Research indicates that, of all pedagogical training, training in subject-specific pedagogy is the most helpful(Brown, Smith, & Stein, 1995; Cohen & Hill, 1997).
Recent research has found serious deficiencies in conventional physics teaching methods as well as considerable improvements from research-based instructional designs (Hake, 1998; Hammer, 1996).
In the area of physics, it has been found that over half of physics teachers are without an academic major or minor in a physical science (Ingersoll, 1999).