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Re: [Phys-l] Unit Conversions (was Mass and Energy)



Hi all-
I find it striking that teachers who complain about lack of curiosity in their students seem to show so little themselves.
Regards,
Jack


On Sat, 27 May 2006, Michael Edmiston wrote:

Even though it is dangerous to assume we know what someone else is
thinking, it is part of human nature and part of the communication
process to make this kind of assumption. It's also a good idea to keep
exploring for evidence we are correct or incorrect about our
assumptions.

When a student comes for help, I first try to assess where the student
went wrong, and then I try to assess whether it was a simple blunder or
if there is some deeper misunderstanding that needs corrected. And, of
course, I often follow their questions with questions of my own.
Sometimes this works very well. Other times the students don't
cooperate at all. The fact they don't cooperate, and the method in
which they don't cooperate, is not speculation. That's the data. The
assumptions I draw from the data are admittedly assumptions.

In the story I told, the student refused to answer my questions. He
short-circuited the process I was trying to use and kept asking for a
simple answer for how to fix his calculation That's the data. Here
are some more data. The lab report was due in a few hours, his
calculation was wrong, and he knew it was wrong. I also knew he had a
habit of goofing conversions, so there was good reason to suspect this
was not a simple blunder. So he was in my office asking for help, and I
saw he had made an error of the type I knew he had made before. I
decided it was time to see if I could help him understand conversions
better. Again... no assumptions have been made.

Okay, here come the assumptions. I think it is clear he did not want to
understand it better, at least not at that time. Since refused to take
the time to work it through with me and he kept asking for the simple
answer, I take that as a pretty good indication he did not want to work
it through, at least not at that time. I assume he wanted to get the
lab report done, hand it in, and go on to something else he would rather
do.

I remember my own son and daughter giving me the same sort of problem.
They both, on numerous occasions, would say something like the following
to me... "If I would ask you a question about my physics (or math or
chemistry) homework, would you be willing to give me the short version?"
I can understand that sometimes, and I even agreed to it sometimes. But
when a student is paying my salary, and I know the student has a
fundamental problem, I think it is improper for me to give "the short
answer" except for rare occasions. I am not the answer man. I am the
teacher. Whenever the student does not accept that relationship, I
figure the student does not want to learn... at least not at that time.
If the student never seems to want to accept the relationship, I assume
the student is not interested in learning at all, at least not from me.


Michael D. Edmiston, Ph.D.
Professor of Physics and Chemistry
Bluffton University
Bluffton, OH 45817
(419)-358-3270
edmiston@bluffton.edu


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