[Phys-L] Re: Aristotelian thinking among modern students

[rbtarara at SPRYNET.COM (Richard Tarara)]

That students come to us as Aristotelian thinkers, and usually leave the
same way, is nothing new.  It has been one of the major points pushed by
PER over the years and one of the things the Force Concept Inventory test
clearly will show.  Several programs have been developed by the PER folks
(I'm sure we'll here from some) to address this, and many DO produce
greatly improved FCI scores.  Whether or not two years later the students
have back-slid, I don't know.  What I (think) I do know is that there is no
way that spending a week or even two on Newton's Laws will really move
students toward a Newtonian view of nature.  Try at least 6 weeks and you
have to really focus your efforts.  I work from day one, right through
about week 8 of my course on the simple motion of the ball thrown straight
up.  We beat it to death--first describe the motion with emphasis on
RECOGNIZING accelerated motion (increasing or decreasing speed, or change
in direction) with even more emphasis on what is going on at the highest
point in the motion.  Then we switch to the 'why' of the motion, looking at
forces--throwing, catching, and the effect of the earth.  We will soon look
at the Work being done and the classification of Energy during the motion.
In the end, about 2/3 of the class will be able to answer the type of
question posed, but there will still be the holdouts.  Even once MOST of
the class can answer correctly about the thrown ball, you can change the
question slightly and still get 25-35% to jump right back into Aristotelian
mode.

There may be better ways to approach this--as has been suggested.  It may
also not be all that important that EVERYBODY 'gets there'--who are your
students and what are you goals, what do they _really_ need from your
course.  However, what Anthony says IS correct.  This is very difficult
stuff.  I know physics teachers will look at the FCI and say to themselves,
'well of course my students can answer these questions--we've studied
Newton's Laws and the questions are _easy_.'  Well they aren't easy and it
actually takes a sophisticated understanding of the 3 laws to do well on
the test--the questions are much more subtle to the students, then they are
to most of us.  It is therefore NOT surprising that instruction that
doesn't really address all of the above and doesn't spend sufficient time
to do so, will show poor results.

Rick

***************************************************
R.W.Tarara
Professor of Physics
Saint Mary's College
Notre Dame, Indiana

Free Physics Instructional Software
Windows & Mac
www.saintmarys.edu/~rtarara/software.html
***********************************************