Marty Weiss (2008), in his Chemed-L post of 5 Feb 2008 titled "Re:
valid assessment; was pre&post testing" wrote:
"I have said this before and I will repeat it here. . . . . education
and teaching is an ART NOT A SCIENCE!"
Marty echoes:
a. The 75-year-old statement of physicist F.K. Richtmyer (1933):
'Teaching, I say, is an art, and not a science. . . in no sense can
teaching be said to be a science."
b. The 30-year-old statement of Ralph Goodwin (1978): "After more
than two-score years [Richtmyer's statement] has not been proven
wrong."
In response to Goodwin, David Hestenes (1979) in "Wherefore a science
of teaching?" wrote:
"Let us agree at the outset that good teaching is an art, fully
deserving our respect and admiration. It does not follow, however, as
Goodwin seems to think, that there cannot also be a science of
teaching. . . . . . Medical practice is widely acknowledged to be an
art, but who doubts the possibility of medical science? Is teaching
so different because it ministers to the mind?"
For a recent discussion consistent with Hestenes (1979) see "Can
Scientific Research Enhance the Art of Teaching?" [Hake (2007)].
"The academic area is one of the most difficult areas to change in
our society. We continue to use the same methods of instruction,
particularly lectures, that have been used for hundreds of years.
Little scientific research is done to test new approaches, and little
systematic attention is given to the development of new methods.
Universities that study many aspects of the world ignore the
educational function in which they are engaging and from which a
large part of their revenues are earned."
Richard Cyert, former president of Carnegie Mellon University,
in Tuma & Reif (1980).
REFERENCES
Goodwin, R.A. 1978. "Chalk and Chalk," Phys. Teach. 16(6): 367-372
(1978); online to subscribers at <http://tinyurl.com/2zu8wc>.
Hake, R.R. 2007. "Can Scientific Research Enhance the Art of
Teaching?" invited talk, AAPT Greensboro meeting, 31 July, online at
<http://www.physics.indiana.edu/~hake/Sci&Art3.pdf> (1.2 MB), or as
ref. 50 at <http://www.physics.indiana.edu/~hake/>. See esp. Sect. V.
"University Leaders Bemoan the Inertia of Higher Education: Why Is It
So Slow To Recognize the Value of Interactive Engagement Methods in
Promoting Higher-Level Learning?"
Richtmyer, F.K. 1933. "Physics is Physics," Am. J. Phys. 1(1): 2-5;
online to subscribers at <http://tinyurl.com/364ns6>.
Tuma, D.T. & F. Reif, eds. 1980. "Problem Solving and Education:
Issues in Teaching and Research," Lawrence Erlbaum. Amazon.com
information at <http://tinyurl.com/2947ky>.