Out Of School Programs

Teaching, like many professions (such as medical and legal), requires constant and ongoing learning. Teachers receive extensive formal training, including four years of college classroom work, in many cases one year of apprenticeship, and post-BA credits to maintain certification. All of this training is necessary because students need more than planned curricula and substantial classroom time to succeed.

Out-of-school programs have long been known to engage students and teachers with exciting experiences that will help them enrich their academic skills in a number of fields. Many out-of-school programs are also considered to be high-quality teaching development opportunities. Some of these out-of-school opportunities are: engaging in conferences, hands-on training, mentoring, and even college coursework to strengthen participants’ learning experience and deepen their understanding of research.

Universities and colleges are well-suited to participate in or sponsor out-of-school programs with their local school districts. For example, college educational outreach programs can staff these programs with students from their respective departments, allowing participating teachers to enhance their teaching methods, classroom management skills, and content understanding. These experiences could support teachers working with

If we are to improve the way science (i.e., physics) is shared, we ought to understand teachers’