Re: [Phys-L] kinematics objectives

["W. Trevor King" <wking@tremily.us>]

On Wed, May 08, 2013 at 04:53:18PM -0500, John Clement wrote:
> But the problem with emphasizing problem solving is that it
> perpetuates the idea that you just learn algorithms.  The antidote
> to that is to emphasize concepts and more difficult problems that
> need to be solved in groups.

The “algorithms” vs. “concepts” distinction sounds like code for “math
chunk size”.  For example, if a student can grab some law, and start
dropping terms they realize won't matter (proportional analysis?),
that counts as “conceptual”, but if they can't see that right off the
bat and have to grind through some algebra, that counts as
“algorithmic”.  On the other hand, maybe I'm just reacting to what
seems like an overly negative take on algorithms, and was primed by
looking up Whitehead's [1]

  Civilization advances by extending the number of important
  operations which we can perform without thinking about them.
  Operations of thought are like cavalry charges in a battle—they are
  strictly limited in number, they require fresh horses, and must only
  be made at decisive moments.

Cheers,
Trevor

[1]: Alfred North Whitehead.  An introduction to mathematics.  1911.
     http://archive.org/details/introductiontoma00whitiala
     The quote's on p. 61

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