Re: inquiry based courses

["Paul Camp" <pjcamp@coastal.edu>]

This strikes very close to home. I have also been trying to move my 
department in this direction, against some considerable resistance, 
and have just returned from the Laws Workshop Physics seminar as part 
of the grand plan. Lately at my institution tenure decisions have 
tended to pivot on student evaluations so these responses lead to 
some trepidation.

However, I note that many students here are equally uncomfortable 
with a student-centered approach but much of this stems from past 
experience -- they never had such a class before so it doesn't seem 
like "real education." At least once each semester one of my student 
evaluations will criticize me for answering student questions with 
questions rather than answers ("runaround questions" is the favorite 
phrase). I have defused this to some extent by making the first 
question always something along the lines: "Tell me what you think." 
or "Show me what you've done so far." Then I have a bit of an excuse 
for asking a few questions as part of trying to understand what they 
have done.

This attitude seems, unfortunately, to be particularly endemic (or 
even pandemic) among the elementary education majors here. I got into 
a big discussion last semester (ok, it was an argument) with one who 
was in another faculty member's class and was arguing that physical 
science had no bearing on his career goals, in fact no science did, 
and so he should not be required to take it. In fact, the whole core 
curriculum in his estimation was bullshit and he should be allowed to 
choose 100% of the courses he takes since nobody knows him like he 
does. This sort of consumer approach to education (give me only the 
things I like and am willing to pay for) is rather disturbing but 
especially in an education major and especially at the elementary 
level. And especially in a state that tends to take the "warm body at 
all costs" approach to staffing classrooms. It is sort of like going 
to the grocery store and buying nothing but cookies and ice cream 
because you don't like broccoli. My point was that he doesn't 
necessarily know what he needs to know -- if he did, there would be 
no need for college and he could head straight into the classroom.

I will never forget one of these students who had taken my course and 
was deeply perturbed by a question I asked about the motion of 
particles in magnetic and electric fields. She said we hadn't 
discussed this in class and I replied yes but we had discussed 
electric and magnetic fields and forces and also motion of particles 
subject to forces so there was really nothing new. The next day, 90 
xeroxed pages out of an education textbook appeared in my mailbox as 
proof of the theorem of the theorem she had advanced which I remember 
verbatim: "We learn in Education that you always say everything three 
times -- once in class, once on the homework and a third time on the 
exam." I asked if this meant that I could only ask questions on exams 
that they had already answered and she said yes though she did allow 
as how I might justify changing the numbers from time to time. What 
strikes me about this statement is that all mention of learning has 
been excised from it, replaced with "being told." The activity is 
shifted from the learner to the instructor and my response is that 
learning can only take place in the mind of the student, not the 
instructor (or at least, not learning of that particular material, 
one hopes).

I must hasten to add, however, that this is by no means universal 
among educators. I teach the physical science class to elementary ed 
majors in summers and take an inquiry/discussion approach and for the 
most part it seems to go over pretty well. The trick seems to be 
getting them engaged in the material and showing them that they are 
in fact learning something. I do this with lots of prediction/why 
didn't my prediction work? sorts of activities. You might also thing 
about pre- and post- testing with the Hestenes Force Concept 
Inventory, the Sokoloff/Thornton Force and Motion Conceptual 
Evaluation, or some other such thing. From this point of view, it 
doesn't much matter which instrument you use since the goal would be 
to show that they have learned a great deal even though those 
specific questions may never have been covered in class. And if, along 
the way, you get some information about which areas seem to be 
especially sticky in your class, that can only make things better.

> 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".

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

Paul J. Camp                   "The Beauty of the Universe
Assistant Professor of Physics  consists not only of unity
Coastal Carolina University     in variety but also of 
Conway, SC   29526              variety in unity.
pjcamp@csd1.coastal.edu             --Umberto Eco
pjcamp@worldnet.att.org               The Name of the Rose
(803)349-2227                         
fax: (803)349-2926