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In his POD post of 29 Sep 2004 titled "Student resistance to changes
in professional education practice," physicist Mano Singham (2004)
wrote [bracketed by lines "SSSSSSSSSSSSS. . . ."]
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I have been approached by faculty and administrators in the Law and
Dental schools at my university who say that while they are trying to
improve the way they teach by including more active and participatory
methods, they meet resistance from students who ask them to "just
tell them what they need to know" and to forget about all this
"higher-order thinking stuff."
Is there anyone familiar with the literature on education in
professional schools that deals with the causes of student resistance
to change and with strategies for dealing with them. Are there
success stories?
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I'm cc'ing this message to three discussion listservs (i.e.,
discussion lists that use LISTSERV software and hence have excellent
archive search engines):
The above deal with professional school education and/or PBL
(Problems Based Learning). Possibly some subscribers to those lists
may know about causes of student resistance to change, strategies for
dealing with them, and success stories in the use of more active and
participatory methods of education.
BTW, with regard to more general aspects of the resistance to change
of the educational system see my recent post "The Inertia of the
Educational System" [Hake (2004a)].
As I indicated in a previous post "Re: Case (or case study)
definition" [Hake (2004b)], the resistance of students to active and
participatory methods of education in professional schools has a long
history.
David Garvin (2003), in his fascinating article "Making the Case," wrote
[bracketed by lines "GGGGGGGGGG. . . "]:
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Christopher Columbus Langdell, the pioneer of the case method,
attended Harvard Law School from 1851 to 1854 - twice the usual term
of study. He spent his extra time as a research assistant and
librarian, holed up in the school's library reading legal decisions
and developing an encyclopedic knowledge of court cases. . . .
In his course on contracts, he insisted that students read only
original sources-cases-and draw their own conclusions. To assist
them, he assembled a set of cases and published them, with only a
brief two-page introduction. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .
. .
Inducing general principles from a small selection of cases was a
challenging task, and students were unlikely to succeed without help.
To guide them, Langdell developed through trial and error what is now
called THE SOCRATIC METHOD: AN INTERROGATORY STYLE IN WHICH
INSTRUCTORS QUESTION STUDENTS CLOSELY ABOUT THE FACTS OF THE CASE,
THE POINTS AT ISSUE, JUDICIAL REASONING, UNDERLYING DOCTRINES AND
PRINCIPLES, AND COMPARISONS WITH OTHER CASES. Students prepare for
class knowing that they will have to do more than simply parrot back
material they have memorized from lectures or textbooks; they will
have to present their own interpretations and analysis, and face
detailed follow-up questions from the instructor.
Langdell's innovations initially met with enormous resistance. MANY
STUDENTS WERE OUTRAGED (my CAPS). During the first three years of his
administration, as word spread of Harvard's new approach to legal
education, enrollment at the school dropped from 165 to 117 students,
leading Boston University to start a law school of its own. Alumni
were in open revolt.
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Regarding the law school version of "The Socratic Method (TSM), my
understanding is that the modern-day version [see, e.g. Elkins's "The
Beginner's Guide to Legal Education" [Elkins (undated #1)] is about
as far from:
(a) TSM of the HISTORICAL Socrates [Vlastos 1990, 1991, 1994)], and
(b) TSM of effective physics pedagogy [Hake (1992, 2002a)],
as is Plato's version of TSM as presented in the "Meno." For a
discussion see Hake (2002b,c,d).
Unfortunately, confusion of TSM as presented by Plato with the TSM of
the historical Socrates and with effective physics pedagogy is
rampant among physics education researchers (PER's) [e.g., Morse
(1994), Redish (2003)]. This pedagogical misconception is probably a
factor in the neglect by PER's [Hilborn et al. (2003), Redish (2003),
McCray et al. (2003), Mestre (2003)] of effective TSM physics
pedagogy.
Garvin, D.A. 2003. "Making the Case: Professional education for the
world of practice" Harvard Magazine, September/October; online at
<http://www.harvard-magazine.com/on-line/090322.html>. A footnoted
pdf is available at this site. Thanks to MIT's Lori Breslow and John
Belcher for bringing this article to my attention.
Hake, R.R. 2004a. "The Inertia of the Educational System," online at
<http://lists.nau.edu/cgi-bin/wa?A2=ind0409&L=phys-l&O=D&P=25165>.
Post of 28 Sep 2004 16:53:09-0700 to AERA-C, AERA-D, AERA-J, AERA-K,
ASSESS, Biopi-L, Chemed-L, EvalTalk, Math-Learn, Phys-L, PhysLrnR,
Phys-L, POD, & RUME.
Later sent to AP-Physics, Physhare, and STLHE-L.
Hake, R.R. 2004b. "Re: Case (or case study) definition," online at
<http://listserv.nd.edu/cgi-bin/wa?A2=ind0408&L=pod&P=R7876>. Post of
16 Aug 2004 21:48:01-0700 to POD, PhysLrnR, & STLHE-L. Later 17 Aug
2004
21:20:22-0700 sent to DrEd.
Hake, R.R. 2004c. "Re: Effectiveness of PBL," online at
<http://listserv.nd.edu/cgi-bin/wa?A2=ind0405&L=pod&P=R11019>. Post
of 21 May 2004 18:42:23-0700 to Dr-Ed, PhysLrnR, STLHE-L, EvalTalk,
AERA-J, ASSESS, and PBL. See also Hake (2004d).
Hake, R.R. 2004d. "Re: Effectiveness of PBL - Response By Don Woods,"
online at
<http://listserv.nd.edu/cgi-bin/wa?A2=ind0405&L=pod&P=R11428>. Post
of 23 May 2004 12:02:34-0700 to Dr-Ed, PhysLrnR, STLHE-L, EvalTalk,
AERA-J, ASSESS, and PBL.
McCray, R.A., R.L. DeHaan, J.A. Schuck, eds. 2003. "Improving
Undergraduate Instruction in Science, Technology, Engineering, and
Mathematics: Report of a Workshop," Committee on Undergraduate STEM
Instruction," National Research Council, National Academy Press;
online at <http://www.nap.edu/catalog/10711.html>.
Mestre, J. 2003. Appendix I. "Physics Education Resources" pp. 56-64
of Hilborn et al. (2003). Mestre also ignores the ASU Modeling
Program <http://modeling.asu.edu/R&E/Research.html>.
Morse, R.A. 1994. "The Classic Method of Mrs. Socrates," Phys. Teach.
32: 276-277.
Redish, E.F. 2003 "Teaching Physics With the Physics Suite" (TPWPS),
John Wiley, footnote 5 page 146. TPWPS is online at
<http://www.physics.umd.edu/perg/>, scroll to the bottom of the page.
Vlastos, G. 1990. Private communication to R.R. Hake, September 17.
Vlastos wrote: "Though Socrates was not engaged in physical inquiry,
your program . . . . [Hake 1992, 2002a - NOT in the spirit of "The
Meno")]. . . is entirely in his spirit."
Vlastos, G. 1991. "Socrates, Ironist and Moral Philosopher" (Cornell
Univ. Press, 1991), esp. Chap. 2, "Socrates contra Socrates in
Plato." See also Vlastos (1994).
Vlastos, G. 1994. "Socratic Studies" Cambridge University Press.