Teacher Preparation Section

Alma Robinson, Virginia Tech

This edition of the Teacher Preparation Section highlights the Physics Teacher Education Program Analysis (PTEPA) Rubric and the Next Generation Physics and Everyday Thinking (NextGen PET) curriculum.

The Physics Teacher Education Program Analysis (PTEPA) Rubric is a new instrument to help physics departments reflect on how to improve their physics teacher preparation programs by focusing on the characteristics and practices of thriving teacher preparation programs. Stephanie Chasteen and David May describe the value of the rubric in evaluating teacher preparation programs, how to use it, and when it might be particularly useful to implement it.

The Next Generation Physics and Everyday Thinking (Next Gen PET) is a guided-inquiry curriculum for physics or physical science designed for in-service or pre-service elementary education teachers (it is also appropriate for general education students). Edward Price, Fred Goldberg, Paul Miller, and Steve Robinson explain why this curriculum was developed; where instructors can go to find support and resources to adopt the curriculum; and how the Next Gen PET lessons align with the Next Generation Science Standards, are flexible to use in both lecture based and studio based university classrooms, and have shown to result in significant student learning gains.

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.