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Re: Physics First - PART 1



Please excuse this cross-posting to discussion lists with archives at:

Physhare <http://lists.psu.edu/archives/physhare.html>,

Phys-L <http://lists.nau.edu/archives/phys-l.html>,

PhysLrnR <http://listserv.boisestate.edu/archives/physlrnr.html>,

AP-Physics <http://lyris.ets.org/cgi-bin/lyris.pl?enter=ap-physics>.

Subscribers who disapprove of cross-posting and/or referencing are
encouraged to hit the delete button.

In his Physhare post 15 Feb 2003, Herb Gottlieb (2003) "from New York
City . . . [where the] . . . number of high schools is becoming
greater than the number of available HS physics teachers)" wrote:

" . . one recurring (insurmountable ?) problem makes such suggestions
. . . [Nevin Ranck's (2003a) proposal to give Physics First an 8-year
trial run in just one state] . . . the stuff of opium laced dreams
for our lifetime. Where do we get all of these High School Physics
Teachers from?"

Although Herb Gottlieb and I seem to disagree regarding the value of
passive-student lectures (Hake 2003a), I think Herb is bang on
regarding the MAJOR problem confronting the large-scale
implementation of Physics First: the dire shortage of effective K-12
physics teachers.

In Hake (2003b) I wrote (see that post for the references):

"I think Lederman's idea to move the 'physics cliff' (now scaled by
only a few nerds) from the 12th to the 9th grade is a good idea only
because it should serve to dramatize a crucial but generally
overlooked problem in U.S. education: vis., THE ABSENCE OF ENOUGH
EFFECTIVE SCIENCE/MATH TEACHERS [PhysTec 2003, AAAS (2002b), Jackson
(2003), Lewis (2001), Cohen & Krantz (2001), Katz & Tucker (2003),
Hake (2002a) to allow the construction of a "science/math ramp" from
pre-school to grade 12 as advocated by Ken Ford (1989), Hugh Haskell
(2001), and the AAAS (2002a,b) Project 2061."

The above message is a major theme of Hake (2002a,b,c,d). But despite
the concern for more and better physics teacher preparation evidenced
by the APS (2001), PhysTEC (2003), and the AAPT (2000), few faculty
physicists seem to be seriously concerned.

Although Ranck's suggestion seems impractical for the reason cited by
Gottlieb, "Physics First" IS being tried in some schools. Livanis
(2002) lists about 270 schools "that may be broadly described as
teaching Physics First."

Lederman (2001) wrote:

"To my knowledge, none of the pioneer. . .(Physics First). . .
schools has gone back. Our optimism has recently been greatly
rewarded. In the past few months, the school districts of Cambridge,
Massachusetts, and San Diego, California . . .(see e.g., Woolf
(2002). . ., have opted for all incoming students to take physics in
ninth grade, followed by a year of chemistry, then biology. This is a
huge domino! San Diego is the sixth largest school system in the
nation; Cambridge has a small system but an impressive parent body.
So we see some real action."

In addition, some analysis of "Physics First" implementation has been
carried out [(Pesaro (2001); Lederman & Bardeen (2002)], but
evidently not published in the open literature. Pesaro concludes that
"ONE SIGNIFICANT FINDING IS THAT ALMOST NONE OF THE SCHOOLS HAS BEEN
COLLECTING QUANTITATIVE DATA FOR SELF-EVALUATION."(My CAPS.)

Possibly physics education researchers might contribute to the
quantitative (and qualitative) analysis of Physics First
implementations.


Richard Hake, Emeritus Professor of Physics, Indiana University
24245 Hatteras Street, Woodland Hills, CA 91367
<rrhake@earthlink.net>
<http://www.physics.indiana.edu/~hake>
<http://www.physics.indiana.edu/~sdi>

REFERENCES
APS. 2001. American Physical Society, "Policy Statement on K-12
Science and Mathematics Education"; online at
<http://www.aps.org/apsnews/0201/020101.html>.

AAPT. 2000. "White Paper on Teacher Preparation," L.M. Adair & C.J.
Chiaverina, "The Preparation of Excellent Teachers at All Levels,"
formerly online at <http://www.aapt.org/governance/>. Evidently now
removed from <http://www.aapt.org/>, judging from the fact that a
search for "Chiaverina" did not uncover it.

