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[Phys-L] Re: Texts for AP courses



In his Phys-L post of 21 Aug 2005 06:43:48-0500 titled "Texts for AP
courses," Joe Bellina wrote (my CAPS):

"I just read in the Aug 11 . . . Wall Street Journal that the
College Board folks are going to tighten up requirements for AP
courses. In part, teachers will have to select from an approved set
of texts. ANYONE KNOW WHO IS DOING THE APPROVING?"

To which Wes Davis (2005) responded (my CAPS):

"The following is from the AP Physics list. There's a lot of
information about this on the College Board web site. NO SPECIFIC
INFO ON WHO'S CHOOSING THE TEXTS, THO. There seems to be a lot
that's tentative. See also
<http://apcentral.collegeboard.com/article/0,3045,151-165-0-46361,00.html>"

The above URL yields a message "AP Course Audit Information" from
Trevor Packer, Executive Director of the AP Program. Wes Davis then
quoted not Packer but a message from one Celeste T. McGee (evidently
of the College Board staff) on the "AP Course Audit." McGee's message
appeared in an
AP-Physics list post of 18 Aug 2005 07:04:12-0700 titled "A Message
from the College Board on the AP Course Audit," from list moderator
Mike Rulison and accessible on the AP-Physics list archives at
<http://lyris.collegeboard.com/cgi-bin/lyris.pl?site=collegeboard&enter=ap-physics>.

In any case, the answer to Joe Bellina's crucial question "ANYONE
KNOW WHO IS DOING THE APPROVING?" is not definitively answered in
either Davis's post nor my own post "The Role of Advanced Placement
Courses" [Hake (2005a)].

One wonders if those who will approve physics texts have any
awareness of the results of physics education research (PER) [see
e.g., Heron & Meltzer (2005), Hake (2005b)] or of the existence of
physics texts that incorporate material influenced by research in
physics education.

Richard Hake, Emeritus Professor of Physics, Indiana University
24245 Hatteras Street, Woodland Hills, CA 91367
<rrhake@earthlink.net>
<http://www.physics.indiana.edu/~hake>
<http://www.physics.indiana.edu/~sdi>


REFERENCES
Davis, W. "Re: Texts for AP courses," Phys-L post of 21 Aug 2005
06:52:34-0700; online at
<http://lists.nau.edu/cgi-bin/wa?A2=ind0508&L=phys-l&P=19583>.

Hake, R.R. 2005a. "The Role of Advanced Placement Courses," online at
<http://lists.nau.edu/cgi-bin/wa?A2=ind0508&L=phys-l&O=A&P=15174.>
Post of 15 Aug 2005 13:34:29-0700 to AERA-J, AERA-H, AERA-J, AERA-J,
AP-Physics, Math-Learn, PhysLrnR, Physhare, and POD.

Hake, R.R. 2005b. "Student Learning Assessment In the Social
Sciences," online at
<http://listserv.nd.edu/cgi-bin/wa?A2=ind0507&L=pod&P=R17442&I=-3>.
Post of 30 Jul 2005 11:34:43-0700 to AERA-C, AERA-D, AERA-GSL,
AERA-H, AERA-I, AERA-J, AERA-K, AERA-L, AP-Physics, ASSESS (bounced),
BioLab, Biopi-L, Chemed-L, EvalTalk, Phys-L, Physhare, PhysLrnR,
STLHE-L, TeachingEdPsych, and TIPS.

Heron, P.R.L. & D. Meltzer. 2005. The future of physics education research:
Intellectual challenges and practical concerns," Amer. J. Phys.
73(5): 390-394; online at
<http://www.physics.iastate.edu/per/articles/index.html>, scroll down
to "invited papers," or download directly by clicking on
<http://www.physics.iastate.edu/per/docs/Heron-Meltzer.pdf> (56kB).