Improving the preparation of K-12 teachers through physics education research

Physics education research can contribute to efforts by college and university faculty to improve the preparation of K-12 teachers to teach physics and physical science. Examples from topics included in precollege and university curricula are used to demonstrate the need to help K-12 teachers deepen their understanding of basic physics, to illustrate how research-based instructional materials can assist in this process, and to examine the impact on student learning in K-12 classrooms.