Re: [Phys-l] laptops banned from class.

[Brian Blais <bblais@bryant.edu>]

Hello John,

You mention a few things in your email that sound very interesting, and I would like
to know more about them, especially as they apply to physics teaching.

John Clement wrote:
> If you want to grade something, have them make a concept map, and grade
> that. 

what is a "concept map", and are there good examples of it?  I have never come across
this, so I would need some hand-holding when trying to consider including it in my
teaching.

> are studio courses such as Workshop Physics. 

a studio course?  I will try looking up Workshop Physics to get a better idea of this.

> This is improving the scores on the Piagetian tasks of which the
> most important are probably conservation reasoning, proportional reasoning,
> and two variable reasoning.  Once this is done, students will automatically
> be able to understand things better, and they will probably have greater
> enthusiasm for the subject.  This is primarily done by using a learning
> cycle approach, with tasks that involve the specific reasoning needed to be
> improved.

learning cycle approach?  again, are there good starting points for those of us who
have only experience with lecture style?

I've tried to incorporate some peer-teaching, which has seemed to work well, but it
is a bit difficult to measure the effectiveness.  where is a good place to start to 
learn some more effective means of teaching?

It also seems as if there are hurdles to get over during the transition from lecture 
to a more active teaching style.  are there good resources for advice to deal with 
these issues?


thanks,

			bb

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            bblais@bryant.edu
            http://web.bryant.edu/~bblais