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ABSTRACT: An excerpt from Valerie Strauss's Washington Post report
"Breathing Life Into the Lecture Hall" indicates how Joe Redish
infuses life into lectures at the University of Maryland. Science
education owes thanks to Strauss, not only for publicizing Redish's
exemplary teaching, but also for a 2004 Washington Post report "Back
to Basics vs. Hands-On Instruction: California Rethinks Science
Labs." That article stimulated a letter to the California State Board
of Education (CSBE) from California leaders of academia and high tech
industries and that prompted the CSBE to suddenly reverse the
California Curriculum Commission's demand that "instructional
materials must include NO MORE than 20 to 25 percent of hands-on
materials," to read "instructional materials must include AT LEAST 20
to 25 percent of hands-on materials."
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Gabe Popkin (2007), in a Committee on Teacher Preparation CTP-L post
of 19 March titled "Article about interactive lecture at U Maryland
in last Monday's Washington Post" alerted CTP-L subscribers to the
report "Breathing Life Into the Lecture Hall" [Valerie Strauss
(2007)].
Strauss wrote [bracketed by lines "SSSSSSS. . . . ."]:
SSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSS
Nearly 200 students sat in the large lecture hall, staring down at
their professor, Edward F.. . . [Joe]. . . Redish, holding pencils
at the ready to take notes in Fundamentals of Physics. It looked like
a traditional lecture course, but appearance is where the tradition
ended.
Instead of spending 50 minutes putting students to sleep by lecturing
about position, velocity and acceleration, Redish, a University of
Maryland professor, kept the students awake by getting them actively
involved in the lesson -- all 192 of them.
He called on his students by name, having taken and studied their
pictures. He frequently directed students to solve a problem with
their neighbors or register opinions with a "clicker" system that,
within seconds, calculates the answers and shows him the response.
Sometimes he performs an experiment or shows part of a movie. And if
he sees someone doing a crossword puzzle, he is liable to walk over
and help out.
This is Redish's version of the time-honored college lecture course,
which is undergoing significant change at some universities because
of technological innovations and the desire to hold the attentions of
the highly structured 21st-century student.
"Lecturing is not good for children and other living things," said
Redish, who spent 25 years in theoretical nuclear physics and now
researches how students learn physics. "They don't really learn very
much in a lecture."
. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .
. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .
. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .
SSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSS
Science education owes thanks to Valerie Strauss, not only for
publicizing the interactive "lecturing" of Joe Redish, but also for
picking up a rejected OpEd piece "The End of Hands-On Science
Activities in California's K-8 Classrooms?" [Woolf & Hake (2004)],
and reporting its message, and then some, in the Washington Post as
"Back to Basics vs. Hands-On Instruction: California Rethinks Science
Labs" [Strauss (2004)].
Strauss's article caught the eye of Bruce Alberts, at the time
President of the National Academy of Sciences, and culminated in the
pro-hands-on letter to the California Board of Education of 5 March
2004 by Levinson et al. (2004), signed by leaders of Intel, Bechtel,
Pixar, Lucasfilm, Adobe Systems, and higher education, including the
Presidents of the University of California , Stanford, California
Institute of Technology, and all 10 UC Chancellors.
In "Will Evidence and Logic Reform Education? " [Hake (2005)] I wrote:
HHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHH
"The . . . letter from Levinson et al. (2004) [**not* the
evidence-based arguments of teachers, education researchers, and
various professional organizations that inundated the California
State Board of Education (CSBE) <http://www.cde.ca.gov/be/> prior to
their 10 March 2004 meeting] was probably the leading factor in
prompting the CSBE, at that meeting, to amend the California
Curriculum Commission's <http://www.cde.ca.gov/be/cc/cd/> demand that
'instructional materials must include NO MORE than 20 to 25 percent
of hands-on materials' to read 'instructional materials must include
AT LEAST 20 to 25 percent of hands-on materials. ' "
HHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHH
Never underestimate the power of the press. For commentary on the
CSBE's sudden reversal see, e.g., Galley (2004a,b), Hake (2004), and
Woolf (2005).
Hake, R.R. 2005. "Will Evidence and Logic Reform Education?" online at
<http://lists.nau.edu/cgi-bin/wa?A2=ind0502&L=phys-l&P=R1541>. Post
of 3 Feb 2005 11:29:26-0800 to AERA-D, AERA-H, AERA-K, AERA-L,
AP-Physics, ASSESS, Chemed-L, EvalTalk, Math-Learn, Phys-L, Physhare,
POD. I wrote:
Levinson, A.D. et al. 2004. Letter of 5 March to Reed Hastings of
the Board of Education. The letter was signed by Levenson , Genentech
CEO, along with leaders of Intel, Bechtel, Pixar, Lucasfilm, Adobe
Systems and higher education, including the Presidents of the
University of California (UC), Stanford, and the California Institute
of Technology, and all 10 UC Chancellors. Online at
<http://www.sci-ed-ga.org/standards/Final-Board-Letter.pdf> (112 kB).
Popkin, G. 2007. "Article about interactive lecture at U Maryland in
last Monday's Washington Post," CTP-L post of 03 Oct 2007
09:53:48-0400; online at the CTP-L archives.
Strauss, V. 2007. "Breathing Life Into the Lecture Hall," Washington
Post, 24 September, page B01; online at <http://tinyurl.com/2m2ryb>.
Woolf, L.D. & R.R. Hake. 2004. "The End of Hands-On Science
Activities in California's K-8 Classrooms?" online at
<http://lists.psu.edu/cgi-bin/wa?A2=ind0401&L=physhare&O=D&P=4583>.
Post of 12 Jan 2004 16:57:42-0800 transmitted to (a) the discussion
lists AERA-K, AP-Physics, Biopi-L, Chemed-L, Physhare, Phys-L, &
PhysLrnR; and (b) to the members and staff of the California
Curriculum Commission. This post was intended as an OpEd piece for
the San Diego Union Tribune but was rejected by the editor as being
written too much for "insiders." Also "letters to the editor" by
Woolf and Hake were immediately tossed into the circular files of the
LA Times, the San Francisco Chronicle, and the Sacramento Bee.
According to Schultz (1998), California newspapers similarly failed
to adequately cover 1995-1999 "California Science Wars."