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--- Begin Message ---
- From: Peter Schoch <pschoch@nac.net>
- Date: Sun, 02 May 1999 07:54:20 -0400
Digby Willard wrote:
By the way, we RESPECT academic freedom. The topics to be covered are
specified, but the content is up to the instructor -- as is the pace.
The labs must be equivalent to the labs we do at the college. If you
want to do more, that's OK too. The tests are ours (the college's) to
insure the scores are comparable with the class being done at the
college. We review each H.S. program on a case by case basis. We
happen to have a great relationshp between the local H.S. physics
teachers and myself (a TYC teacher). If you treat each other equally,
there seems to be very little friction, and much to be gained!
That sounds a lot better than what I imagined the first time you wrote
about your system. But...
1) How can the content be up to the instructor, when they're taking your
test?
HOW they teach their students is determined by each instructor. As to
content, we compared HS texts and College level texts -- and found
little difference in the BASICS being taught; ie, Force is Force is
Force. The methods were different, and sometimes, the conceptual natue
of the problem was better explainedin the HS books! So, we have a
common set to topics to cover: Force, Kinematics, Fluids (for Pre-Med,
Respiratory Therapy, etc.), and Thermodynamics. We all agree about the
basics needed to understand these topics, but we all have our own
approaches to teaching them.
I also let them see my tests and comment on them! I have NEVER met
anyone who has made the perfect test, and it is nice to get feedback
from ones peers. I think incorporating some of their changes has made
my tests better; although I have turned down a few suggestions -- I
thought the problems THEY came up with were too hard!
2) The lab equivalence could potentially be a real pain, given the typical
disparity between secondary and tertiary resources. Has that been a
problem?
You must have a better budget than I do! There are times I am working
with materials 30 - 50 years old, while my HS colleagues are using stuff
1 - 10 years old.
Be that as it may, we have had few problems. I do a force table lab
(that I wrote). One of the HS instructors wanted to do tw labs in place
of this one: the first would deal strictly with vectors for directions
to demonstrate their everyday use, the second was using Interactive
Physics to do vectors and forces. I thought it was a great idea! I
guess my idea of equivalence is that if the students gain the same level
of understanding from your experiment and mine, what is the difference?
Oh, I do lend out some equipment if necessary.
By the way, I NEVER said I know more about teaching Physics than anyone
else -- I just HATE the damn standardized tests!
Sorry...didn't mean to imply that you did say that. That tends to be the
general assumption. It's common for high schools to try to imitate
colleges because that's what the better students (or, actually, their
parents) want; the assumption is in part that college courses approach
subjects in the "right" way. Some years I have to spend a lot of time
dealing with that assumption, and it bugs me.
It's OK, I understand -- I met some of the same resistance when I tried
to start our collaborative group.
Being the only Physics instructor at our TYC, I was very interested in
talking with others! So, I guess my enthusiasm for the interaction
overcame much of the problems.
As for AP, etc. tests, I have really mixed feelings about them. In
general, I don't think it's appropriate to structure a first-year
high-school course around them...certainly not in physics. If I'm not very
careful, the focus becomes learning physics for the test instead of
learning physics because its fascinating and practical. In particular, I
think the AP C tests -Mechanics and E&M- are not appropriate for first-
year courses, advanced or not, because students come away with the
impression that that's all there is to physics.
Unfortunately, this is what we found. The HS instructors were teaching
to the test at the end, and not to the subject they had come to
love/like/respect. With our agreement, they know what topics to cover;
and, they can teach the topics. We have found that their students do
better on my tests than my students do -- simply because they have a bit
more time, and can reinforce the material almost every day. There are
other considerations as well, like their students are not always holding
down a full-time job with a family while going to school (only rarely do
our HS's have this problem).
It's no excuse though for their students to do better than my students!
It is a bit embarrassing at times, but it helps to keep me humble (or
"in my proper place" as one of my HS colleagues likes to put it)!
Our situation is by no means unique, I think anyone could do it -- it
just takes willingness on the part of all parties. When discussing
contact hours, it also takes one or two extra time slots for labs -- but
we all manage to work it out.
I hope this helps, and maybe spurs a few of you to approach your local
TYC and try this approach rather than the stupid standardized tests!
Peter Schoch
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