[Phys-L] The Relativistic Model of Instruction (was Re: Shocked!!!)
From: rrhake at EARTHLINK.NET (Richard Hake)
Date: Sun Aug 14 17:50:50 2005
In her Math-Learn post of 12 Aug 2005 6:06 pm titled "Re: Shocked!!!"
math teacher Timotha Trigg wrote: "In my experience with education,
less is less despite claims of less being more". . . [as by the late
great astrophysicist and educator Phillip Morrison (1964)].
On 14 Aug 2005 00:09:48-0500 John Clement responded on Math-Learn:
"As you add more topics, there obviously is a point at which students can not
learn the basics, and the overall learning goes down. . . .If less is
always less, then more is always more. By this logic we should be
able to cram every topic up to quantum electrodynamics and string
theory into a two semester course."
Aside from the passive-student lectures, recipe labs, and algorithmic
problem sets, all demonstrated to be relatively ineffective in
promoting conceptual understanding of physics [Hake (2005)], another
failing of of traditional introductory physics courses has been that
"coverage" of a vast multitude of topics prohibits students from
learning the basics.
The late Arnold Arons (1986) put it well:
"The relativistic model of instruction is based on the premise that,
if one starts with an E - N - O - R - M - O - U - S [my emphasis]
breadth of subject matter but passes it by the student at
sufficiently high velocity, the Lorentz contraction will shorten it
to the point at which it drops into the hole which is the student
mind."
For a cartoon representation of the "relativistic model of
instruction" that characterizes most introductory physics courses see
Hake (2000).
REFERENCES
Arons, A.B. 1986. "Conceptual Difficulties in Science," in
Undergraduate Education in Chemistry and Physics: Proceedings of the
Chicago Conferences on Liberal Education," No. 1, edited by M.R.
Rice. Univ. of Chicago. p. 23-32. See also Hake (2004).