Someone said,
"What about the engineers, the Chemists, Biologists, medical students, etc.
who also had traditional instruction and have seemingly done OK with it?
To be sure there is the odd bridge or O-ring problem, but the state of
technology today says that the engineers have been doing pretty good with
our instruction--likewise these other technical professions.
While that still leaves a majority of students who don't take additional
physics and don't use it directly in their careers, it is presumptuous to
assume that their instruction in physics hasn't had 'some' positive
effects."
--------------------------------
Those of you who teach where there are multiple sections can address these
questions with your own small research project in your classes for
physics/engineers majors, or in your classes for premeds & pharmacy
students, etc. Use the experimental design that the physics professors in
South Africa discussed, in their article in this September's THE PHYSICS
TEACHER. It would be relatively easy for you to do this research. Why not
try it? It would help settle this question. (Does someone have time to
summarize this article for the subscribers of this list? I don't.)
Also, have any of you seen the Summer issue of the APS Forum on Education?
The last article bears on this issue, too. It's by Bruce Patton of Ohio
State Univ., and it's entitled "Group Learning-Based Approach to the
Graduate Electrodynamics Course: Jackson by Inquiry." You can see it on
the APS web page.
Patton says that "Positive results [with the inquiry method in this course]
would also tend to dispel the notion that the inquiry approach is not
suitable for covering either technical material (like calculus-based
introductory physics) or an extensive amount of material." Briefly,
results WERE POSITIVE, as measured by grades and the scores on the
qualifying exam. Read the article, and if you can, do your own experiment
with his methods in an upper division or graduate course. His e-mail
address is patton@mps.ohio-state.edu.
Cheers,
Jane Jackson
Jane Jackson (Prof. of Physics, Scottsdale Comm. College--on leave)
Dept.of Physics, Box 871504, Arizona State Univ.,Tempe AZ 85287-1504.
jane.jackson@asu.edu (602)965-8438 FAX:965-7331
Modeling Workshop Project: http://modeling.la.asu.edu/modeling.html