Physics

Providing high-quality professional development for teachers with diverse backgrounds and classroom experience is a challenging task. In this work, we investigate the Illinois Physics and Secondary Schools (IPaSS) partnership program, which provides instructional resources and a network of support for high school physics teachers through a partnership with the University of Illinois. IPaSS aims to address disparities in physics instruction by equipping teachers with university physics curricula and equipment adapted to fit the context of their high school classrooms.

In teacher professional development (PD), grouping teachers with varying levels of experience can be a productive and empowering way to stimulate the exchange and co-generation of content and pedagogical knowledge. However, less experienced teachers can face socio-emotional risks when engaging in collaborative science content reasoning tasks with more experienced colleagues (Finkelstein, Jaber, & Dini, 2018), and these risks may impact the collaborative experience of both parties and the learning environment in teacher PD.

In this study, we present a conceptual tool for guiding teachers’ principled pedagogical actions toward equitable instruction, referred to as the Transforming Science Learning (TSL) framework. The TSL framework was developed to address the challenges of enacting an ideological commitment in local contexts–promoting equity and justice through culturally relevant pedagogy (CRP) in K-12 science classrooms. TSL consists of five design principles that articulate the goals (the ‘why” of practice), instead of prescribing pedagogical activities (the “what” of practice).

This article describes the experience of using the InquirySpace software in a classroom that practices full inclusion for ninth grade physics.

Haavind S. & Murtha, M. (2020). Accessible physics for all. The Science Teacher. 54-58.

The Concord Consortium. (2021). Innovator Interview: Steve Roderick. @Concord, 25(1), 15.

High school physics lessons designed to empower teachers, create cultural change, and inspire young women to pursue physics in college. The lessons build a counternarrative in the classroom, dismantling the commonly-held stereotypes of what physics is and who physicists are, which opens possibilities in students’ minds for pursuing physics in college.