Teacher Preparation Section

John Stewart, University of Arkansas

This edition of the Teacher Preparation Section features two PhysTEC sites that are at the end of the funded period and one site in the middle of funding.

Andrew Duffy, Peter Garik, Bennett Goldberg, Mark Greenman, and Manher Jariwala from Boston University discuss the connections that have grown out of a long partnership with the College of Education. They also discuss the transformative role their Learning Assistants (LA) program has had not only in the physics department, but also across the sciences and engineering.

Kevin Dwyer and Laura Henriques from California State University, Long Beach (CSULB) discuss the role of the Teacher in Residence in the CSLUB PhysTEC site. They also discuss some extremely successful and innovative approaches toward community building. I had the pleasure of seeing Kevin talk about the program at last summer’s AAPT meeting and the enthusiasm of the TIRs and the students in the program is infectious.

Karen King of the University of Missouri reports on the effects of their Learning Assistant program. This program is unique in that it places physics undergraduates in local high school classrooms rather than in college classrooms. This program reports impressive growth.

The 2014 Physics Teacher Education Coalition (PhysTEC) Conference will be held May 19-20 in conjunction with the UTeach Institute Annual Conference in Austin, Texas. This intimate conference features presentations by many of the driving forces in physics teacher preparation and is my favorite conference each year.

Disclaimer – The articles and opinion pieces found in this issue of the APS Forum on Education Newsletter are not peer refereed and represent solely the views of the authors and not necessarily the views of the APS.