Alternative Physics Teacher Certification

1
Alternative Physics Teacher Certification By
Daniel MacIsaac, Department of Physics
and Kathleen Falconer, Department of Elementary
Education and Reading, Buffalo State College,
NY, U.S.A. 14217 ltmacisadl_at_buffalostate.edugt
This research was supported by NSF grants 9453610
and 0302097.
Summary of RTOP for Physics Teaching
Introduction The Call for Reform

• Lesson Design and Implementation
• The creation of physics lessons that
• respect student preconceptions and knowledge
• 2) foster learning communities
• 3) explore before formal presentation
• 4) seek and recognize alternative approaches
• 5) include student ideas in classroom direction
• Content (Propositional Knowledge)
• Teachers knowing their physics and teaching
  lessons that
• 6) involve fundamental concepts of physics
• 7) promote coherent understanding across topics
  and situations
• 8) demonstrate teacher content knowledge (e.g.
  apparently "unrelated" questions)
• 9) encourage appropriate abstraction
• 10) explore and value interdisciplinary contexts
  and real world phenomena
• Content (Procedural Knowledge)
• Physics lessons that use scientific reasoning and
  teachers' understanding of pedagogy to
• 11) use a variety of representations to represent
  phenomena

• Professional associations of scientists,
  mathematicians, and educators including
• American Association for the Advancement of
  Science (AAAS)
• National Council of Teachers of Mathematics
  (NCTM)
• National Research Council (NRC)
• have called for extensive reform in the teaching
  of science and mathematics (REFS
  1a,b,c,d,e,f,g,h,i,j).
• These reports critique US science and
  mathematics curricula as largely incoherent,
  excessively repetitive and unfocused a mile
  wide and an inch deep (REF 1i, p3).
• In response, National Science Foundation (NSF)
  funded a series of large five-year collaborative
  projects including
• Arizona Collaborative for Excellence in the
  Preparation of Teachers (ACEPT) at Arizona State
  University (ASU) (REF3a,b)
• ACEPTs Goals
• to better prepare K-12 teachers in science and
  mathematics
• to reform the preparation of science and
  mathematics teachers, K-20
• to "break the cycle"
• future teachers would be taught as they were
  expected to teach
• constructivist
• inquiry-based methods advocated by the AAAS, NCTM
  and NRC

• The RTOP was developed as a classroom
  observation instrument to provide a standardized
  means for detecting the degree to which K-20
  classroom instruction in mathematics or science
  is reformed.
•    
•   RTOP draws on five major sources for its
  validity  
• The Horizon Research 1997-98 Local Systemic
  Change Revised Classroom Observation Protocol
• The "standards" in science and mathematics
  education NCTM's Curriculum and Evaluation
  Standards (1989), Professional Teaching Standards
  (1991), Assessment Standards (1995) and NRC's
  National Science Standards (1996)
• The principles of reform underlying the ACEPT
  project
• The work of ACEPT Co-Principle Investigators,
  particularly that of Tony Lawson and the ASU
  Mathematics Education group led by Marilyn
  Carlson
• Members of Evaluation Facilitation Group (EFG)

