[Physltest] [Phys-L] Re: "Effective" teaching methods

[Jack Uretsky <jlu@HEP.ANL.GOV>]

Hi all-
        I have used the series, and thought it to be an excellent addition
to an excellent text, based on the Feynman lectures.  (A co-author is, or
has been, a member of this list).  There were no "tests" that accompanied
the disks, although there were questionaires to be filled out by the
students as they viewed the videos (an effective way to hold student
attention).  The text has some interesting and challenging problems at the
end of each chapter.
        The disks show an abbreviated (and, in my opinion, much improved)
version of the film series "Mechanical Univeerse", which had too much
footage of actors wandering around in period costumes trying to look
intelligent.
                                        Regards,
                                                Jack

On Wed, 17 Nov 2004, John M Clement wrote:

> > When I think about where that thought is going, I come up
> > with the following scenario, which is probably part farce
> > and part fact ... but I honestly don't know which part is
> > which, so please bear with me.  A Modest Proposal (tm):
> >
> >   The aforementioned teachers could be replaced by (or
> >   recertified as) CARPs i.e. Classroom Administrators /
> >   Readers / Projectionists.  Each day the CARP walks into
> >   class and takes attendance, then reads a few pages from
> >   the excellent text, then shows a few excellent video clips.
> >   Every so often the CARP administers a quiz.  The CARP
> >   spends several hours per day filling out federally-mandated
> >   paperwork.
> >
> >   The CARP doesn't have enough subject-matter expertise to
> >   answer nontrivial questions from students, nor enough
> >   to perform demonstrations that work.
> >
> >   Why do we need more than a handful of real teachers when
> >   we have plenty of CARPs?
> >
> > This proposal is not entirely fanciful.
>
> Exactly.  It was implemented in TX where they produced video disks for
> physics so coaches could just show the disks and then grade the tests
> without any knowledge.  The truism was that a physics teacher in TX
> would be addressed as coach.  I am not kidding, I have actually seen
> the series.
>
> John M. Clement
> Houston, TX

--
"Trust me.  I have a lot of experience at this."
                General Custer's unremembered message to his men,
                just before leading them into the Little Big Horn Valley
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