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inquiry based courses



Greetings Phys-l readers,

I know there are many physics teachers on this list who use "constructivist"
teaching philosophies to teach introductory physics and physical science.
I would like to share some experiences and pose a question.

Over the past two years I have shifted my introductory physics course to a
"Workshop Physics" type format and my physical science for non-majors course
to a very inquiry based format using primarily the AAPT model course materials
"Powerful Ideas In Physical Science". These shifts have produced a more
"student-centered" class environment.

The problem which concerns me is that the courses seem to have become more
unpopular and my own teacher evaluation scores have plummeted as I have
tried to make the courses "student centered".

Let me share some comments from my Physical Science For Elementary
Education Majors course. As I mentioned, this course involved significant
use of the AAPT curriculum "Powerful Ideas In Physical Science".

"The topics in this course are very elementary. We have seen this material
before. We spent three weeks playing with batteries and bulbs and never
even found out which way the current moves."

"You could have saved us at least two weeks (in the batteries and bulbs unit)
by just telling us what we were supposed to know."

"The activities are pretty monotonous and boring. The format gets old fast."

"We never really found out what the right answers were. It was almost
impossible to study for the exams."

"The activities are very prescriptive. They don't allow us to explore
things on our own."

"The teacher is not professional. He never answers a question."

My impression was that students did not want to look at the elementary
phenomena with which the course was concerned. They really wanted to find
out things about the frontier of technology. What are lasers? How do
they work? Is global warming real?

However, it was clear to me in talking with students during class that
they did not have a good conceptual understanding of the simple electrical,
magnetic, light, and chemistry phenomena. Yet they were unconvinced of
this at the end of the semester.

I saw many good things happening in the class, but I am concerned about the
lack of enthusiasm for the course format. Professors at this institution
are generally very well-liked by their students. We are encouraged to be
very responsive to student concerns.

Do other college teachers who use inquiry based approaches, such as in the
AAPT model course, find similar problems? Maybe I haven't developed the
skill yet for conducting this course...


Thanks for listening.

Chris Wentworth

Department of Physics
Doane College
Crete, NE 68333-2496
402-826-8257 (O)
402-826-8199 (FAX)
cwentworth@doane.edu (Internet)