Re: [Phys-l] Is Teaching an Art or a Science? (was valid assessment)

["John Clement" <clement@hal-pc.org>]

> Like most crafts, teaching is hard to learn. The combination of
> engineering knowledge and judgment is not easy to obtain. Individuals can
> learn on their own from experience but it is slow. Perhaps it is time
> return to apprenticeships where masters help the novices learn.
But, craftsmen can only learn their trade if there are masters who really
achieve better results.  At one time medicine was perhaps a "craft", but now
it has a heavy dose of science in it.  The medical analogy is much more apt
than the craft analogy.  Remember that when doctors learned from other
doctors they did things like bleed patients because that was standard
treatment.  They wore dirty frock coats...  But once research on
effectiveness started the "craft" was revolutionized.

Likewise teaching needs to be revolutionized by the science behind it.  I
was apprenticed to a couple of craftsmen (mentors).  They certainly taught a
number of conventional things, but the results they achieved were low
because they did not pay attention to things like FCI scores, and what the
research said about teaching.  They tried to use multimedia to engage
students, and all they achieved were more expensive lectures.

Feynman was considered to be a superb craftsman in the classroom and he
admitted that his wonderful lectures did not achieve better understanding.
OTOH Malcolm Wells used the existing research and crafted a method that
worked much better.  Since then the team at AZ State put it back together
and have successfully apprenticed many teachers, but they are using a
medical model where testing, and trying various things is going on.

So apprenticeship is necessary for spreading the "craft", but a scientific
base is absolutely vital to making the endeavor work.

A similar case in point is the "art" of making wine and beer.  The
brewmasters are often biochemists.  So the "art" has turned into a science.
The "artist" brewmaster may be able to turn out a good product occasionally,
but the scientist can completely control the process and make it
consistently good.  So the old "craft" riddling racks have given way to
disgorging machines, and many modern breweries and wineries are now
scientifically managed.  Yes, old techniques still survive when they prove
to be still useful, but some do not.

In the "craft" model, many things are valued which have little of no effect
on the results, and schools, teachers, and students buy into pop psychology.
One of my big examples is the idea that teachers need to be entertaining.
Malcolm Wells who achieved high gain appears to be quite boring when viewed
on videos.

Incidentally most pre college schools have mentors that new teachers are
apprenticed to.  This has not improved the learning above the conventional
level.

John M. Clement
Houston, TX