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Re: [Phys-l] Equations



Robert Cohen wrote:

I also avoid implications of causation. However, my
reasons are not only semantic but also pedagogical.

Excellent. That's an important and helpful point.

[more good stuff snipped]

So, yes, students naturally start out with strong conceptions of
cause-effect. It just isn't clear to me that we want to reinforce such
conceptions.

Another most excellent point.


To say what I believe is more-or-less the same thing in my own words:
++ Yes, we need to understand where students are coming from.
++ On _some_ issues we want to accommodate the students ...
-- but we don't want to be *too* accommodating. We don't want
the inmates running the asylum!

By way of analogy, pretend I'm teaching high-school English. I
anticipate that some students will arrive with a strong conception
that it is OK to say
"Me and him sang that song real good."

Yes, I understand where the student is coming from ... but I am
*not* going to debase my own speech in order to accommodate the
students. I am not even going to meet them halfway.

I might tolerate bad grammar in some situations; for instance,
if I am making some other important point I might choose not
to derail the discussion to correct somebody's grammar. But
I tolerate this only in the weakest sense of the term "tolerate".
I don't want my toleration to be mistaken for approval, and I
especially don't want to do anything that reinforces bad habits.

Applying this analogy to our main subject: Teaching students the
"advantages" of a=F/m is bad pedagogy. It is letting the inmates
run the asylum. It reinforces misconceptions about the nature of
equality and the nature of causality.

Sure, in the short run it is _easier_ for all concerned to accommodate
misconceptions rather than confronting misconceptions. But in the
long run there is a terrible price to pay.