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Re: [Phys-l] Conferences for HS Physics Teachers



I think the point is changing teaching behaviour is time consuming -- learning new demos, hearing PER data, etc. is not.

bc

Anthony Lapinski wrote:

Not sure how you conclude that the one-day workshops are "ineffective." I
have been attending the summer AAPT meetings for years, and find the
workshops to be the best part of the meeting. You study a topic in depth
for 4 or 8 hours -- much better than the 10-min sessions. I have gained
much knowledge through the workshops, whether it be CASTLE electricity,
Physics of Toys, demo workshops, physics education research, etc.

Forum for Physics Educators <phys-l@carnot.physics.buffalo.edu> writes:

A long term workshop such a Modeling will be much better than a short term
workshop, and a one or two day workshop is generally useless. The
research
on this has been around for a long time. Teachers can generally change
the
way they teach and get better results after a long term immersion in a new
technique, but even experienced teachers have no success with new methods
after a 2 day workshop.

However, even novice teachers could implement changes if they were given
the
necessary materials. Modeling does both, but their materials actually
look
quite conventional in many respects, so they can be easily misused. The
Minds on Physics text series gives you wonderful materials, but they have
no
training program. They do have voluminous teacher's guides which tell you
everything you wanted to know, but were afraid to ask.

McDermott et al at Washington often have summer training programs, and you
can't go wrong there. For MS and 9th grade science the developers of IPS
hold some training that is probably very good.

The estimates are that it takes 160 hours of training to learn new
effective
teaching techniques, and that it takes 8 years to become an expert or
master
in any field. 4 week Modeling workshops are know to improve teaching, but
it is unknown if shorter 2 week workshops are as effective.

AAPT meetings are fun, and can be helpful to the experts, but the 1 day
workshops are probably fairly ineffective. I don't know if anyone has
ever
studied this, but other research points in this direction.


Perhaps check the Modelling workshops from Arizona State. They are

offered

elsewhere but I cannot recall the details.
Try this : http://modeling.asu.edu/modeling-HS.html


John M. Clement
Houston, TX


_______________________________________________
Forum for Physics Educators
Phys-l@carnot.physics.buffalo.edu
https://carnot.physics.buffalo.edu/mailman/listinfo/phys-l



_______________________________________________
Forum for Physics Educators
Phys-l@carnot.physics.buffalo.edu
https://carnot.physics.buffalo.edu/mailman/listinfo/phys-l