With regard to pre-service physics teachers’ understandings of physics education, their responses centered
around three main points. First, they stressed the importance of active engagement strategies that can be used within
the physics classroom to help students connect with the content. They indicated that hands-on activities, laboratory
experiences, and “doing physics”—an extension of Hodson [3]—is the best way to teach physics and that
transmitting content through direct instruction does not seem to inspire or reach all students. Second, they commented that the main goal of physics education is “the understanding of basic concepts by all students so they
can better understand the world around them.” This point is important for both secondary and post-secondary
physics teachers and professors to consider because we know that only some of the students who enter our
classrooms will leave as physicists, but they will all leave as contributing members of our society. Therefore, we
have an obligation to help these students learn as much about physics as they can so that they can make informed
decisions. Finally, the main challenge of physics education was having adequate resources to help students connect
with the content.