Here at Simon Fraser we require that our introductory physics
students have previously taken a high school physics course
that includes one- and two-dimensional kinematics. In teaching
this course this semester (the "algebra/trig" course) I did just
what Stan Greenspoon suggests. I started with the vector
kinematics that they supposedly should already know and then did
linear kinematics as a special case. I can't say that it reduced
the usual rate of confusion and misconception, however, because I
did no measurements, but I agree with Stan. We also impose on
those students a corequisite calculus course, and it seems more
than 90% of them have already been exposed to some in high
school. For that reason I also introduce the calculus to the
extent that I associate slopes with derivatives. Polynomials are
as far as we've got so far, but I intend to do this again when we
get to harmonic motion.
Our postsecondary students are not blank slates. They bring a set
of tools to their studies acquired over a long educational
process, and the people we see are those who assembled the best
sets of tools. Too many postsecondary physics teachers assume
that they must teach students as though they are as helpless as
the most naive among them. That is a bad idea in my view. I have
320 students in this class. If I waste one minute of my lecture
time it costs five and one third person-hours of their time. They
are paying me for what I can provide to them. Down deep they
really don't want high school all over again.