Summary of Conclusions from the Texas Teacher Prep. Conference
While there was extensive discussion of many topics at the conference, there were some over-arching themes and ideas that emerged. These are captured below.
Standards and assessment (TEKS and TAKS in Texas) really drive what happens in the K-12 classroom.
Integration of content and pedagogy needs to be seriously considered.
Physicists and the physics community need to be more politically active, both at the local level with school boards and individual schools, and at the state level with institutions that certify teachers (SBEC in Texas) and develop standards and assessments (TEA in Texas).
Physicists and the physics community, especially the Texas sections of AAPT and APS, need to develop and support professional development activities for K-12 teachers.
There should be a second of these conferences to discuss the topics we weren't able to get to in this conference.
