Contemporary views on physics education in high schools promote the need for students to develop their conceptual understanding about physics phenomena. However, teaching in this way requires specialized professional knowledge and for pre-service physics teachers, such knowledge needs to be scaffolded and developed. A strategy to support this…

This chapter describes how faculty from the "teach"HOUSTON program and physics department collaborated to increase the number of highly qualified physics teachers. Prior to this collaboration, the University had not produced even one physics teacher graduate in the previous decade. A physics teacher education pathway has been established…

In recent years the realisation that children make decisions and choices about subjects they like in primary school became widely accepted. The role of the primary school teacher as the main ambassador for a subject is therefore crucial in inspiring and enthusing the younger generation towards STEM. However, in most European countries, primary…

"Periscope" is a set of lessons to support learning assistants, teaching assistants, and faculty in learning to notice and interpret classroom events the way an accomplished teacher does. "Periscope" lessons are centered on video episodes from a variety of best-practices university physics classrooms. By observing, discussing,…

Effective physics teaching requires extensive knowledge of physics, relevant pedagogies, and modern educational technologies that can support student learning. Acquiring this knowledge is a challenging task, considering how fast modern technologies and expectations of student learning outcomes and of teaching practices are changing Therefore…

This column provides background science information for elementary teachers. This month's issue takes a deeper look at the four known forces in the universe.

This column provides background science information for elementary teachers. This month's issue discusses electromagnetic waves.

As well as providing a valuable and enjoyable experience for pupils, outdoor learning also enhances and contextualises learning in science by helping pupils understand science concepts. Teachers' lack of confidence in which aspects of the science curriculum they can actually teach outdoors deters them from venturing outside the classroom for…

We asked high school physics teachers to assess their level of preparation across a number of domains. Almost all (98%) reported feeling adequately or well prepared in terms of their basic physics knowledge. The chart presents teachers' responses to their self-assessed level of preparation in six different areas. Almost all feel at least…

A recent Government response to shortages of new physics and chemistry teachers is the extended subject knowledge enhancement (SKE) course. Graduates without a physics or chemistry bachelor degree are prepared by an SKE course to enter a Postgraduate Certificate in Education (PGCE) programme to become science teachers with a physics or chemistry…

Historical excurse was suggested as a beneficial form of using the history and philosophy of science in the modules of learning materials developed within the History and Philosophy in Science Teaching project. The paper briefly describes the theoretical framework of the produced modules, addressing ontological and epistemological aspects of…

This paper contains a scholarly description of pedagogical practices of the Rutgers Physics/Physical Science Teacher Preparation program. The program focuses on three aspects of teacher preparation: knowledge of physics, knowledge of pedagogy, and knowledge of how to teach physics (pedagogical content knowledge--PCK). The program has been in place…

Physics First--a movement to invert the traditional science course sequence to teach physics at the ninth-grade level--is gaining interest. However, there is limited literature exploring how to support teachers in successfully implementing Physics First. To address this, a professional development (PD) program supporting a cadre of teacher-leaders…

This paper presents an innovative and useful methodology to analyze instructional talk. In teacher education, there is a lack of practical methods that the tutor teacher can use to discuss and reflect on student teachers' lessons. The student teacher cannot remember what actually happened during the lesson, and the feedback and discussions are…

This paper considers the main characteristics of contents' connections between technical education and physics curricula, in the sixth, seventh and eighth grade of the Serbian primary school. The undertaken logical and didactic analyses of interconnectedness between contents structure of the two school subjects are based upon comparisons which…