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Teacher Education at Illinois State University

PHYSICS 310 -- READINGS FOR TEACHING HIGH SCHOOL PHYSICS

DEPARTMENT OF PHYSICS

Spring Semester 2020

(Under revision; last updated 1/12/2020)

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Catalog Description:

10 hrs in PHY.
Essential background experiences for teaching high school physics that center around developing scientific literacy in students.

Instructor:

Dr. Carl J. Wenning, Physics Teaching Specialist (retired)
ISU Physics Teacher Education Program (Director 1994-2008)
Office Location: Moulton 301B (small hall near elevator)
Office Hours: before/after class and by appointment
Telephones: 438-2957 (department office); 309-830-4085 (cell); 309-830-4164 (emergency only)
E-mail address: carlwenning@gmail.com (Please avoid using my ilstu.edu email address; I check it infrequently.)

Meeting Days/Times/Location:

Starting on January 14, 2020, the class will meet on Tuesdays and Thursdays, from 5:30 PM to 6:45 PM. Class meetings will be held in Moulton Hall room 307-B.

Methodology:

This course will have a learning environment that is student centered, knowledge centered, assessment centered, and community centered. This course will be student centered to the extent that the teacher builds on knowledge students bring to the learning situations. This course will be knowledge centered to the extent that the teacher helps students develop an organized understanding of important concepts in the physics teaching discipline. This course will be assessment centered to the extent that the teacher makes students' thinking visible so that ideas can be presented and verified. This course will be community centered to the extent that the teacher establishes classroom norms that learning with understanding is valued and students feel free to explore what they do not understand.

Emphasis will be placed on an Assessment-for-Learning Policy. That is, assessments of student performance will be used not only to assign grades, but to improve student performance. Unsatisfactory work will be returned to the student for improvement. A student's scores can be improved following appropriate revision and resubmission of "unsatisfactory" course projects, so long as all conditions and deadlines are met. Note: The Assessment-as-Learning policy does not apply to examinations and reading quizzes. Consistent with the Assessment-as-Learning Policy, students are encouraged to write drafts of essays or other projects, submit them for review by the course instructor, and make revisions based upon the instructor's written comments. Please keep in mind the that very best papers/projects in this course typically have been produced by students who submit their papers/projects for review 2 to 3 times before submitting the final copy. Electronic attachments are the preferred form of submission.

This is a "readings heavy" course; students must keep up with daily reading requirements; don't procrastinate. Reading ahead, highlighting, and taking notes is strongly encouraged.

Course Goals:

This course provides essential background for teaching high school physics that centers around developing scientific literacy in students. It does so by developing teaching skills among teacher candidates. This course will provide students with philosophical and pedagogical background in the teaching of physics. The course as such is built around both pedagogical knowledge - a knowledge of generic teaching practices - and pedagogical content knowledge - a knowledge of how to actually teach the content of physics. Physics content knowledge per se is assumed. There are four major themes:

1. inquiry-oriented instruction (Levels of Inquiry, intellectual skills, and processes of science)
2. student interactions (cooperative learning & classroom conversations)
3. instructional planning (curriculum, unit, and lesson planning)
4. assessment & evaluation (testing and grades)

This course is based on the belief that teachers must act on grounded principles, and not arbitrarily. What teachers do as they present their lessons should be rooted deeply in their attitudes about issues that concern them, their students, the scientific profession, and society -- balancing declarative knowledge with procedural knowledge, balancing expository teaching with inquiry learning, balancing depth of coverage with breadth of content, emphasizing learning over teaching, and knowing what values and knowledge are worth learning in light of national and state standards, and the needs of the student and society. The goals of imparting such attitudes are to improve the educational process, enhance the achievement of the learner, produce better and more productive citizens, and improve society. The aim is to prepare all students for life in a democratic society. This course provides essential background for PHY 311 -- Teaching High School Physics.

Student Performance Assessments: (Note: Points associated with any scoring process will be normalized so that percentages associated with course grades are strictly observed. Additionally, when it is available, the correct student-completed scoring rubric must be submitted along with every assignment. All submissions must be made electronically - sent as e-mail attachments to the course instructor at carlwenning@gmail.com.)

310A: Position Papers (20% of course grade)

Students must write two essays during the semester dealing with the following topics: (1) Personal Teaching Philosophy and (2) Physics Teaching Rationale. Written work will be evaluated using an official essay scoring rubric. Each essay will be worth 10% of the course grade.

310B: Nature of Science Cumulative Performance Assessment (20% of course grade)

Students must complete a Nature of Science cumulative performance assessment that consists of three parts: (1) Scientific Epistemology Essay, (2) Nature of Science Book Review. An official essay scoring rubric will be used to assess whether or not the student has demonstrated the required competencies.

310C: Science Literacy Essay (10% of course grade)

Student must write a Science Literacy Essay. The essay will be scored using an essay scoring rubric.

