Re: [Phys-l] Lecture Isn't Effective: More Evidence #2

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

Bao's study showed that Chinese and US students had identical reasoning
skills, and both are subjected to "conventional" teaching.  But when PER is
used along with some metacognitive ideas and bridging one can get strong
improvement in scientific reasoning skills.

So the effect of both systems on reasoning skills is the same both here and
in China, essentially very little gain.  But of course this doesn't show
that the presence or absence of lecture is the important component.  Both
systems rely heavily on lecture.

John M. Clement
Houston, TX

> > In Lei Bao et al.'s (2009) study, comparisons of Chinese and U.S.  
> > students show that content knowledge and reasoning skills diverge.  
> > This research examined if content knowledge concerned with 
> science,  
> > technology, engineering and mathematics (STEM) impacts the 
> development  
> > of scientific-reasoning ability. (Source: Science; 1/30/2009, Vol.  
> > 323, Issue 5914, 586-587.) Hence, the effectiveness of lecture may  
> > vary depending on whether students come from Brazil, China, India,  
> > U.S. and so on.