Exploring the experiences of undergraduate physics students on a ‘Teaching Physics in School’ module and the effects on their intentions to become physics teachers

This project seeks to answer the research question: Does participation in a secondary school physics placement affect undergraduate physics students' perceptions about physics teaching and their intentions to train as physics teacher? I draw on literature suggesting that relevant job experience is an important factor in recruiting new teachers (Klassen et al, 2021) and apply this to the subject area of secondary physics teaching which has consistently under recruited in England (Department for Education, 2022). I then describe an undergraduate physics module at a Russell Group HEI that trains and places year 3 physics undergraduates in local secondary school classrooms for a few hours per week over a semester with the aims of sharing their knowledge (Madden et al, 2021) and giving back to society (Gorard et al 2021). I go on to thematically analyse (Braun and Clarke, 2006) a sample of the participating students responses to a questionnaire conducted before and after the module and follow up semi-structured interviews on their experiences and perceptions of physics teaching. Two themes emerging from the data add to knowledge of physics undergraduate perceptions of teaching physics by suggesting that through studying the module, the students become more aware of the difficulty of explaining physics concepts to children and that encouraging children to enjoy physics is one of the roles of a physics teacher. There is also some alignment of these ideas with findings from Archer, Moore and Macleod (2020) and hints that future physics graduate teachers of physics may challenge perceptions of physics as elitist which has been prevalent historically (Wellington, 1982).