Re: Old guitar strings--actually Leigh's comments

["John C. Park" <park@unity.ncsu.edu>]

> Donald Simanek wrote [in part]
> > There's an even more fundamental pedogagical principle we should remember.
> > Never attempt to *teach* something you don't know fully, in detail, and at
> > a level well beyond the level of the course. If in doubt, leave it out.
> > One of the marks of an educated person is to know the limits of one's own
> > knowledge and understanding (and there always are limits). Worse than "not
> > knowing" is "knowing things that aren't so".
> Now if we could just get that information to the professors of education,
> we wouldn't have to spend so much time making up for the mistakes of
> ill-prepared teachers.
>
> Hugh

This is interesting in two aspects:  1) Our students teachers with a
concentration in physics are required to take 30-32 semester hours of
physics and 6 semester hours of methods/materials in science education.
How many more hours of physics do they need to know it "fully"? ; and 2) if
teachers waited to teach until they understood everything fully, would
anyone be teaching?

John C. Park
Associate Professor of Science Education
North Carolina State University