Re: [Phys-l] Students' READING abilities

["Michael Edmiston" <edmiston@bluffton.edu>]

> Mightn't it be a good idea to start talking to them in language they
> understand and finding out how effective that approach is?
>  Regards,
>  Jack

If a student wants to understand, and is therefore actually trying to 
understand, and therefore is actually investing some time in the subject... 
then understanding is going to happen one way or another.  It might first 
hit them from studying the text; it might first make sense during the lab; 
it might first come from the lecture; it might first come from working on a 
problem set; it might first require a visit to my office.  The only times I 
have been unsuccessful with students who are actually trying have been when 
the students have actual learning disabilities or have huge holes in their 
backgrounds that I can't fix in the allotted time.

I don't know what percentage to use, but I would guess that over 90% of my 
students who aren't getting it are in that situation because they aren't 
investing any time in it.  And they aren't investing any time because they 
don't really want to know.  And they don't want to know because they see 
this course as an artificial hurdle.  That is, it's something someone said 
they have to take, but they don't see any reason they should have to take it 
because "they are never going to use any of this stuff in their chosen 
profession."

Lacking the desire to understand the material, I don't think there is any 
language that will be effective.

Michael D. Edmiston, Ph.D.
Professor of Chemistry and Physics
Bluffton University
1 University Drive
Bluffton, OH 45817
419.358.3270
edmiston@bluffton.edu