[Physltest] [Phys-L] Test - Please Delete

["Grigorescu, Violeta" <grigorescuv@SMCCD.NET>]

-----Original Message-----
From: Forum for Physics Educators [mailto:PHYS-L@list1.ucc.nau.edu] On Behalf Of Karim Diff
Sent: Wednesday, November 17, 2004 4:39 PM
To: PHYS-L@LISTS.NAU.EDU
Subject: Re: "Effective" teaching methods

On Wed, 17 Nov 2004 16:02:49 -0500, John Denker <jsd@AV8N.COM> wrote:

> Karim Diff wrote:
>
> > I have yet to meet anyone teaching physics in a community
> > college who was not trained in physics ( at the Ms or PhD level.)
>
> Touché.  I suppose I should have said East Podunk HS rather than
> East Podunk CC, because that is the group that Rick and Vickie
> have been characterizing as in many cases "math-phobic" and "far
> below the level of scientific and mathematical understanding that
> they are required to teach".
>
> Ask them (not me) about the basis and details of this
> characterization.
>
> > I am not quite sure what this is supposed to say. Is the implication here
> > that if the East Podunk Community College transcript says "Physics" it was
> > taught by a CARP?
>
> What I meant was different and perhaps even harsher than that:
> Students might well be _better off_ with a canned program
> administered by a CARP than with a traditional course "taught"
> by an unqualified "teacher".



I did not take the time to re-read Rick and Vickie's postings but my
impression was that they were describing the attitudes of elementary
education students. A description that I tend to agree with, having had
elem.ed. students (that was their declared major at the time) in a gen.ed.
physical science class I teach occasionally. But it could be that we get
those students early in the cycle they go through as they transition from
attitudes and views inherited from high school days to a more nuanced view
at the end of their college years. Of course the fact that their knowledge
of physics (and math) is so slim is worrisome. I wouldn't put HS physics
teachers in that category though.

What you said about canned programs would certainly be true, but I'll add
that in some instances we could have the same result even with courses
taught by "qualified" teachers. Imagine a big university where students sit
in a 300+ seat amphitheater and watch a guy ( with lots of credentials in
physics, research etc.) do his thing at the other end of the cavern in some
strange lingo, playing with what look like toys but not as much fun, zipping
at the speed of light through slides with strange hieroglyphs. Then the same
students trek in groups to a much smaller room where they'll furiously copy
what a tired and bored TA scribbles on the board in the hope that one these
pieces of information will show up on next week's test. Of course talking to
these people (TA and/or professor) is not quite an option because you have
to wait in line and probably will only get 5-10 minutes to ask a quick
question and try to catch as much of the answer as possible. For those
students watching a video would not be that much different.


Karim Diff
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