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Conclusions:
Many students don't read. Many students can't read critically and
understand what is written. Students don't listen. Students would
rather copy someone else in the class. I have office hours, but
students won't come to office hours to ask questions.
John Clement said, "One needs to change the conventional structure to an
inquiry mode with frequent communication between students, and students
and teacher."
You can't do this if students refuse to do anything outside of class,
because in-class time is way too short for accomplishing the goals of
the course. It goes back to something I've said before: I expect
students to read assignments outside of class. I expect students to do
experiments outside of class. I expect students to write outside of
class. I expect students to solve problems outside of class. I expect
students to come to office hours if they have questions. But today's
students think I am totally unreasonable. If I can't teach them what
they need to know about physics within the contraints of five 50-minute
class periods a week for 30 weeks, then I must be a lousy teacher. They
don't have any more time to spend on physics than class time. Since
they have become accustomed to teachers that don't demand out-of-class
work, they can't read, they can't write, they can't solve problems...
because they don't have any practice doing these things. And they fill
their out-of-class hours with sports, TV, socializing, etc. and think it
is an unreasonable intrusion if I want them to spend some of that time
doing physics.
The proponents of inquiry mode appear to mean "inquiry mode in class
only." For a 5-credit class I want 15 hours per week of inquiry mode...
Some of it during class, some of it during reading, some of it during
writing, some of it during labs. I'm lucky if I can just get them to
class for all 5 class sessions.
I agree different teaching methods can have an effect on learning, but
it's hard for any method to have success if the students aren't willing
to spend the required time. You learn to read by practicing. You learn
to write by practicing. You learn to shoot free throws by practicing.
No problem there. If students would spend 10-20% of the time on physics
that they spend practicing their sport, I wouldn't be complaining.
Michael D. Edmiston, Ph.D.