Becoming an Urban Physics and Math Teacher


Book Description

This book explores what happens as beginning urban teachers transition through their first few years in the classroom. It captures one teacher's journey through the first three years of teaching science and mathematics in a large urban district in the US. Combining narrative with critical analysis, the authors focus on Ian's agency as a beginning teacher and explore his success in working with diverse students.




The First-year Urban High School Teacher


Book Description

This book presents the experiences of a new math teacher in an urban high school and an analysis of these experiences by a veteran professor and critic of urban education in the United States.




Urban Teaching


Book Description

This significantly revised edition will help prospective and new city teachers navigate the realities of city teaching. Now the classic introduction to urban teaching, this book explains how global, national, state, and local reforms have impacted what teachers need to know to not only survive, but to do their jobs well. The Third Edition melds new insights and perspectives from Daniel Jerome—New York City teacher, social justice activist, and parent of color—with what Lois Weiner, a seasoned teacher educator, has learned from research and decades of experience working with city teachers and students in a variety of settings. Together, the authors explore how successful teachers deal with the complexity, difficulty, and rewarding challenges of teaching in today’s city schools. Book Features: A highly readable exploration of the moral, pedagogical, and political complexity of teaching in urban schools. Research-based advice combined with real-life examples of the problems city teachers face.Challenges associated with teaching in multi-ethnic and multi-racial settings.Critical examination of how the altered landscape of education has changed teachers’ professional obligations. “FINALLY, a book about urban teaching from two experienced professionals who intimately know and respect the art of educating in urban America!” —Keith Benson, teacher, New Jersey “Professor Weiner helps us understand how to teach in ways that show our concern and do not oppress our students.” —Jeanette Morris, teacher, East Orange New Jersey School District “Dr. Weiner offers an enlightening scope into the lives of urban educators. The author's honest and riveting perspectives on hot-button topics surrounding our profession will be appreciated by veteran educators and student teachers alike.” —Shanika Allen, 8th-grade math teacher, Trenton, NJ “Dr. Weiner skillfully blends experience and theory in this practical A–Z guide for novice and seasoned urban educators alike. A brilliantly captivating read for a new generation of urban-bound teachers navigating the uncertainty of urban public education policies and practices.” —Nevart Nay, veteran teacher, formerly of Union City School District, NJ. “As a teacher of color who has taught for 3 years, in charter and public school settings, I found the advice, anecdotes, and presentation of the realities of urban teaching to be candid and honest.” —Annie Tan, special education teacher, City of Chicago Public School District




A Year in the Life of a Third Space Urban Teacher Residency


Book Description

This book weaves together voices of faculty, residents, mentors, administrators, community organizers, and students who have lived together in a third space urban teacher residency program in Newark as they reinvent math and science teaching and teacher education through the lens of inquiry. Each chapter includes narratives from multiple perspectives as well as tools we have used within the program to support and build change, providing readers with both real cases of how an urban teacher residency can impact school systems, and concrete tools and examples to help the reader understand and replicate aspects of the process. Capturing both the successes but also the tensions and challenges, we offer a kaleidoscopic view of the rich, complex, and multi-layered ways in which multiple stakeholders work together to make enduring educational change in urban schools. Our third space NMUTR has been a fragile utopian enterprise, one that has relied on a shared commitment of all involved, and a deep sense of hope that working collaboratively has the potential, even if not perfect, to make a difference.




Empowering Science and Mathematics Education in Urban Schools


Book Description

Math and science hold powerful places in contemporary society, setting the foundations for entry into some of the most robust and highest-paying industries. However, effective math and science education is not equally available to all students, with some of the poorest students—those who would benefit most—going egregiously underserved. This ongoing problem with education highlights one of the core causes of the widening class gap. While this educational inequality can be attributed to a number of economic and political causes, in Empowering Science and Mathematics Education in Urban Communities, Angela Calabrese Barton and Edna Tan demonstrate that it is augmented by a consistent failure to integrate student history, culture, and social needs into the core curriculum. They argue that teachers and schools should create hybrid third spaces—neither classroom nor home—in which underserved students can merge their personal worlds with those of math and science. A host of examples buttress this argument: schools where these spaces have been instituted now provide students not only an immediate motivation to engage the subjects most critical to their future livelihoods but also the broader math and science literacy necessary for robust societal engagement. A unique look at a frustratingly understudied subject, Empowering Science and Mathematics Education pushes beyond the idea of teaching for social justice and into larger questions of how and why students participate in math and science.




Preparing Teachers to Teach the STEM Disciplines in America’s Urban Schools


Book Description

Bridging a gap in the literature by offering a comprehensive look at how STEM teacher education programs evolve over time, this book explores teachHOUSTON, a designer teacher education program that was created to respond to the lack of adequately prepared STEM teachers in Houston and the emerging urban school districts that surround it.




Concepts, Strategies and Models to Enhance Physics Teaching and Learning


Book Description

This book discusses novel research on and practices in the field of physics teaching and learning. It gathers selected high-quality studies that were presented at the GIREP-ICPE-EPEC 2017 conference, which was jointly organised by the International Research Group on Physics Teaching (GIREP); European Physical Society – Physics Education Division, and the Physics Education Commission of the International Union of Pure and Applied Physics (IUPAP). The respective chapters address a wide variety of topics and approaches, pursued in various contexts and settings, all of which represent valuable contributions to the field of physics education research. Examples include the design of curricula and strategies to develop student competencies—including knowledge, skills, attitudes and values; workshop approaches to teacher education; and pedagogical strategies used to engage and motivate students. This book shares essential insights into current research on physics education and will be of interest to physics teachers, teacher educators and physics education researchers around the world who are working to combine research and practice in physics teaching and learning.




Physics Teacher Education


Book Description

This book focuses on some important aspects of Physics Education: the role of metaphors in Physics teaching and learning, the connections between Physics and Mathematics, the interaction of young children with Physics at the primary level, and recent developments in teacher education in the USA. Contributors present their research related to: • Preparing teachers for TPACK (technological, pedagogical, and content knowledge) and laboratory work. • Developing and evaluating teacher PCK (pedagogical content knowledge) in Quantum Mechanics. • In-service Physics teacher education for early childhood and primary levels. • Pre-service Physics teacher education at all levels. • In-service Physics teacher professional learning for second and higher-level education. Chapters in this book inevitably look into how Physics teacher education is organized in different countries. Suggestions are offered for possible ways of supporting Physics teachers’ learning. An emphasis is made on the much-needed measurements of the effectiveness of different teaching strategies that improve teaching for learning. All this should help professionals, researchers, and pre-service, as well as in-service teachers to get acquainted with the most recent research contributions in the field.