Chronology Current Month Current Thread Current Date
[Year List] [Month List (current year)] [Date Index] [Thread Index] [Thread Prev] [Thread Next] [Date Prev] [Date Next]

Re: [Phys-l] Physics job opening in Texas for 2008-09



Feynman saw the problem, but never the solution. He admitted that students
were not learning well. His paradigm was to improve the lectures, which did
not work. Redish also tried it, and failed, but then found that some PER
remedies did the trick. His research has been published.

The lifeblood of PER is RESEARCH, the same thing that fuels physics. The
religion metaphor is totally inappropriate, it is the last refuge of people
who can not bring up evidence to bolster their views. Everyone has things
that they believe, but PER is based on evidence and research. So one can be
convinced or can believe that PER works better based on the evidence.

I have taught students who have gone through traditional courses, and they
still come in with very low understanding. There are many ways to teach
more effectively, but the traditional method is NOT one of them. I have
never seen any evidence that the traditional method can achieve the same
gain as PER based methods. Perhaps someone can provide evidence from a
traditional course that achieves high gain?????

Citing authority is very faith based, or perhaps one can treat them as
celebrity endorsements, sort of like cigarette ads. So please bring up
evidence and not received enlightenment from past "authorities".

John M. Clement
Houston, TX

The big problem is that they have paradigms that may prevent them from
becoming better.
Every Ph D has such a paradigm? Maybe there are a couple
who sneak off on the side and get washed in the blood of the PER
lamb?

But traditional HS teachers also have paradigms that
prevent them from becoming better. Traditionally trained teachers tend
to
use traditional methods no matter the level of education.

And traditional methods are per se wrong? Sommerfeld,
Pauli, and Feynman never saw the light of PER? There is only 1
effective way to teach? How could anyone possibly know this? It sounds
to me like faith-based educational theory.