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Re: AP Students



Hi all-
In response to Mike:
But Mike, it's not a "conceptual vs. quantititve issue". It's
an issue of whether a high grade on an AP test is a better indicator of
an understanding of physical principles than is a substantial improvement
of an fci score.
Regards,
Jack
On Sun, 22 Apr 2001, Mike Ugawa wrote:

I would like to argue for a more balanced view of the conceptual vs.
quantitative issue. Whenever discussions of this issue arise, I always
find that the most vehement advocates of the non-traditional (conceptual,
inquiry-based, etc.) approach are those who have a personal vested
interested in the acceptance of the approach--typically those whose
reputations are on the line because they have been involved in the
development of the approach. These folks are often the recipients of
grants to develop and promulgate their approaches. I have great respect
for the integrity of these individuals, and am NOT suggesting that they
are guilty of insincerity. However, as a teacher whose interest is in
meeting the widely varying needs of my students--as opposed to a vested
interest on behalf of myself in the success of a particular approach--I
see the situation as one that presents two perfectly valid approaches to
teaching physics.

I am an avid supporter of the importance of learning the conceptual
foundations of physics. My own interest in these foundations was a major
part of what motivated me to complete my degrees in physics and I
enthusiastically lead workshops for other teachers in which the
inquiry-based approach is featured. However, I must take a stand against
the "bashing" of the quantitative approach that is currently so popular in
certain segments of the physics education community. The main reason I
feel compelled to take this stand is that as a high school educator, I
recognize the place of physics within the entire educational spectrum
offered to our students. Specifically, physics and chemistry are the last
bastions of our kind of solid logic and applied quantitative problem
solving, within an educational spectrum that has largely been given over
to the excessively introspective, "And how do you feel about that? . . ."
approach used in most other subjects. Those classes (or entire schools)
that are geared for the students who will be the leaders of the next
generation are in desperate need of saving the endangered educational
species of solid unemotional logic in a quantitative context. Well
educated students in all fields of endeavor need to have this perspective
be some reasonable part of their backgrounds, and it seems that physics is
one of the few courses in which this can occur.

So, having made the case for the importance of the quantitative approach,
the ideal situation is to include it along with--not instead
of--theinquiry-based conceptual foundation. The school where I teach is
moving toward AP courses in physics and chemistry becoming second year
courses, to be taken after a "regular" or "honors" course that can spend
more time on the inquiry-based conceptual approach. Yes, this means that
most students will have to choose to take EITHER AP Chem or AP Physics,
NOT BOTH, as in the past (unless they take Summer School). This is a
major issue for a high-end college-prep school like ours, where many
students seem to want as many AP courses as possible. Nevertheless, we
have decided that our new approach will serve the best interests of the
students. I, for one, feel that a given AP course should be taken only by
students who have exceptional aptitude, personal interest, and dedication
with regard to the particular subject--as opposed to those who are just
trying to get the best possible transcript and GPA by loading up on AP
courses.

Finally, I realize that for some students--or for some entire
schools--having students take more than one year of physics is not a valid
option. In such cases, I simply wish to make clear that the need to
maintain a curriculum that includes some courses based on solid
unemotional logic and applied quantitative problem solving makes choosing
the quantitative approach for the one physics class offered just as valid
as choosing the inquiry-based conceptual approach. The (quantitative) AP
experience is a perfectly valid one for those students who choose it for
the right reasons. An important point is that I have found that my AP
students who are sufficiently qualified (in terms of aptitude) are able to
learn the conceptual foundations just as well as my non-AP students, in
spite of the fact that I use a very streamlined approach to the conceptual
foundations in the AP class. Most importantly, it is high time that the
rhetoric of those who advocate the inquiry-based conceptual approach be
less condescending toward the quantitative approach. There are vaild
points and questionable claims on both sides of the issue, and the
interests of our students will be better served by a more balanced view
of the two approaches.

Respectfully,
Mike Ugawa
St. Ignatius College Prep
San Francisco

--
**********************************************************************
* *
* MICHAEL B. UGAWA *
* *
* PHYSICS * CHEMISTRY * COMPUTER SCIENCE *
* *
* EDUCATING THE YOUTH OF TODAY *
* TO FACE THE CHALLENGES OF THE NEW MILLENIUM *
* *
* mugawa@quark.sfsu.edu *
* *
**********************************************************************


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