Basic Books. Hake, R. (1998). 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Identifying and assessing the conceptions of teaching of secondary school physics teachers in China. British Journal of Educational Psychology 71, 443-469. MacIsaac, D. & Falconer, K. (2002). Reforming physics instruction via RTOP. The Physics Teacher 40, 479-485. MacIsaac, D., Zawicki, J., Henry, D, Beery, D. & Falconer, K. (2004). A new model alternative certification program for high school physics teachers: new pathways to physics teacher certification at SUNY-Buffalo State College. Journal of Physics Teacher Education Online 2(2), 10-16. Piaget, J. & Garcia, R. (1989). H. Feider, Translator. Psychogenesis and the history of science. NY: Cambridge University Press. Piburn, M., Sawada, D. , Falconer, K., Turley, J., Benford, R., & Bloom, I. (2000). Reformed Teaching Observation Protocol (RTOP). ACEPT Technical Report IN-003. Available at http://physicsed.buffalostate.edu/pubs/RTOP/. Schön, D. (1987). Educating the Reflective Practitioner. San Francisco: Jossey-Bass. Sokoloff, D.R. & Thornton, R.K. (1997). Using interactive lecture demonstrations to create an active learning environment. The Physics Teacher, 35, 340-346. Thornton, R. K. (2003). Uncommon knowledge: student behavior correlated to conceptual learning. In E. Redish, & M. Vicentini (Eds.), Proceedings of the Enrico Fermi Summer School, Course CLVI – Research in physics education (pp. 591-601) Bologna: Italian Physical Society. Trigwell, K. (1996). Changing approaches to teaching: a relational perspective. Studies in Higher Education 21(3), 275-284. Vygotsky, L.S. (1997). (Revised and edited, A. Kozulin). Thought and language. MIT: Cambridge Wells, M., Hestenes, D. & Swackhamer, G. (1995). A modeling method for high school physics instruction. American Journal of Physics 64, 114-119. Wenning, C.J. (2005). Tomorrow’s physics teachers (Editorial). Journal of Physics Teacher Education Online 2(4), 1-2. Yip, D.Y. (2001). Promoting the development of a conceptual change model of science instruction in prospective secondary biology teachers. International Journal of Science Education 23(7), 755-770.

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