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Re: [Phys-l] Inquiry



Forum for Physics Educators <phys-l@carnot.physics.buffalo.edu> writes:
I agree that we need to help them learn to read these texts.

And I agree that in general, fewer topics taught at greater comprehension
is better.

I disagree that the texts are for me and not for my students. Again, if
we don't make it possible for our students to discover that they can
learn from a book, then how will they learn when they are not in our
classrooms? Or are we giving up on that goal? Reading may not be as
good as doing, but it has some excellent advantages over anything you can
do in a classroom: it is portable, repeatable, available any time...

I meant that they are more useful to me than to my students. What good is
something "portable" if it only confuses them (students)?

Not sure how we can "train" our students to read. The books are daunting
to begin with. I don't have any easy solution to this big problem.


We often say that one of our goals is to teach students how to learn.
Over a lifetime, only a tiny fraction of learning will happen in a
classroom no matter what we do.

True. Probably more learning/understanding occurs for students in any
classroom (with an effective teacher) than by reading any textbook. Teach
them how to think for life.

_______________________________________________
Forum for Physics Educators
Phys-l@carnot.physics.buffalo.edu
https://carnot.physics.buffalo.edu/mailman/listinfo/phys-l