Re: Teaching physics without a textbook?

["Dewey Dykstra, Jr." <dykstrad@bsumail.idbsu.edu>]

> In my opinion a textbook is an essential learning resource at any level of
> physics teachig.
>
> 1) Textbook is a common denominator. It shows teachers and students/parents
>   what should be learned in a given course.
> 2) Students are often confused why encountering new material. A possibility
>   to go over it, as many times as necessary, is essential to many of them.
> 3) Textbook is a source of homework problems.
> 4) A teacher may have good reasons to skip some material; she does not have
>   to be limited by what is printed.
> 5) Yes, "pressure to be a mile wide and an inch deep" should be resisted.
>   Some textbooks are better than others in promoting the "less is more"
>   idea; most of them have too much coverage.
> 6) Textbooks allow us to be innovative, for example, to teach without
>   lecturing and to focus on "discovery approaches", modeling, Socratic
>   labs, problem sessions, etc.
> 7) .........
> 8) ......
> 9) Teachig without a textbook can help an incompetent teacher to hide his
>   ignorance.
>                                                Ludwik Kowalski

Ludwick:
Some have suggested that the function of physics texts is not really for
the purpose of education, but the vocational training purpose of developing
a profession in which every member has experienced essentially the same
presentation of the canonical form of the knowledge deemed necessary for
each member of the profession, who later can in a sense can all recite the
same catechism.  This is obviously useful for the profession, but some
would question the wisdom of forcing it on the rest of society in the form
of physics instruction for everyone K - 14 in the light of the apparent
effect on most who receive such training.

Dewey

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Dewey I. Dykstra, Jr.                   Phone: (208)385-3105
Professor of Physics                    Dept:  (208)385-3775
Department of Physics/MCF421/418        Fax: (208)385-4330
Boise State University                  dykstrad@bsumail.idbsu.edu
1910 University Drive                   Boise Highlanders
Boise, ID 83725-1570                       novice piper

"Physical concepts are the free creations of the human mind and
are not, however it may seem, uniquely determined by the external
world."--A. Einstein in The Evolution of Physics with L. Infeld,
1938.
"Every [person's] world picture is and always remains a construct
of [their] mind and cannot be proved to have any other existence."
--E. Schrodinger in Mind and Matter, 1958.
"Don't mistake your watermelon for the universe."  --K. Amdahl in
There Are No Electrons, 1991.
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