[Phys-L] Re: First Day Activities or Demos

[jsd at AV8N.COM (John Denker)]

jbellina wrote:

> In that sense all inquiry is guided, its just that
> some guidance is better than others.  So the best teacher is the best
> guide.

I think we are all on the same page, and have now
converged on a good way of expressing it.

This is a point that is all-too-often misstated
in the literature.

> Have any of us really teased out what we did when we
> listened to lectures.  What else did we do, when and how did the
> learning occur.

I'm sure it's highly idiosyncratic.

I know how I handled lectures in college. As I heard each
new idea, I turned it around in my head ten or a hundred
times, trying to figure out how it is related to what I
already know.  (It's pretty much the same as what I do when
I read something ... with the disadvantage that I don't have
a fast/slow control on the lecture the way I do with written
material.)

I also have a good friend who didn't do that at all.  She
just took notes.  She felt she wasn't learning anything unless
she was taking notes.  I never (except maybe once) saw her
look at the notes afterwards, yet somehow the note-taking
process was important.

I'm not saying one is right and the other is wrong ... I'm just
saying her method would not have worked for me, nor mine for her.

Plus who-knows-how-many other schemes.  Not to mention the big
percentage that isn't paying attention at all ... busy daydreaming
about after-class activities.

In high school, I don't recall ever paying attention to the
lectures.  There were a few of us who had a "deal" with
the teachers ... as long as we were compleeetely silent, we
could sit way in the back of the room and play chess on our
magnetic pocket-sized chess boards.  Or we would skip out right
after attendance and go read in the library, or practice in the
music wing.  That was a pretty good deal compared to being
forced to sit in class and pretend to pay attention ... but
still we wondered how things would have turned out if we had
been offered classes where we could actually learn something.

Looking back, I wish I'd done something more constructive
with all those chess-playing hours.  But the book-reading
hours worked out OK.

Speaking of HS and physics and books, I have fond memories
of the PSSC physics text.  Good book.