310D: Student Performance Objectives (5% of course grade)

Students must write twelve Student Performance Objectives based on Bloom's Taxonomy that can be used as the basis for student assessment in a single subject matter area. Two objectives must be written for each of the six domains of Bloom's Taxonomy. Successfully prepared objectives will be written and assessed following specific guidelines.

310E: Syllabus Project (10% of course grade)

Students will employ a curriculum development process to create a semester-long course syllabus that aligns curriculum goals with Illinois Learning Standards, subject matter, activities, resources, and assessments; demonstrates an understanding of the depth of coverage vs. breadth of coverage argument; and incorporates community resources to enhance scientific literacy. Definitive performance criteria are available in the form of a scoring rubric.

310F: Reading Quizzes (10% of course grade)

Students will complete a quiz for reading assignments at the start of each class. These will be short essay responses with the intent of having the student provide evidence that the current reading(s) has been read with comprehension.

310G: Assessment and Evaluation Tasks (10% of course grade)

Students will create both simple and complex assessments and assign grades given hypothetical student data. Students should start with their approved Student Performance Objectives and add more as appropriate. Guidelines are as follows: Simple Assessment, Complex Assessment, and Evaluation.

310H: Self-Assessments (5% of course grade)

Students will complete two independent standardized tests: NOSLiT (Nature of Science Literacy Test) and ScInqLit (Scientific Inquiry Litearcy Test). They will then score tests and self-assess using guidelines.

310I: Discussion Leadership and Presentations (10% of course grade)

Students will be evaluated on the degree of their participation in class discussions and other group activities. Class participation will be assessed with the use of a Participation Rubric.

Students will lead discussions for a variety of topics using specific guidelines. Performance will be peer/instuctor scored using a standardized discussion leadership scoring rubric. The discussion leader will be selected and announced immediately before the start of the discussion; every student should come to every class prepared to lead a discussion of assigned readings. Each student will lead the same number of discussions.

Students also will make presentations following specific guidelines for a variety of topics. Performance will be peer/instructor scored using a standardized scoring rubric. Topics and presentations leaders will be announced in advance.

Grading:

The final course grade will be determined on the basis of a composite score according to the following schedule:

Required Texts and Readings:

Readings will come from a number of sources. Primary among them with be the draft edition of Teaching High School Physics (Wenning & Vieyra, 2015). A vareity of other readings will be provided using online links to resources.

Course Outline:

POLICIES:

Academic Integrity: Students are expected to be honest in all academic work. A student's name on any in academic exercise shall be regarded as assurance that the work is the result of the student's own thought and study. Offenses involving academic dishonesty include, but are not limited to the following: cheating, computer dishonesty, plagiarism, grade falsification, and collusion. For more information about this important topic, visit the Student Dispute Resolution Web site.

Penalty for Late Submissions: There WILL be a penalty for late submission of course work -- 20% of rubric-based score for each day (Saturdays and Sundays included) following the electronic submission deadline. Submissions more than 5 days late will be of no value whatsoever. Submissions of DUE projects MUST be made sending e-mail attachment to carlwenning@gmail.com. Hard copy submissions of DUE projects are NOT acceptable.

Discussions: A student discussion leader will be "randomly selected" and announced immediately before a scheduled class discussion; every student should come to class prepared to lead a discussion of assigned readings if their name is chosen. All students will be called upon to lead the same number of discussions during a given semester. If the first student identified as a discussion leader cannot or will not lead the discussion, that student will score a zero and another student will be selected to lead the discussion. All discussions will be time limited.

IMPORTANT NOTES:

Disposition Concerns: The College of Education, in an effort to ensure top quality graduates, provides faculty members and interested others with the opportunity to provide input into the teacher preparation process. One of these inputs is in the area of disposition concerns. Education faculty, in particular, are encouraged to bring to attention of CECP any significant problems associated with the following major areas. If three or more filed dispositions concerns have not been resolved, the teacher candidate will be blocked from advancing in Professional Studies.

• Collaboration Issues: The ability to work together, especially in a joint intellectual effort.
• Honesty/Integrity: The ability to demonstrate truthfulness to oneself and to others; demonstrate moral excellence and trustworthiness.
• Respect: The ability to honor, value, and demonstrate consideration and regard for oneself and others.
• Reverence for Learning: Respect and seriousness of intent to acquire knowledge.
• Emotional Maturity: The ability to adjust one’s emotional state to suitable level of intensity in order to remain engaged with one’s surroundings.
• Reflection: The ability to review, analyze, and evaluate the success of past decisions in an effort to make better decisions in the future.
• Flexibility: The willingness to accept and adapt to change.
• Responsibility: The ability to act independently, demonstrating accountability, reliability and sound judgment.

Caution: Keep in mind as you progress toward student teaching that as a student teacher your students will have an interest in finding out about you. This will lead them to Internet searches. Don't put anything on a web page, YouTube, Facebook, MySpace, Twitter, etc., that you wouldn't want students, parents, teachers or administrators to see.

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