BCS Graduate Student Comments on RTOP
Student One I intend to use the RTOP as a
guide to good teaching practice. I will keep a
copy of the instrument in the front of my lesson
plan book and use it as I develop my lessons and
activities throughout the year. To focus my
personal use of the instrument I will look at the
objectives under only one of the five sections
per two-week period. For example, for the first
two weeks I will focus on incorporating the first
five objectives into my lesson plans. I will
continue in this manner until all 25 objectives
seem to be regularly incorporated into my
lessons. Student Two One other benefit of the
RTOP and the research surrounding the RTOP is
that it does indeed serve as a source of
ammunition against those stubborn Parents or
administrators that believe wholeheartedly in
traditional instruction in high schools. Last
but certainly not least, the reformed teaching
style is a radical change for students and fellow
teachers alike, and some subversion and/or
resistance to this change should not be a
surprise. Student Three To become a reformed
teacher, i.e., to inflate my scores on an RTOP
evaluation, I need to divert from conventional
teaching methods. This involves changing the
focus of the class from me being a teaching
teacher to my students as learners. This
requires the students to take more responsibility
for their own learning and understanding. To do
this I need to provide experiences that guide
students to an understanding of the material in a
logical and efficient manner including hands-on
student-centered activities.
The RTOP was developed as a classroom observation
instrument to RTOP was developed, refined, and
validated over a period of two years. In its
present form, the RTOP is a highly reliable
instrument with strong predictive validity (REF
4, 5). To date, RTOP has been used in over 400
K-20 science and mathematics classrooms to
provide a precise quantitative reading of the
degree to which teaching is reformed. RTOP both
operationally defines and assesses reformed
teaching in the classroom (REF 4). In the
evaluation of ACEPT, RTOP scores were found to
strongly correlate with student conceptual gains
(REF 5, Figure 1) showing that reformed teaching
is also effective teaching.
Reflection Upon Teaching Using RTOP as a Tool
for Teacher Self-Reflection
Could we use RTOP to help teachers develop a
deeper understanding of the nature of reformed
teaching by observing themselves and others using
the RTOP? Could we use RTOP as a philosophical
and operational definition of how to teach
science to modify undergraduate and graduate
physics and physics education classes at BSC so
the students develop a deeper understanding of
the nature of reformed teaching? We started to
use RTOP training sessions as an explicit science
methods activity for pre-service and in-service
teacher education courses and in professional
development workshops for in-service teachers. We
also used RTOP as an implicit philosophy for
modifying classes. While much time and effort
has been poured into reform teaching, there has
been a lack of research linking teacher
self-knowledge, reform teaching and student
achievement (REF 6). A review of the research
lead us to believe that RTOP was appropriate for
this purpose.
References 1a. American Association for the
Advancement of Science (AAAS) (1989). Project
2061 Science for All Americans A Project 2061
Report on Literacy Goals in Science, Mathematics,
and Technology. Washington, D.C. AAAS.
lthttp//www.project2061.org/tools/sfaaol/sfaatoc.h
tmgt, 1b. AAAS (1993). Project 2061 Benchmarks
for Science Literacy. Washington, D.C.
AAAS.lthttp//www.project2061.org/tools/benchol/bol
frame.htmgt 1c. National Council Teachers of
Mathematics (NCTM) (1989). Curriculum and
Evaluation Standards for School Mathematics.
Reston, VA NCTM. lthttp//standards.nctm.org/gt 1d
. NCTM (1991). Professional Standards for
Teaching Mathematics. Reston, VA NCTM. 1e. NCTM
(1995). Assessment Standards for School
Mathematics. Reston, VA NCTM lthttp//www.nctm.org
/standards/buyonline.htmgt. 1f. NCTM (2000).
Principles and Standards for School Mathematics.
Reston, VA NCTM. lt 1g. National Research Council
(NRC) (1996). National Science Education
Standards. Washington, D.C. National Academy
Press lthttp//books.nap.edu/books/0309053269/html/
gt. 1h. NRC (2000). Inquiry and the National
Science Education Standards. Washington, D.C.
National Academy Press. lthttp//books.nap.edu/book
s/0309064767/html/gt. 1i. NRC (1999). Designing
mathematics or science curriculum programs A
guide for using mathematics and science education
standards. Washington, D.C. National Academy
Press. lthttp//books.nap.edu/books/0309065275/html
/gt. 1j. NRC (1999). Global perspectives for
local action Using TIMSS to improve US
Mathematics and Science Education. Washington,
D.C. National Academy Press. lthttp//books.nap.ed
u/books/0309065305/html/gt. 2a. Seymour, E.
(1996). Guest comment Why undergraduates leave
the sciences. American Journal of Physics, 63,
199-202. 2b. Tobias, S. (1990). Theyre not
dumb, theyre different Stalking the second
tier. Tucson The Research Corporation. 2c.
Sadler, P.M. Tai, R.H. (2001). Success in
introductory college physics The role of high
school preparation. Science Education, 85(3),
111-137. 3a. ACEPT is described at
lthttp//acept.asu.edu/gt and the NSF CETP
collaboratives maintain a continuing centralized
electronic archive at lthttp//ecept.netgt. ACEPT
goals have been largely supplanted by the more
recent and much larger AzTEC, see
lthttp//purcell.phy.nau.edu/AZTEC/index.htmgt,
with most ACEPT participants continuing in
AzTEC. 3b. Wyckoff, S. (2001). Changing the
culture of undergraduate science teaching.
Journal of College Science Teaching, XXX (6).
Describes ACEPT, limited value of lecture in
teaching physics, interactive engagement. 4.
Piburn, M., Sawada, D., Falconer, K., Turley, J.
Benford, R., Bloom, I. (2000). Reformed Teaching
Observation Protocol (RTOP). ACEPT IN-003. The
RTOP rubric form, training manual and reference
manual containing statistical analyses, (and
eventually streamed video vignettes of physics
teaching practices) are all available from
lthttp//purcell.phy.nau.edu/AZTEC/RTOP/gt. 5.
Lawson, A. E., Benford, R., Bloom, I., Carlson,
M. P., Falconer, K. F., Hestenes, D. O., Judson,
E., Piburn, M. D., Sawada, D., Turley, J.,
Wyckoff, S. (2001). Reforming and evaluating
college science and mathematics instruction
Reformed teaching improves student achievement.
Journal of College Science Teaching, in press.
Discusses links between RTOP scores and student
achievement gains for six physical science and
four university physics classes, amongst many
others. 6. Linn, R. L. (2000) Assessments and
accountability, Educational Researcher 29 (2),
4-16.
Conclusion
Yes, we can use use RTOP as a philosophical and
operational definition of how to teach science to
modify undergraduate and graduate physics and
physics education classes at BSC The teacher
participants in the graduate physics education
classes were very articulate in how they could
and would use RTOP to change their instruction
and how their students will learn. The teacher
participants in the summer 2003 courses learned
significant amount of physics conceptual content
during the graduate physics education classes as
measured by the conceptual measures of EM and
mechanics (DIRECT, CSEM and FCI). The
undergraduate students are very positive about
the reformed classes and their learning
experiences.
Results from BSC Summer 2003 Graduate Physics and
Physics Education Classes
D.L. MacIsaac and K. A. Falconer. "Reforming
physics instruction via RTOP," Phys. Teach. 40
(8), 479-485 (Nov 2002).