The previous mail to this had some discussion by a physics first doubter,
but I felt it was too long to repeat here.
The issue unfortunately is not just physics first, but also how it is
taught. I am a doubter that physics first by itself will be any more
effective than IPC was, which included physics. The problem is not what is
taught, but how it is taught and whether the student thinking is improved.
The standard first science course in HS, either IPC or biology, generally do
not improve thinking. The reason for physics last is when the curriculum
was established the fact based biology courses were easier than the concept
laden physics courses. Biology traditionally had descriptive concepts which
are easy for concrete operational thinkers. But now biology has a huge load
of concepts such as evolution that are at a very high level of thinking.
Students come out without even knowing the function of flowers on plants.
There have been some good results in physics first on the Modeling web site.
Modeling.asu.edu ,but this is physics first done in a PER fashion rather
than by traditional instruction.
So I feel that pushing physics first and forcing it on schools which do not
have research based physics education, will be a failure. This will then
give the idea of reform another black mark. But when it is implemented by
teachers who have trained in reformed physics education, it will probably be
successful. Modelers have the training, and have access to curriculum
material for physics first.
I would like to see results from pre and posttesting using the Lawson test
to see if thinking rises. But one would have to compare with schools that
are currently giving IPC or biology to freshmen, and possibly note whether
these courses are research based or traditional.
So in a traditional school I do not see that physics first will have any
greater success than IPC had. If it were stripped down to the basic
concepts and were taught in a PER fashion, it probably can work. But even
worse, it will probably be taught by the IPC teachers many of whom do not
even have a good grasp on physics.