Re: Is the AAPT Concerned With K-8 Science Instruction?

[Dan MacIsaac <Dan.MacIsaac@NAU.EDU>]

On Sunday, June 20, 2004, at 07:51 PM, Richard Hake wrote:

> As far as I can tell from Sacramento AAPT edition of the AAPT
> Announcer, there will be NO session on the California Hands-On vs
> Direct Instruction Battle - just my lone paper "Direct Science
> Instruction Suffers a Setback in California or Does It?" [Hake
> (2004a)].
>
> On 30 January 2004, Tom Foster wrote to me: "As chair of the Labs
> Committee of AAPT we are trying to put together a session for
> Sacramento on the new California law which has been so [much
> discussed] on many listservs."
>
> I had thought from Tom's email that the AAPT realized the importance
> of that battle for science instruction nationwide, but I was
> evidently wrong.

...it sounds like the session did not attract enough speakers to run;
speaking from experience as a session organizer, this often happens to
topical sessions when you can't get the active figures on that topic to
participate for many reasons.  Ascribing some negligent or willfully
obstructionist conspiracy to the AAPT and broadcasting a castigation
via list-broadcast email is unhelpful.

The AAPT missions statement is found at
<http://www.aapt.org/aboutaapt/mission.cfm>, and after reading that
statement, it seems to me that any claim that the association does not
recognize the import of physics education at all levels is
disingenuous.  A review of association policy documents from
<http://www.aapt.org/Policy/> supports such a conclusion.

A more productive and less petulant approach might be to suggest what
you think the AAPT should be doing, then take a leadership role to try
and make just that course of action take place.  The AAPT is not a
single person, it is an association composed of MEMBERS who write draft
policies and public statements for association debate and possible
adoption; organize sessions; invite, recruit and enlist speakers and so
forth.  Castigating the AAPT and / or Tom Foster is hardly a productive
avenue; it just alienates those you want to enlist and discourages
others.

So what do you think the association should do, and how are you going
to help make this happen?  Do you want more speakers on this topic for
the post-deadline session?  Do you want to draft and table public
policy statements for possible adoption by the association?

Dan MacIsaac, Assistant Professor of Physics, SUNY-Buffalo State College
222SCIE BSC, 1300 Elmwood Ave , Buffalo NY 14222 USA 716-878-3802
<macisadl@buffalostate.edu>  <http://PhysicsEd.BuffaloState.edu>