Re: [Phys-L] Indicators ofquality teaching(Was:MOOC:EdxOffers Mechanics course byProf.Walter Lewin)

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

The data was published by Rao, and it was just looking at raw FCI and Lawson
scores.  The
Chinese scored significantly higher than US students on the FCI, but were
the same on the Lawson test.  This was explained as the Chinese have 4 years
of physics while many US students have none.  The scores were accumulated
over a number of schools as I recall, but I would have to go back to the
paper to figure out how many students were involved in the study.  It was a
reasonable sample size as I recall.

John M. Clement
Houston, TX 

> John,  
>
> Some clarification on the Chinese data?
>
> Are the gains you quote over all of high school?  Or exactly 
> over what time period.
>
> Are you referring to normalized gain for the Chinese?
>
> Joel
>
> |-----Original Message-----
> |From: Phys-l [mailto:phys-l-bounces@phys-l.org] On Behalf Of John 
> |Clement
> |Sent: Monday, June 24, 2013 1:43 PM
> |To: Phys-L@Phys-L.org
> |Subject: Re: [Phys-L] Indicators of quality 
> teaching(Was:MOOC:EdxOffers 
> |Mechanics course by Prof.Walter Lewin)
> |
> |Yes, some extra time is used.  But just devoting extra time is very 
> |unlikely by itself to produce higher gains.  If the course is taught 
> |conventionally the increase in gain due to extra time will, 
> I predict, will be very small.
> |The higher gain is mainly due to the method and not just the extra 
> |time.  So if anyone who teaches using conventional methods wants to 
> |test this prediction, go for it.  See if it is possible to 
> change 13% 
> |gain to 50% gain.  You might change 13% to 15%, but I doubt 
> that extra 
> |time by itself will do much more.  I could be wrong and it might 
> |produce 20%.  The truism that extra time produces much 
> higher gain is 
> |just that, a truism.  But it has not been well tested and quantified.
> |
> |Now this being said, it is true that the Chinese get higher 
> FCI scores.
> |This is because students get physics every year in HS.  In 
> other words 
> |the extra time is much much greater and spread out so as to 
> give time 
> |for accomodation.  Also all Chinese students take physics so 
> looking at 
> |FCI scores for all students shows depressed American scores.  
> |Accomodation may require at least 2 weeks after the 
> introduction of a 
> |new concept.  This is based on comments by Laws and the 
> experience of Shayer & Adey.
> |
> |Some things are easily learned if you just devote extra 
> time, but when 
> |accomodation is needed I submit that extra time is not the 
> important factor.
> |Extra time alone is brute force, when what you need is 
> intelligent learning.
> |
> |John M. Clement
> |Houston, TX
> |
> |>
> |> ?? Rick has just told you that he both gets good gains and spends 
> |> more time - and you give a knee-jerk response of "It doesn't work 
> |> very well". Is no one's experience valid but yours?
> |>
> |
> |
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