Thinking about quitting teaching

[haushofer]

Same in Sweden, but hey I am one of them

And call me idealistic, but I think it's important that students see teachers who actually have experience in the field of research. In Holland, more and more "first grade teachers" (who are allowed to teach the upper years of pre-university college) are second grade teachers who get their first grade, but without going through the full bachelor program at a university. I've had a collegue who taught senior students quantum mechanics, but had to admit that she didn't understand anything of it by herself due to a lack of mathematical knowledge. I find that rather painful.

 

[malawi_glenn]

And call me idealistic, but I think it's important that students see teachers who actually have experience in the field of research. In Holland, more and more "first grade teachers" (who are allowed to teach the upper years of pre-university college) are second grade teachers who get their first grade, but without going through the full bachelor program at a university. I've had a collegue who taught senior students quantum mechanics, but had to admit that she didn't understand anything of it by herself due to a lack of mathematical knowledge. I find that rather painful.

I totally agree.

 

[haushofer]

Anyhow, I have 4 more weeks to decide if I want to stay at my current school; due to the shortage of teachers my school wants to know quickly if I want to continue or not, because otherwise they're afraind they can't find anyone else. Stay tuned :P

 

[vanhees71]

And call me idealistic, but I think it's important that students see teachers who actually have experience in the field of research. In Holland, more and more "first grade teachers" (who are allowed to teach the upper years of pre-university college) are second grade teachers who get their first grade, but without going through the full bachelor program at a university. I've had a collegue who taught senior students quantum mechanics, but had to admit that she didn't understand anything of it by herself due to a lack of mathematical knowledge. I find that rather painful.

In Germany it's even worse. There's such a lack of teachers that nowadays anybody is taken as a teacher. Since I'm involved in teaching the real teachers (in theoretical physics) I hear a lot of devastating stories. I just met a professor in physics didactics, because we have to rearrange our module plans due to new ideas of the state (bringing the teacher students earlier into the schools in form of a practice semester, where they teach together with a mentor, which of course is a good thing), and he told me two stories, which make me very worry about the ever more declining quality of the STEM education in our public (high-)schools:

(a) many of our teacher students are no longer interested to get teaching-assistant jobs at the university, because they can get easily a job at a high school to teach, and that's possible even for students in the 1st semester, i.e., they know (at best) what they learnt for the "Abitur". They have no clue about didactics nor a deeper understanding of the subject, and it's not that they get an introduction to teaching by an experienced teacher at the school, but they start from day 1 just as a usual teacher with the full responsibility for the entire teaching of a class.

(b) The professor examined a student, who already studied for getting a teacher for 48 (sic!) semesters. He just wanted finally get its final certificate ("Staatsexamen"). His performance was so bad that he couldn't even answer questions at the level of 7th grade middle school (in optics, mechanics, and other subjects usually taught at this level). So the professor had to tell him that he had not passed the exam. The student was far from being disappointed, because as he told, the entire exercise of getting his final exam done was, because the head master of the school where he already "teaches" for years, promised him to make him an official ("Beamter") with a lot of advantages and better salary, but he also promised him that, if he doesn't pass the exam, he can still continue to work as an employed teacher as before. So this guy is still teaching physics without understanding even the very basic qualitative facts about the subjects, maybe for years and years to come.

In another state (Brandenburg) they now hire any BSc absolvent in a STEM subject without much additional training at the official rank as a teacher.

I think one can go on and on with such stories. The prospect for the really important future STEM people is thus very bad, and indeed already now the freshmen numbers in the STEM subjects at German universities decreases faster than the overall student numbers (which decrease is natural due to demoscopic effects), i.e., of those being able to get the highest education level more and more get attracted to other than STEM subjects, but who should then provide the expertise needed?

 

[Astronuc]

but the lack of daily structure and social contacts hold me back.

That can be a handicap, but not insurmountable.

Maybe consider contacting JRC-Petten to 1) establish contacts and 2) take advantage of whatever outreach program they have for educators and the public. There are other JRCs in neighboring countries.
https://joint-research-centre.ec.europa.eu/jrc-sites-across-europe/jrc-petten-netherlands_en

I'm not familiar with the organizations in the EU and the various nations, but is there an equivalent to American Association of Physics Teachers - https://www.aapt.org/?
For example - https://www.nnv.nl/en/SectionEducationandCommunication/

As well as other professional groups of physicists in other areas.
https://www.nnv.nl/en/SectionHistoryandFoundationsofPhysics/
There are sections on Atomic, Molecular and Optical physics (AMO); Plasma and Gas discharge Physics; Subatomic Physics; Energy and Climate

In my high school, the head of the Chemistry department has an MS in Chemistry and had worked in industry. One physics teacher, an alumnus of the school, returned to teach for two years before going off to industry. I understand he had a PhD, and subsequently taught at university. I didn't have him as a teacher, but another classmate did. My physics teacher was working on his MA or MS. I was taking honors mathematics (analytical geometry/calculus), physics and 2nd year chemistry my senior (final) year.
I thoroughly enjoyed it, because I was curious. However, many other students took math (through algebra) and maybe 1 year of chemistry and physics (or science) because they had to meet requirements for graduation or university. Such students can be hard to motivate.

 

[ohwilleke]

I'll make my list of pro's and cons as Darwin did for the marriage. That worked out fine for him in the end :P ;)

Statements like that make me think you are a great teacher. And, of course, after carefully listing the pros and cons he ended up going with his gut, instead, which also isn't wrong after you've deliberated about the pros and cons.

 

[haushofer]

Well, the decision has been made. I'm still having issues with my health, and decided to leave school after the summer to focus on some writing projects and feeling well again. This summer I'll publish my second popular science book at one of the biggest publishers in the country, so maybe that gives some opportunities to do more outreach. :)