Re: [Phys-l] Academic Familiarity Breeds Discomfort? (wasPhysicsjob...)

[Rick Tarara <rtarara@saintmarys.edu>]

I would offer that it is more than academic familiarity.  It is the 
inevitable fact that as one progresses through a science curriculum 
(especially physics and chemistry) that the material gets more difficult 
conceptually (little or no instinct or firsthand experience with much of the 
material) and much more mathematical (and difficult) operationally.  The 
students that are enthusiastic about the conceptual ideas presented in an 
introductory course, especially a 'physics for poets' or 'hands on' type of 
course may quickly become 'somewhat' less enthusiastic when they encounter 
Gauss' Law, Maxwell's equations, Hamiltonians, etc.  At that point, only 
those who are really into the math will still be excited.  I suspect many 
here lost some of the enthusiasm in E&M (we were taught out of Feynman Vol 
II as sophomores) but stuck to it nonetheless.  Even today I know a number 
of people who are enthusiastic about the 'big' ideas in physics but who 
couldn't (or wouldn't) handle the intrinsic math needed to move to the next 
level of understanding.  I would suggest that the 'getting harder' as one 
moves from course to course in any curriculum both weeds out and naturally 
reduces the enthusiasm for almost any area of study.  Reading history can be 
interesting to many--doing the grunt work research necessary to be a 
historian is quite another matter.

Rick

***************************
Richard W. Tarara
Professor of Physics
Saint Mary's College
Notre Dame, IN
rtarara@saintmarys.edu
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Free Physics Software
PC & Mac
www.saintmarys.edu/~rtarara/software.html
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----- Original Message ----- 
From: "John Clement" <clement@hal-pc.org>
To: "'Forum for Physics Educators'" <phys-l@carnot.physics.buffalo.edu>
Sent: Friday, July 25, 2008 10:14 AM
Subject: Re: [Phys-l] Academic Familiarity Breeds Discomfort? 
(wasPhysicsjob...)

> So again, is it academic familiarity, or poor pedagogy?  Is it the
> dissonance between received knowledge, and prior conceptions that causes
> disbelief and the lowering of attitudes?
>
> John M. Clement
> Houston, TX
>
>
> >