Re: FINAL EXAMS

[John Clement <clement@HAL-PC.ORG>]

> IMO, one can study the concepts as much as you want, but without
> having done lots of problems, both conceptual and numerical, they
> won't have much chance of applying the principles correctly, but the
> converse in not necessarily true. Studying lots of problems will make
> the concepts clearer and will make the students better able to apply
> them to something that they didn't see before.

One of the lessons of PER is that studying lots of problems generally does
not improve understanding of the concepts.  The Hellers have found that
studying a smaller number of difficult problems is better than studying lots
of back of the chapter problems.  Inquiry labs are absolutely necessary for
many students to be able to understand certain concepts.  This result has
been shown by the Hellers, McDermott, Laws, Thornton, Sokoloff, Hake, Redish
... and the list goes on.  Problems should be the last part of a learning
cycle, with exploration being the first part, and term introduction being
the center part.  Generally most physics courses concentrate on the center
part (lecture), and the standard problems are not well adapted to improving
understanding.  This results in students who do not understand the concepts,
and usually have great difficulty with problems.  Certainly omitting
problems will decrease problem solving ability, but when the conceptual
aspect is addressed by proper pedagogy, both scores on conceptual tests and
problem solving go up.

For some papers showing the evidence, see any of the Am. J. Physics PER
supplements or any papers by some of the above authors.

John M. Clement
Houston, TX