The University of Massachusetts Amherst

PHYS 390T

PHYS 390T Meets a Need in P131

One of the challenges of running a successful TBL version of P131 involves personnel. In order for the students to receive the immediate feedback necessary to make the system work, there needs to be a minimum student:staff ratio of about 20:1. There are not enough graduate student TA resources to meet this demand. Fortunately, undergraduate physics majors, being nearer-peers to the P131 students excel in providing such feedback. Moreover, there is a significant demand from students for an experience that provides insight into physics education.

Demand for a Teaching Experience

According to American Physical Society Statistics, approximately 8% of physics majors will work in high school environments upon graduation[1]. Moreover, the 57% of those who proceed on to graduate school will most likely be expected to serve as teaching assistants while those who move into industry or government upon graduation will most likely be expected to be involved in training at some point. Currently, no courses in the Physics Department at UMass, Amherst exists to provide students with any experience in teaching and education. A similar lack of support and preparation for physics majors interested in the teaching profession exists nationwide and was a subject of an article in the January 2016 issue of the News of the American Physical Society[2].

What is PHYS 390T?

PHYS 390T is a course proposed by Brokk Toggerson to address some of these issues and is based off of a independent study of 8 students run during the Spring 2016 semester. The goal of this course is to provide an introduction to some of the modern researched-based pedagogies used in physics educational research in a theoretical way as well as providing students an opportunity to both observe and practice these techniques in a real classroom as a member of the PHYS 131 instructional team. Students be attending a P131 section, which is taught in a Team-Based Learning (TBL) format, and answering questions of students during the class-time activities. Moreover, students will watch and reflect upon the P131 instructor’s use of modern teaching techniques. There will also be a weekly meeting centered upon discussion of the physics education research (PER) literature. Finally, students will be expected at the end of the course to use the ideas presented throughout the semester to actually lead a mini-presentation on a topic to their peers. This course is currently under approval by the Faculty Senate at UMass, Amherst. Should approval not come in time for the Fall 2016 semester, Brokk Toggerson will be running the course as an independent study a second time.

Resources

References

[1] American Institute of Physics Statistical Research Center. Physics Bachelor’s Initial Employment. June 2015. https://www.aip.org/sites/default/files/statistics/employment/bachinitemp-p-12.1.pdf. Accessed 9 March 2016.

[2] J. Stewart, G. Stewart, and A. Robinson. Recruiting High School Physics Teachers. APS News. Vol 25 (1). January 2016.