More and more high school students are getting interested in
physics, but schools are in a tough spot: It's hard to find physics teachers,
so they often tap teachers with little-to-no training in the subject.
However, a recent, small-scalestudy finds that focused physics professional development, regardless
of teachers' prior experience in the subject, can lead to better learning
experiences for both students and teachers.
Justina Ogodo, the study's author
and a postdoctoral researcher at The Ohio State University's department of
teaching and learning, said that when teachers aren't well-versed in physics,
it can leave students feeling uninspired and confused.
"When I was in high school,
I hated physics, because my physics teacher spoke to the board, he talked to
the board, he smiled at the board," Ogodo said. "We were clueless
about what he was doing and saying, so I distanced myself from physics."
According to the National ScienceFoundation, just 47 percent of physics teachers across the country have physics
degrees or certification in physics education. But students are increasingly
interested in the subject, which is often a cornerstone of many
professions in science, technology, engineering and math fields.
That disconnect means that either
schools don't offer the course at all—a 2016 Education Weekanalysis of federal data found
that 2 in 5 high schools don't offer physics classes, to the chagrin
of STEM advocates—or schools make do with teachers who have a general
background in science.
In Alabama, where the study was
conducted, only 9 percent of physics teachers have physics degrees or
certification.
Ogodo followed a group of seven
AP Physics teachers from across the state through a three-year physics-focused
professional development funded by the National Science Foundation. At the
point of data collection, the teachers who were going through the physics
training had completed two of the three years. Ogodo also compared their
teaching practices with seven additional AP Physics teachers who didn't go
through such an intensive content-focused training.
The difference between teachers
before and after the training, Ogodo said, "was like night and day."
A Shiftin Instruction
When physics teachers are not
trained in the subject, it can be stressful for them, Ogodo said. For example, one
teacher who had seven years of experience in the classroom was quoted in the
study as saying that before the training, he didn't feel confident teaching
concepts like electricity and magnetism.
"They're difficult to teach
and difficult to understand," he said. "I was learning the
material as I was teaching it."
Before going through the
training, teachers said they mainly relied on lectures, note-taking, and
problem-solving to teach physics. Afterward, they did more inquiry-based,
hands-on labs. The teachers who did not go through the training tended to rely
more on lectures, Ogodo said, and all but two used lab experiments as a way to
confirm the conclusions of the lecture.
"After the training,
[teachers] take their students to the lab and say, 'Figure this out,'"
Ogodo said. "The students became the ones who were driving the
instruction."
(As one teacher said in the
study: "Inquiry-based instruction is the best way to teach because
students are more engaged and retain better if they find the answers on their
own, rather than being told.")
Ogodo measured teachers'
effectiveness in lesson design and implementation, content, classroom culture,
communicative interactions, and student/teacher
relationships. She found that the teachers who went through the
professional development scored higher than teachers who did not participate in
the training.
Teachers who received focused
physics training also reported feeling greater satisfaction and confidence in
teaching physics, which Ogodo said will likely lead to better outcomes for
students.
Interestingly, the teachers rated
themselves higher on a self-efficacy survey before the training than they did
after completing two years of professional development.
"Based on my interviews with
them, they now realize that they didn't know as much as they should know,"
Ogodo said. She expects that once the teachers have completed the
training, they'll feel more effective, and rate themselves higher.
Breakingthe Cycle
"Out-of-field teaching is a
problem, and it's not just in physics," said Ogodo, adding that this is
common in chemistry classes, too.
But it will be difficult to solve
this problem, Ogodo said, because many aspiring teachers have had frustrating
experiences with physics in their own schooling, or no experience at all.
"If they did not have a good
experience with physics in high school, how would you expect them to go to
college and pick physics as a major?" she said. "It's a
continued cyclical problem."
Ogodo said she is
working to come up with solutions with other scholars. In the meantime,
"programs like this ... are great ways to at least make the teachers in
the classroom become more proficient," she said. "We can't say, 'Go
back to school and study physics,' but we can provide physics-focused
training."
In 2016, Education Week reported
on a professional development program that is producing more physicsteachers annually than any pre-service program in the country. Through the New Jersey Center for Teaching and Learning, teachers are trained on the
physics content that they will be teaching. They receive the curriculum and
slides for every lesson, as well as ongoing support throughout the school
year.
Now, the courses and the coaching
are online, a spokeswoman said—meaning teachers anywhere, not just in New
Jersey, can go through the training.
This year, the center is on track
to graduate 36 new physics teachers, as well as 23 new chemistry teachers and
four new math teachers. (This is the center's first year of working with math
teachers, and next year, it is planning to train new computer science teachers
as well.) In total, since its start in 2009, the center will have produced
259 new physics teachers and 83 new chemistry and math teachers by the end
of the summer.
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