Course Description

SCED 441 is meant to provide opportunities for preservice teachers to think about and reflect on the teaching of secondary school physics. Once that process of thought and reflection becomes commonplace, then opportunities for designing and critiquing physics curriculum will be provided. However, in order to design curricula well, one needs to have a firm grounding in the science education community’s current understandings of how we learn, and how best to support that learning. Thus, the intent of this class is not to simply provide a list of lesson plans and activities. Instead, this class should help the student develop a philosophy and approach to teaching science that is informed through current research and understandings of her/his own practice.

Course Goals

The focus of the course is to provide students with an opportunity for:

• familiarity with current understandings of physics learning and the way in which that learning is impacted by cognitive, social, and cultural factors
• developing a coherent and informed professional stance toward teaching physics
• familiarity with planning classroom experiences that can allow for learning in a diverse group of students
• familiarity with the particular psychological, behavioral, and cultural elements in teaching secondary school physics and use this knowledge to inform all aspects of their evolving science teaching knowledge and skills.

Required Texts

• Redish, E.F. (1996). Teaching Physics with the Physics Suite. Available Online at: http://www2.physics.umd.edu/~redish/Book.