Re: [Phys-l] Textbooks vs multimedia

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

> There is no evidence available to show that one standard text works better
> than another.

I just remembered, there is some negative evidence for the use of textbooks.
Philip Sadler of Harvard did a survey of college physics success in physics
vs the usage of textbooks.

1.  Classes that used textbooks had lower success in college physics than
classes that used no text.
2.  Classes where the teacher finished the book, did worse than classes
where the teacher only finished part of the book.

So the success went down as the book usage went up.  This survey did not
differentiate between different types of books, and was mostly for
conventionally taught physics classes because IE is a small fraction of
classes nationwide.  I believe his report is on his web site.

John M. Clement
Houston, TX