written by Gay Stewart, Stamatis Vokos, and Kathee Terry

The professional preparation of physics teachers, even when it is conducted as a close collaboration between physics departments and schools of education, is often focused on courses and experiences at the university.  Teachers, however, live and function in school systems, whose contexts may be profoundly different than those instantiated in university settings.  Relationships with schools, school systems, and two-year colleges are crucial in the development of strong teacher education programs.  But whose responsibility is it to create such partnerships?  How can such relationships be sustained and strengthened?  There might be a temptation among physicists to relegate the nurture of substantive connections with individual schools and school systems to schools of education.  However, who really benefits from such strong partnerships?  What specific University-level opportunities and rewards are there for physics departments?   What funding options are there to promote such collaborative work?  How do physics departments start such connections?  What challenges and potential pitfalls are there for physics faculty?  This workshop will explore these issues through the use of a case study, the strong multi-year collaboration between Seattle Pacific University and Bellevue School District, and examples of collaborations between the University of Arkansas, Fayetteville and local school systems and two year colleges.

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Last Modified March 27, 2009

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