Re: Pedagogy

["Carl E. Mungan" <mungan@USNA.EDU>]

>      And then there is my all time favorite: When asking a prof about a
> problem the answer begins with " this is easy."

This one catches my attention and I would like to hear more from
others about how you answer questions in class about a homework
problem (due tomorrow, naturally). I know I'm guilty of sometimes
saying "this is easy" - I don't mean to be condescending but I do
want to point out that it is, as is often the case, a familiar
problem "in disguise" (eg. just reduces to the familiar differential
equation (double dot)x = -x) and that, as is also often the case, it
is not as hard as it may initially look and in particular doesn't
require any "hard" math if you use this or that "trick or technique"
(ie. educated guessing about how it all goes before you worry about
the details). And yet I don't want to give it all away. But I find
sometimes that if I just give some hints or suggestions, I still get
blank solutions back. Also if I only give the hint verbally, it often
goes over the heads of the students; students often only pay
attention to what is actually written down on the board. But if I
write down some indication of a line of attack on the board, what I
get is mostly what I wrote on the board plus a little bit more only
perhaps.

I'm not saying all students are like this. The good ones generally
manage; the less good but wise students track down the good students
for help. Now what about the rest of the students? How can we help
them with problems? (To be specific, let's talk about a physics major
in their second physics course.) Carl
--
Carl E. Mungan, Asst. Prof. of Physics  410-293-6680 (O) -3729 (F)
      U.S. Naval Academy, Stop 9C, Annapolis, MD 21402-5040
mailto:mungan@usna.edu       http://usna.edu/Users/physics/mungan/