I have long been interested in the relationship between high school physics
and college physics. I have no data, just my personal anecdotes. I have
seen no releationship between having had high school physics and student
success in my classes. I teach at a large community college (enrollment of
16,000 regular students) and about two-thirds of my students have taken
high school physics. However, they show almost no knowledge of vectors,
could not draw even the simplest free body diagram if their life depended
on it, are amazed at the concept of "net force," find it hard to believe
that if a book is placed on a table that the table exerts a force upward on
the book, cannot work the simplest F = ma problems, and so on and on. My
students are not "stupid." Many go on to graduate from schools of
engineering with GPAs in excess of 3 on a 4.0 scale.
I know many of the high school teachers in this area. My opinion is that
they are excellent teachers. So why doesn't this show up in my students?
For one thing, I do not get the best and the brightest of high school
students. Those go to the 4 year schools. Perhaps more important is the
learning environment. I have heard it suggested by both high school and
college teachers that the learning environment in high schools in the
1990's is just not the same as in science and engineering departments at
the college level. This is also confirmed by frequent comments I get from
my students. They tell me that the learning intensity in my class and in
similar college classes is greater by far than anything they have ever
experienced.
Maybe, the best and the brightest high school students learn very well,
but maybe the low A's and the B's and below are just not getting what it
takes to retain physics. Not because the teaching is poor, because I think
it is generally very good, but simply their environment is unsuitable for
them to learn.
Bob Hunt
Johnson County Community College
Overland Park, Kansas