Re: [Phys-l] Students' READING abilities

["John Clement" <clement@hal-pc.org>]

> Inquiry is but one learning METHOD.  If that is the only method being
> used,
> then who is going to structure and guide such inquiry throughout these
> students' lives?   Used in one course or for some topics, such a method is
> fine.  As the primary means of all education, or all physics
> education.....that one bothers me a lot.   The internal conflicts between
> faculty doing the 'in-class only' work and those still demanding
> reasonable
> outside work is real.

But if it works better then perhaps it should be used for all classes.  Once
students are in an inquiry mode, the forced guided part can be decreased.
As to real life, one needs to use inquiry, as most things do not have
cookbook guided manuals.  And notice that inquiry is not a synonym for
"in-class only".  This is a gross misconception.  Eric Mazur who uses
interactive lectures requires outside reading, and enforces it by quizzes.
Demanding outside work is probably necessary in all methods.

>  Near 'religious' adherence to one pedagogy is
> becoming problematic.

What a wonderful argument against lectures!!!!  The overwhelmingly
predominant pedagogy is conventional lecture. So adherence to lecture
pedagogy is problematic.  Lecture is a "teaching METHOD" and not a "learning
METHOD".  Actually I do learn by lecturing.  But when a lecture, I learn
only by listening to a lecture if I already have a great familiarity with
the subject.  I submit that conventional lecture is very mismatched to
learning.  Or using physics language, I would say there is an impedance
mismatch.  Inquiry sets up the student by exploration so they are ready to
understand a minilecture.  Or first adjust the impedance before trying to
transfer a message.

The idea that all methods are equivalent is probably false.  So saying it is
but "one learning METHOD" is appealing to the idea that it is merely a
style.  This is appealing to an opinion rather than to evidence.  We do
inquire in life and try to figure things out, and we practically never have
set lectures to tell us what to do.  So inquiry is actually structured
closer to what physicists do and to what we do in real life.  In real life
inquiry can often involve reading or communicating with other to get
information, rather than having it neatly packaged and force on us.  I
submit that conventional lecture makes learners lazy by giving them the
impression that they have been presented with everything they need, while
inquiry makes them more independent.

John M. Clement
Houston, TX