Re: Homework (Was Measure of student understanding)

[Joe Heafner <heafnerj@VNET.NET>]

> From: John Clement <clement@HAL-PC.ORG>
>
> A number of unproven assumptions have been asserted about PER, and I will
> start with the one that the lecture/lab format used to work.  We only know
> that it did produce a number of good scientists, but we do not know that
> actually used to work better.  It certainly is a filter which separates the
> survivors from other students.  We are still producing a number of good
How do we know that this number of good scientists turned out good BECAUSE OF the lecture/lab format rather than IN SPITE OF the lecture/lab format? It could be that these individuals were destined to understand anything and everything thrown at them, and they really didn't need the professor.

Personally, I feel that the current system (I'm speaking of the college/university system) is biased so as to allow only the top few percent to completely succeed. The rest are made to sink or swim without any help; they usually sink. These are the students we need to reach the most because they get their first impression of physics (science in general too sometimes) from their intro course. If we ignore them, we have no one but ourselves to blame for the outcome.

> techniques to get a quick fix.  Feynman tried to "reform" his lectures and
> admitted that his efforts did not produce greater student understanding.  I
That was his, and only his, opinion wasn't it?


Cheers,
Joe Heafner - Instructional Astronomy and Physics
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