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Re: Pedagogy

While I find your description of the educational environment appalling,
I'd like to speak a bit to the opportunity.
I think the only learning anyone can do in a deep way is learning
one their own. The teacher can create an enviroment where learning is
encouraged, or perhaps enhanced, but in the end you learn because of
what you do and way you do it.
So as crazy as it sounds at first glance, you have an opportunity to
take responsiblity for your own learning in a way that a more mistakenly
supportive might not give you. Mind you, I'm not trying to justify what
you have described...for one thing, I only have your description with
all its biases...I'm just saying that if you put the work in you
will in the end learn better than someone who has it spoonfed to them.

I'm reminded of the teacher who was forever making mistakes solving
problems, so much so that the students had to be vigilant to catch his
mistakes. Turns out it was a ploy on his part to keep students
attention and keep them thinking.

The trick for the teacher is to find the right midground where deep
student learning occurs with just the right amount of tension to keep
the process active. It seens that is sadly not being done well in your
case.

good luck with it


On Fri, 30 Apr 2004, Fernanda Foertter [Advanced Physics Forums] wrote:

while I agree with you in some respect of "active learning", how much of the
material should I be forced to learn on my own and then be tested on it?

Afterall, if I can learn on my own Physics, then why am I here? Cause if
I'm here to learn on my own, then I'm basically using the university for a
stamp of aproval...but am I not going to a learning institution? If I
wanted a certificate, then why not just make a generic exam for that
certificate?

Fernie
----- Original Message -----
From: "Karl I. Trappe" <trappe@PHYSICS.UTEXAS.EDU>
To: <PHYS-L@lists.nau.edu>
Sent: Friday, April 30, 2004 6:37 AM
Subject: Re: Pedagogy


Fernanda Foertter writes:

Basically, if you can't
learn on your own, you shouldn't be here.


Fernanda: While I sympathize with most of what you said (and even
registered the same complaints when I was taking physics), I would
like you to consider your own responsibility for your education.

In particular, passive learning is not to be confused with getting an
education. In a cliche: 'You never get out of something more than
you put into it."

There are studies which show the relative percent of learning from
various teaching styles and student participation styles. We hear a
lot from PER about the demise of the lecture as an archaic and nearly
worthless approach to student mastery.

The information retention scale goes something like: 5-10% retention
from passive listening (the lecture) all the way to as much as 90%
retention when you know that you will have to present the material
yourself. These figures are recollected from a talk (from the
business side of campus) about getting sales people to master their
product information). Its not totally unrelated. If you are
"learning it on your own", you probably are actually learning it!

Another interesting tidbit I picked up along the way is "Pop quizzes
*burn information* into the mind of the participant." It seems that
forced recognition that you *do not know* the material causes the
student to strongly reinforce those bits of information...by *active*
participation in that bit of information digestion.

Karl


--
Dr. Karl I. Trappe, Physicist
KIT Science




Joseph J. Bellina, Jr. 574-284-4662
Professor of Physics
Saint Mary's College
Notre Dame, IN 46556