[Physltest] [Phys-L] Re: "Effective" teaching methods

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

> > Still, thinking about grad school sheds some side-light on
> > this already-interesting point.  If we consider only certain
> > higher-grade classes, namely physics majors and grad students,
> > then arguably in some sense there is nothing the teachers
> > ought/need to be convinced of, since they are using traditional
> > methods on a selected subset of students, namely students for
> > which traditional methods work OK.  Proof by construction.

Of course this proof is ignoring the numerous times you did not get
the desired result.  Then of course there is the research that shows
that even grad students often have misconceptions.  At present the
research shows that active engagement works better even with grad
students, so while traditional methods have some utility, there are
better methods even at the grad student level.  Certainly mentoring
and guided study for the thesis is an example of better methods, but
pure lecture methods do not qualify.

John M. Clement
Houston, TX
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