[Phys-L] Re: Aristotelian thinking among modern students

[kalman at VAX2.CONCORDIA.CA (Calvin Kalman)]

> That students come to us as Aristotelian thinkers, and usually leave the
> same way, is nothing new.  It has been one of the major points pushed by
> PER over the years and one of the things the Force Concept Inventory test
> clearly will show.  Several programs have been developed by the PER folks
> (I'm sure we'll here from some) to address this, and many DO produce
> greatly improved FCI scores.  Whether or not two years later the students
> have back-slid, I don't know.  What I (think) I do know is that there is no
> way that spending a week or even two on Newton's Laws will really move
> students toward a Newtonian view of nature.


Right on!

I have written a book for Anker called INVITATION TO SUCCESSFUL
SCIENCE/ENGINEERING TEACHING

In the introduction I write:
In the fourth chapter. I examine the misconceptions that students
carry with them into their courses. In the subsequent chapters, I
will be looking at activities that help to get students to examine
their conceptual framework so that they will not mishear their
instructor, nor misread their textbook.) Research shows that most
students have loosely organized course concepts in contrast to the
web of interconnections perceived by their instructors (Hammer, 1989,
1994). Elby (2001) has said "students' epistemological beliefs-their
view about the nature of knowledge and learning affect their mindset;
metacognitive practice, and study habits in a physics course."
Developing a scientific/engineering mindset thus may not simply be a
conceptual change from personal scientific/engineering concepts to
scientifically accepted concepts. It may also be a change in attitude
from a view that study in science and engineering is a matter of
solving problems using techniques that are classified according to
problem type, to a view that a science/engineering subject consists
of a web of interconnected concepts

  I completed the book in April. The publisher suggested revisions. I
just today sent off the revised textbook. The book should be
available in the first half of 2006.

--

Best wishes

                      Calvin


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_/   Calvin S. Kalman, P. Phys.         Phone:    (514) 848-2424 xt 3284
_/  Professor,Department of Physics    Fax:      (514) 848-2828
_/  Fellow, Science College
_/  Member, Centre for the Study of Learning and Performance
_/  Concordia University
_/  Montreal, QC  H4B 1R6          KALMAN@VAX2.CONCORDIA.CA
_/
_/ Also Adjunct Professor Department of Educational
_/ and Counseling Psychology, McGill University, Montreal, Quebec
_/
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_/ homepage- http://physics.concordia.ca/faculty/kalman.html
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