Acquiring sufficient content knowledge to lead effectively in the classroom is one of the greatest challenges for beginning teachers. National and state agencies have made significant investments in content-specific induction supports, but these efforts have not been informed by any empirical evidence regarding the topic-level content knowledge of…

Mathematics plays a crucial role in physics. This role is brought about predominantly through the building, employment, and assessment of mathematical models, and teachers and educators should capture this relationship in the classroom in an effort to improve students' achievement and attitude in both physics and mathematics. But although there…

In physics education, equations are commonly seen as calculation tools to solve problems or as concise descriptions of experimental regularities. In physical science, however, equations often play a much more important role associated with the formulation of theories to provide explanations for physical phenomena. In order to overcome this…

This article discusses the development of beginning physics teachers' pedagogical content knowledge (PCK) in the context of teaching basic electricity during a one-year Professional Graduate Diploma in Education (PGDE) course and beyond. This longitudinal study used repeated semi-structured interviews over a period of four-and-a-half years. The…

This report presents the characteristics and initial outcomes of exiting master's degree recipients in physics and astronomy. The report covers the degree classes of 2006, 2007 and 2008. The status of exiting physics master's varied greatly by the citizenship of the degree recipient. The majority of US citizens entered or remained in the workforce…

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…

A problem-based approach to the teaching of mechanical wave propagation, focused on observation and measurement of wave properties in solids and on modelling of these properties, is presented. In particular, some experimental results, originally aimed at measuring the propagation speed of sound waves in metallic rods, are used in order to deepen…

This directory is the tenth edition published by the American Institute of Physics listing colleges and universities which offer degree programs in physics, astronomy and astrophysics, and the staff members who teach the courses. Institutions in the United States, Canada, and Mexico are indexed separately, both geographically and alphabetically.…

USING RATIO METHODS OF PSYCHOPHYSICS, THE INVESTIGATOR STUDIED LOCAL AND PROFESSIONAL STATUS SYSTEMS OF TWO PHYSICS DEPARTMENTS. TO CLARIFY THE NATURE OF AND THE RELATIONSHIP BETWEEN LOCAL AND PROFESSIONAL STATUS, AND, IN TURN, THEIR RELATIONSHIP TO INFLUENCE AND SALARY, RELEVANT DATA WERE COLLECTED FROM PROFESSORS AND GRADUATE STUDENTS THROUGH…

This book contains the proceedings of the Third Topical Conference of Department Chairs in Physics. Topics of the papers summarized include: (1) research centers sponsored by the National Science Foundation; (2) physics programs at the undergraduate and graduate levels; (3) the use of accelerators in education and research; (4) approaches to…

This report summarizes the characteristics of physics education in 12 countries: Argentina; Brazil; Canada; Chile; Colombia; Costa Rica; Ecuador; Guatemala; Jamaica; Mexico; the United States; and Venezuela. An introductory chapter describes the goals of the Council on Inter-American Conferences on Physics Education, historical background,…

Student responses to a tertiary, flexibly delivered physics course are examined. The course was designed to provide secondary science teachers in rural regions of NSW, Australia, with a qualification appropriate to teach senior physics, and is a response to the lack of new physical science teachers currently being trained. Evaluations indicate…