PhysTEC at Cornell: A Progress Report

Robert E. Thorne

As the readers of these pages know well, the US has a severe shortage of high school physics teachers. The statistics are grim. Only one-third of high school students take high school physics. Only one-third of those who teach high school physics have a degree in physics or physics education. Teacher shortages are especially severe in urban and rural districts. Fifty-five percent of New York City schools, representing 23% of enrollment, do not offer physics.

Access to quality physics education is critical to our economic competitiveness and national security. Careers for which physics is a prerequisite – in the physical sciences, engineering and medicine, among many others – have historically provided an upward path for the socioeconomically disadvantaged. Equality of access to physics education is thus an issue of social justice. We cannot achieve our goals of greater socioeconomic, racial and gender diversity in STEM disciplines if our children do not emerge from high school with physics training and – even more important – with sufficient confidence and enthusiasm to pursue further physics study in college.

How did we get here? The factors are complex, but the historical division of labor between US colleges and universities seems critical. Most teacher training occurs in second and third tier institutions, which tend to have relatively unselective admissions. High school students that are good in math and physics generally have good overall test scores, and are much more likely to end up at first tier institutions. But at these institutions, teacher training programs and high school teaching careers often have little visibility, and little cache with their undergraduate students, graduate students and faculty.

Again, the statistics are telling. In New York State in 2006, the top ten institutions for physics teacher production generated 52% of all certifications but only 16% of physics majors. The top ten institutions for physics majors graduated 61% of all majors but certified less than 4% of the physics teachers.

Major research universities like Cornell with large undergraduate enrollments in STEM disciplines must accept significant responsibility for the current crisis. We attract a disproportionate fraction of the physics-capable students, but produce very few physics teachers. In fact, most research universities are not even physics teacher neutral: they train and certify fewer teachers each year than are required (given attrition rates from the profession) to ensure that the students who enroll in their introductory physics courses each year have had high school physics.

As a PhysTEC primary program institution since 2007, Cornell has significant potential as a source of future physics teachers. Roughly 1300 undergraduates per class take an introductory physics sequence, and several hundred graduate students work in physics and engineering-related areas. Our introductory physics courses provide excellent and diverse models of effective physics instruction, including state of the art lecture-based courses that have featured electronic in-class polling since 1971 and cooperative learning sessions and transferable-skill-focused weekly laboratories since the early 1990s, and mastery-based self-paced courses with online, video and podcast tutorials, self-guided lecture demonstrations and one-on-one instruction.

So what have we been doing to capitalize on this potential? To a large extent, we have followed the excellent rubric provided by PhysTEC, and have drawn heavily upon approaches and materials developed by past and present primary program institutions. Here I will focus on three components of our program: recruiting, early field experience and the physics teacher-in-residence.

Recruiting

Why do so few undergraduates at Cornell and its peer institutions pursue certification in physics teaching? High tuition, student loans and family expectations bias them toward careers that pay well. Professors, graduate teaching assistants and the institutional ethos bias them toward careers at the cutting edge of science and technology (even though most will not end up there) and to teaching careers at the university level. Institutional divisions isolate STEM undergraduates from Education departments and certification programs. The media convinces them that high school teaching careers are hard, poorly paid and not respected, a stereotype that their inadequately prepared high school physics teacher may have done little to dispel. The few students with serious interest in high school physics teaching often feel isolated, and receive little support from their peers or professors.

How can we convince more of our students to become high school teachers? Here are some principles and tactics.

Know your target audience. Surveys are an excellent way both to gauge attitudes and to stimulate interest. Each year we deploy a STEM Careers Interest Survey to all students enrolled in introductory physics courses. This survey asks students to think broadly about the factors relevant to choosing a career and about the kinds of careers they would like in their working life; it invites them to examine teaching careers; and it educates them about teacher education programs and available financial aid.
Give them the facts. In talks to undergraduates and on our PhysTEC website, we examine more than dozen career choice factors and how high school physics teaching careers stack up. By most metrics, the answer is: very well.
Change the culture. We make regular presentations on the PhysTEC project to physics faculty and graduate students, reminding them why training more physics teachers is critical to our institution, profession, and country; inviting them to help in promoting teaching careers and in identifying and recruiting students with teaching interests; and pointing them to useful advising resources.
Grease the path. Most STEM majors know little about courses and programs relevant to teacher training. We use in-class announcements and emails to advertise teacher certification information sessions and Noyce fellowship opportunities to all students enrolled in introductory physics classes. Revised online and print materials for physics majors and graduate students place the Physics Department’s stamp of approval on high school teaching careers, and give detailed suggestions for programs of study leading to teacher certification.
Cast a broad net. Over 90% of those who enroll in introductory physics do not intend to be physics or applied physics majors, but many would have excellent careers as high school teachers. Many of those who enter Master of Engineering programs would gain entrance to more meaningful careers by earning a Master of Arts in Teaching instead. Roughly 1/4 to 1/3 of those who enter Ph.D. programs in the physical sciences and engineering do not complete them, and this pool has yielded roughly half of the physics teachers Cornell has produced. Recruiting efforts should target all of these students. We are developing collaborations with advising and career services staff in Engineering and Biology so as to better inform and capture their students.

Early Field Experience