My namesake, Irwin Shapiro, from the Harvard-Smithsonian Center for
Astrophysics did some extensive work about a decade ago on the
misconceptions that Harvard students and graduates had about the solar
system. Much of what he learned was in line with your experiences. For
example, the majority of Harvard graduates could not provide a correct - or
even consistent - model for why the earth has seasons. He also did the same
studies with bright high school students and got similar results. I think I
may still have a copy of the videotape he made called "A Private Universe"
that shows some of the misconceptions students had.
Last year I taught a course in our Liberal Studies department - Liberal
Studies in the Physical Sciences - that was taken by their junior and senior
(mostly senior) students. All of these students had taken and passed our
general education science requirements as a prerequisite, and most were
planning to become elementary school teachers. The Liberal Studies major is
considered the "hard" road to a teaching credential on our campus (Krispy
Kreme U. aka Cal State Fullerton). Students who want to follow the "easy"
path to a credential take the Child Development major.
At the beginning of the course only about one-quarter of the 40 student
class was thinking at the formal operational level. By the end of the class
perhaps 45-50% were at this level. So I think that Aaron's observation that
the majority of elementary school teachers are at the concrete operational
stage of thinking probably is correct.
-----Original Message-----
From: Tina Fanetti [mailto:FanettT@QUEST.WITCC.CC.IA.US]
Sent: Monday, September 10, 2001 8:19 AM
To: PHYS-L@lists.nau.edu
Subject: Re: Thinking Level of students