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Summary of “Pedagogical content knowledge and preparation of high 
school physics teachers,” Eugenia Etkina, pp. 103–128.
This paper describes some key pedagogical practices of 
the Rutgers University Physics/Physical Science Teacher 
Preparation program. The program focuses on three aspects of 
teacher preparation: knowledge of physics, knowledge of ped-
agogy, and knowledge of how to teach physics (pedagogical 
content knowledge – PCK). Three elements of the program 
work together to produce well-qualifi ed physics teachers who 
remain in the profession: course work, clinical practice, and a 
post-graduation learning community. The program has been 
in place since 2001 and has been steadily graduating an aver-
age of 6 teachers per year. The retention rate of high school 
teachers who have been through the program is about 90%. 
The philosophy, structure, and elements of the program can 
be implemented either in a physics department or in a school 
of education. The paper provides details about the program 
course work and teaching experiences and suggests ways to 
adapt them to other local conditions.
The main premise of the program is that for high qual-
ity physics instruction a teacher should be skilled in physics 
concept knowledge and also be familiar with the processes 
through which physicists build and apply knowledge. In 
addition, she/he should know how people learn. Finally, an 
especially critical aspect of teacher knowledge is the knowl-
edge of how to help students master concept knowledge and 
the processes through which it is constructed, in a pedagogi-
cally appropriate environment; this is known as “pedagogi-
cal content knowledge” (PCK). PCK is what distinguishes a 
content expert from an effective teacher of the same subject 
matter. Figure 1 below shows the complex nature of teacher 
knowledge.
The physics teacher preparation program at Rutgers, The 
State University of New Jersey, is tailored to the specifi c 
certifi cation requirements of the state. In NJ, all high-school 
teachers are required to have a major in the subject they are 
teaching or a 30-credit coherent sequence in that subject (with 
12 credits at the 300-400 level). They must also pass the 
appropriate licensure exam(s). Because of these requirements, 
the program at Rutgers is a graduate-level program. The 
Rutgers Graduate School of Education (GSE) has had a mas-
ter’s program in teacher preparation for the last 15 years; how-
ever, before 2001, there was no special preparation program 
for physics/physical science teachers and only 0 to 2 physical 
science teachers were certifi ed per year. In 2001, the science 
program was reformed and split into two parts: life science 
and physics/physical science. Both are offered as a 5-year pro-
gram or a post-baccalaureate program. 
The program goal is to prepare teachers of physics or 
physical science who are knowledgeable in the content and 
processes of physics, can engage students in active learning 
of physics that resembles scientifi c inquiry, and can assess 
student learning to improve learning. The new program uses 
multiple approaches to prepare pre-service teachers to teach 
physics/physical science. These can be split into three catego-
ries: 1) strengthening physics content knowledge; 2) prepar-
ing to teach physics/physical science; 3) practicing new ways 
of teaching in diverse environments (clinical practice). In 
addition, the program builds a learning community of teacher 
candidates as they take courses in cohorts and continuously 
interact with each other during the two years of the program. 
A particularly important program element is that the program 
does not end when pre-service teachers graduate and become 
high school physics teachers. There is an infrastructure in 
place to help graduates continue to interact with program fac-
ulty and with each other (maintaining and strengthening the 
community of all program graduates) and participate in a con-
tinuous professional development program.
Students in the program take general education courses 
with other pre-service teachers in the GSE, and then follow a 
separate track to take physics PCK-related courses and clini-
cal practice. In addition, students take a 300/400-level phys-
ics elective. In all courses, in addition to weekly homework, 
students do a group project that involves designing a unit of 
instruction and teaching part of it to their peers (“microteach-
ing”). Three of the courses are briefl y described below.