Re: Would Physics First Increase the Number of Physics Majors?

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

> Cliff Swartz has had some pretty acid things to say about the
> cyclical nature of "physics teaching reform." Those of us who have
> been around for a while know that he has a point.

Cliff was well known as a critic of some of the reformed physics
pedagogy, however he also pointed out that the evidence from the FCI
testing of various pedagogies was difficult to dismiss.  One of the
problems with previous reforms is that they were much more based on what
people thought would work, without the testing base that we currently
have.  In addition there is now much more evidence about what works and
a much larger body of science education research.  In addition we now
have a number of reforms, all of which work in similar fashion, and many
of which produce similar gain.

Of course the testing will not convince some people, just the same as
Boltzmann's ideas were not accepted by many scientists of his day.
However as evidence accumulated the younger generation accepted his
ideas and with them came the paradigm shift.

John M. Clement
Houston, TX