Gottleib, H. 2003. "Re: Physics First- PART 1," Physhare post of 15
Feb 2003 08:53:13-0500; online at
<http://lists.psu.edu/cgi-bin/wa?A2=ind0302&L=physhare&O=A&P=15331>.

Hake, R.R. 2002a. "Lessons from the physics education reform effort."
Conservation Ecology 5(2): 28; Lessons # 10 & 12; online at
<http://www.consecol.org/vol5/iss2/art28>. "Conservation Ecology," is
a FREE "peer-reviewed journal of integrative science and fundamental
policy research" with about 11,000 subscribers in about 108 countries.

Hake, R.R. 2002b. "Whence Do We Get the Teachers (Response to
Madison)". PKAL Roundtable on the Future: "Assessment in the Service
of Student Learning, Duke University, March 1-3; updated on 6/17/02;
online as ref. 16 at <http://www.physics.indiana.edu/~hake/>.

Hake, R.R. 2002c. "Physics First: Opening Battle in the War on
Science/Math Illiteracy?" Submitted to the American Journal of
Physics on 27 June 2002; online as ref. 20 at
<http://www.physics.indiana.edu/~hake/>. Contains cartoon versions of
Lederman's 9th grade physics cliff and Ford's K-12 science/math
ramp.See also Hake (2002c).

Hake, R.R. 2002d. "Physics First: Precursor to Science/Math Literacy
for All?" Summer 2002 issue of the American Physical Society "Forum
on Education Newsletter" Summer 2002; online at
<http://www.aps.org/units/fed/summer2002/hake.html> and as ref. 19 at
<http://www.physics.indiana.edu/~hake/>.

Hake, R.R. 2003a. "Re: Physics and the Paideia Process," post of 9
Feb 2003 16:26:28 -0800 to Phys-L, PhysLrnR, Physhare, and
AP-Physics; online at
<http://lists.nau.edu/cgi-bin/wa?A2=ind0302&L=phys-l&O=A&P=18434>.

Hake, R.R. 2003b. "Re: Physics First- PART 1", Physhare/Phys-L post
of 10 Feb 2003 16:41:36-0800; online at
<http://lists.psu.edu/cgi-bin/wa?A2=ind0302&L=physhare&P=R4746>.

Lederman, L. 2001. "Revolution in Science Education: Put Physics
First." Physics Today 54(9): 11-12; online at
<http://physicstoday.org/pt/vol-54/iss-9/p11.html>.

Lederman, L. & M.G. Bardeen. 2002. "Implementation Resource Book
Suggestions from the Field"; 0.42 MB pdf at Project Arise
<http://www-ed.fnal.gov/arise/>/ "Three Year High School Science Core
Curriculum Implementation Issues", where "/" means "click on." See
especially the sections "Assessment and Student Achievement";
"Professional Development"; and Teachers' Fears/Resistance".

Livanis, O. 2002. Physics First Home Page
<http://members.aol.com/physicsfirst/> / "Schools" where "/" means
"click on."

Pasero, S. 2001. "The State of Physics-First Programs: A report for
Project Arise (American Renaissance in Science Education"; online as
2.9MB pdf at Project Arise, <http://www-ed.fnal.gov/arise/>: ". . .
Another major issue most schools had to address is the necessity that
some teachers teach out of their primary field, especially during the
first two years of the curriculum inversion.. . . ONE SIGNIFICANT
FINDING IS THAT ALMOST NONE OF THE SCHOOLS HAS BEEN COLLECTING
QUANTITATIVE DATA FOR SELF-EVALUATION."(My CAPS.)

PhysTec. 2003. "About PhysTEC" <http://www.phystec.org/about.html>:
"PhysTEC is a program to improve the science preparation of future
K-12 teachers. It aims to help physics and education faculty work
together to provide an education for future teachers that emphasizes
a student-centered, hands-on, inquiry-based approach to learning
science."

Ranck, N.M. 2003. "Re: Physics First- PART 1," Physhare post of 14
Feb 2003 22:39:33 EST; online at
<http://lists.psu.edu/cgi-bin/wa?A2=ind0302&L=physhare&O=D&P=15141>.

Woolf, L. 2002. "Re: Why Physics First?, Phys-L post of 10 Oct 2002
12:29:31-0700; online at
<http://lists.nau.edu/cgi-bin/wa?A2=ind0210&L=phys-l&P=R12493>.