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Physics for dummies



Martha comments on the humorous computer customer bonehead anectdotes:

I thought those letters/comments were hilarious until it occurred to me that
many beginning physics students feel the same way about the lab equipment
and other stuff we take it for granted they understand!

She struck a familiar chord here which leads me to raise a question of
tactics. Many times I have watched a student who had a simple problem I
could readily correct, but I chose not to do so because the potential
value to the student of discovering and correcting the difficulty
himself, if he could do it, was so great. The teacher's art in this
situation lies in knowing just when and how to intervene if a student
just doesn't seem able to cope. Ideally the student will ask for help,
in which case the teacher can socratically guide him to resolve the
difficulty. Sometimes it is correct to intervene with "You seem to be
having some trouble here. May I help you?" It's hard to know what to
do. If there is a credible chance the student will solve the problem in
an acceptable period of time I feel he should be allowed to do so.
However after I have watched a student fiddle with everything on the
bench for ten minutes without throwing the switch on his oscilloscope
to unground the input I wonder if I'm doing him a favor. He has
probably upset some other part of the apparatus in doing so, and
slipped back three steps before advancing one. My experience tells me
that if I do intervene tactfully he will likely repeat that error later
in the semester. If I do intervene is it sometimes correct to make the
student feel a bit foolish for having made such a silly mistake so
that, perhaps, he will remember it better? Is this a politically
incorrect question to ask*?

Leigh