The physics department at Georgia Southern University is committed to promoting and improving science teacher education.  We are currently working closely with our colleagues on campus in the College of Education to revise our B.A. in Physics to make it more attractive to those students desiring to teach high school science.  The revised program would allow for multiple opportunities for students to obtain early teaching experiences.  Students would be required to complete both a Teaching Internship directed by the physics department as well as the Pre-Professional Block Field Experience directed by the College of Education.  Students enrolled in the Teaching Internship course would serve as Learning Assistants in either the introductory Astronomy sequence or the introductory Physics sequence within the department as early as their freshman year.  Our physics department has just recently began utilizing Learning Assistants upon conversion of our traditional introductory lecture and laboratory courses into a single integrated course in which much of the class time is devoted to active, inquiry-based learning.  Students completing the Pre-Professional Block Field Experience sequence of courses would be engaged in a real classroom setting at one of the area schools.  This would allow students to gain significant hands-on experiences that would serve to inform their decision about becoming a science teacher.  In addition, this would introduce students to master teachers very early in their program who could later sever as mentors for the students completing teacher certification.  Our physics department is currently taking an active role in improving this pre-service training of high school science teachers.  We look forward to the opportunity through PTEC membership to share innovative ideas with those who have similar interest in science teacher education.

Institution URL

http://www.georgiasouthern.edu/