University of Cincinnati included in PhysTEC's '5+ Club'

During a national shortage of high school physics teachers, the Physics Teacher Education Coalition (PhysTEC) has included the University of Cincinnati in “The 5+ Club,” a highly select group of institutions that have graduated five or more physics teachers in a single year.

“Each year the typical university either has no graduates or only one graduate that earns a high school physics teaching license,” associate professor Kathy Koenig says. “To have five in one year really says something about those involved in our licensure program.”

The PhysTEC project, founded in 2001 as a result from a partnership between the American Physical Society and the American Association of Physics Teachers, is focused on improving the standard of teacher preparation and education in the field of physics. Not only is there an acute deficit of high school physics teachers in the country, but according to the Department of Education, only 35 percent of the 27,000 high school physics teachers hold a degree in physics or physics education. UC, which graduated five physics teachers in the 2011-12 school year, has been recognized by PhysTEC as a learning institution that has greatly increased the amount of high-calibered physics educators.

Koenig mentions that much of the success is owed to national funding (in 2013, a grant was awarded by PhysTEC to UC to develop a Teacher-in-Residence program), as well as UC’s practice of teaching pedagogical content knowledge (PCK).

“We have revised our program so we aren't just teaching physics content, but we are educating future teachers on how to actually teach that content,” says Koenig. “We tend to ‘teach as we have been taught,’ so it is important that we provide future teachers with these rich experiences.”

PhysTEC cites the university’s relationship with high-need school districts in Greater Cincinnati, as well as the STEM Fusion Center — housed in the College of Education, Criminal Justice, and Human Services — in building an exceptional foundation to create a national paradigm for high quality preparation for physics teachers.