In his 5/23/01 POD post Re: critical thinking, Ken Bain wrote:
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" . . . . I don't know if someone has already mentioned THE ARTICLE
THAT ARNOLD ARONS DID ABOUT TEN YEARS AGO FOR LIBERAL EDUCATION IN
WHICH HE TRIED TO IDENTIFY THE SPECIFIC REASONING ABILITIES THAT ONE
MIGHT LABEL AS CRITICAL THINKING IN PHYSICS. As a historian, I find
the list quite useful.
I've shown it to people from most disciplines, and I have yet to
encounter anyone who would say that the list does not apply, at least
in part, to their particular discipline. I'm sorry I don't have the
exact reference, but it was in Liberal Education in about 1990. It
also appeared in Aron's subsequent book on teaching physics.
It might be useful for people from various disciplines to look at the
article to see what specific reasoning abilities that they might add
or subtract for their particular discipline."
Arons's "Liberal Education" article is ref. 1, and his subsequent
book is ref. 2. Among other things the book contains [page numbers
in the first version of his book(2a) are followed by square bracketed
page numbers in the second version(2b)]
a. Pages 288-312 [344-374], "Achieving Wider Scientific Literacy,"
Chapter 12, based on a paper(3) originally published in Daedalus, and
containing Arons's twelve "Marks of Scientific Literacy." Arons's
important 12 "Marks" are also online in ref. 4, pages 5-7.
b. Pages 313-327 [375-392], "Critical Thinking," Chapter 13, based on ref. 1.
c. Pages 328-335 [393-404], a bibliography containing 19 [21]
references to Arons's publications on critical thinking, physics
teaching, the history of science, and the history of attempted
educational reforms.
I agree with Ken Bane that people from various disciplines might
benefit from study of Arnold Arons's papers on critical thinking. In
addition, people in science education still have a LOT to learn from
Arons. Arnold, a source of guidance and inspiration to many of us in
physics education,(5-7) recently passed away, and will be sorely
missed. One of his important messages(8) (seldom heeded) was that
teachers should "shut up and listen to their students."
Among other memorable Arons aphorisms (all in ref. 9) are:
A. "The relativistic model of instruction is based on the premise
that, if one starts with an E - N - O - R - M - O - U - S breadth of
subject matter but passes it by the student at sufficiently high
velocity, the Lorentz contraction will shorten it to the point at
which it drops into the hole which is the student mind." [For a
cartoon version see ref. 10.]
B. "But . . .(in addition to fruitful curriculum developments). . .
we have also engaged in a large number of what I will describe as
complex projects. Mathematicians among us will recognize complex
projects as the set for which costs are real and results imaginary."
Another aphorism is often credited to Arons but is due to Lee Shulman:
C. "At a meeting last summer, Lee Shulman of Stanford University put
this idea. . . (the proliferation of complex projects in education) .
. . in another form. He said that there is going to be a lot of
reinvention of the wheel. 'It is bad enough to reinvent the wheel,'
he said. 'What really hurts is when they reinvent the 'flat tire.' "
Richard Hake, Emeritus Professor of Physics, Indiana University
24245 Hatteras Richard Street, Woodland Hills, CA 91367
<rrhake@earthlink.net>
<http://www.physics.indiana.edu/~hake>
REFERENCES
1. A.B. Arons, " 'Critical Thinking' and the Baccalaureate
Curriculum," Liberal Education, Vol. 71, #2 (Association of American
Colleges, 1985).
2. A. B. Arons, (a) "A Guide To Introductory Physics Teaching"
(Wiley, 1990); reprinted with minor updates in (b) "Teaching
Introductory Physics" (Wiley, 1997) [also contains "Homework and Test
Questions for Introductory Physics Teaching" (Wiley, 1994) along with
a new monograph "Introduction to Classical Conservation Laws"].
3. A. B. Arons, "Achieving Wider Scientific Literacy," Daedalus, Spring 1983.
4. R.R. Hake, "The General Population's Ignorance of Science Related
Societal Issues: A Challenge for the University," AAPT Announcer
30(2), 105 (2000); on the web as ref. 11 at
<http://www.physics.indiana.edu/~hake/>
[GuelphSocietyG.pdf, 8/22/00, 2100K] (62 References). It is argued
(with tongue only partially in cheek) that the failure of
universities THROUGHOUT THE UNIVERSE to properly educate pre-college
teachers is responsible for our failure to observe any signs of
extraterrestrial intelligence.
5. B. Donnally, "Arnold Arons: Oersted Medalist for 1972," Am. J.
Phys., June 1973, page 768.
6. J. Minstrell, "Talks with great teachers: Arnold Arons," Physics
Teacher, November 1981.
7. R.R. Hake, "My Conversion To The Arons-Advocated Method Of Science
Education,"Teaching Education" 3(2), 109-111 (1991); on the web at
<http://www.physics.indiana.edu/~hake> as [MyConversion.pdf,
5/18/00, 12K].
8. A.B. Arons, "Addendum to 'Toward Wider Public Understanding of
Science," Am. J. Phys. 42, 157-158 (1974): "I am deeply convinced
that a statistically significant improvement would occur if more of
us learned to listen to our students . . . . By listening to what
they say in answer to carefully phrased, leading questions, we can
begin to understand what does and does not happen in their minds,
anticipate the hurdles they encounter, and provide the kind of help
needed to master a concept or line of reasoning without simply
"telling them the answer.". . . .Nothing is more ineffectually
arrogant than the widely found teacher attitude that 'all you have to
do is say it my way, and no one within hearing can fail to understand
it.'. . . . Were more of us willing to relearn our physics by the
dialog and listening process I have described, we would see a
discontinuous upward shift in the quality of physics teaching. I am
satisfied that this is fully within the competence of our colleagues;
the question is one of humility and desire."
9. A.B. Arons, "Conceptual Difficulties in Science," in
"Undergraduate Education in Chemistry and Physics: Proceedings of the
Chicago Conferences on Liberal Education," No. 1, edited by R.R. Rice
(Univ. of Chicago, 1986), p. 23-32.
10. R.R. Hake, "What Can We Learn from the Physics Education Reform
Effort?", ASME Mechanical Engineering Education Conference: "Drivers
and Strategies of Major Program Change," Fort Lauderdale, Florida,
March 26-29, 2000; on the web at
<http://www.physics.indiana.edu/~hake> as a pdf document at
[ASME.pdf, 3/27/00, 436K], and as PowerPoint plus video at
<http://hitchcock.dlt.asu.edu/media2/cresmet/hake/>. (One needs to
download the free "RealPlayer.")