Re: [Phys-l] Paradigm Shift?

["Anthony Lapinski" <Anthony_Lapinski@pds.org>]

ACT. AP. GRE. MCAT. I'm certainly no expert, but teaching to a test does
not seem to be the best way to learn. There is much (too much?)
information to cover. Lots of people have book knowledge, but can't think
critically. And how you think is ultimately more important than what you
know -- because you can solve problems you've never seen before.

I hope you've all seen Harvard's "A Private Universe/Minds Of Our Own"
video. One of the clips shows Harvard/MIT graduates who can't light a bulb
with a battery and wire. These are our nation's brightest engineers?
Something is wrong with this picture!

I realize it's not as simple as I make it...

Forum for Physics Educators <phys-l@carnot.physics.buffalo.edu> writes:
> > The pace must slow down so students can comprehend what they are  
> > trying to learn.
>
>
> Tell that to the MCAT folks.   (What a noxious force THAT is on the  
> introductory curriculum!)
>
> Seriously.   If your programs are anything like ours, numbers in the  
> introductory sequence are driven largely by pre-health types of one  
> stripe or another.   If we revamp the courses and cover half the  
> current material they'll never have seen 3/4 of what's on the MCAT,  
> except maybe in a Kaplan course.
>
> Until we began offering a sequence that essentially "teaches to the  
> MCAT", our biology department was sending their students to the  
> community college for their physics, almost killing (literally) the  
> physics program in the process.   (That was all before I began here.)
>
> These discussions do not take place in a world in which only the  
> opinions of physics educators matter.
>
> Not, mind you, that I disagree with the point the original poster was  
> trying to make...
>
> David Craig
>
>
> <http://web.lemoyne.edu/~craigda/>
>
>
>
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