Chronology Current Month Current Thread Current Date
[Year List] [Month List (current year)] [Date Index] [Thread Index] [Thread Prev] [Thread Next] [Date Prev] [Date Next]

Re: Is competence in physics as a requirement for teachers of physics?



I'm not sure. A reasonable model for what we are doing as teachers is that
we act as coaches, mentors, cheerleaders, etc. How many basketball coaches
can actually play basketball? Now coaches do know how to do something and
know things about the game but it is not the same stuff that the player
knows how to do....

kyle

At 1:37 PM 11/7/97, msantos@etse.urv.es wrote:
I would answer yes, at least some competence.
I always feel bad when I have to talk about something from
which I don't know "all". Donald's argument is my only
justification when teaching something without knowing "all"
about that stuff.

M.A.Santos
msantos@etse.urv.es

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?

I think 30-32 hours of physics is admirable preparation for teaching in
high school physics. That would cover the first two and a half years of
our physics majors program here at Simon Fraser University and would
almost qualify for a minor in the subject. I trust these physics courses
are not wasted on courses "designed for teachers" as it is sometimes
euphemistically put.

As for understanding everything fully, I just understood for the first
time this morning how to handle the constraint of constant pressure in
a statistical mechanics problem involving an elastic solid, and I'm 62
years old and have been teaching physics for most of that time. Surely
it is not necessary to point out that learning should be a continuing
process for teachers as well as students.

Leigh



!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!
! kyle forinash 812-941-2390 !
! forinas@indiana.edu !
! Natural Science Division !
! Indiana University Southeast !
! New Albany, IN 47150 !
! http://Physics.ius.indiana.edu/Physics.html !
!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!