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Re: [Phys-l] Students' READING abilities



Amazing! Physics is unique -- confusing language, and even more confusing
concepts. Of all the topics I teach, Newton's laws are by far the most
conceptually challenging for my students -- specifically, the third law.
Even my "honors" students struggle with action-reaction forces, yet they
can handle difficult math problems. And we, as teachers, want/expect our
students to grasp counterintuitive ideas in a very short time. Hard for
teachers and students. There are ways to do this, some more effective than
others.

Forum for Physics Educators <phys-l@carnot.physics.buffalo.edu> writes:
Don't know if this is really true, but I recall someone saying once
that the language load in an intro physics course was larger than the
language load in an intro modern language course. If so, that does
say something about our expectations.

joe

Joseph J. Bellina, Jr. Ph.D.
Professor of Physics
Saint Mary's College
Notre Dame, IN 46556

On Feb 24, 2009, at 5:19 PM, Anthony Lapinski wrote:

Part of the problem in physics -- all science -- is the language.
Biology
has big words that few can even spell (DNA is deoxyribonucleic acid).
Chemistry has names for compounds that are hard to remember (is it
sulfate
or sulfite?). And physics is perhaps the most confusing: distance vs
displacement, speed vs velocity, energy vs momentum, temperature vs
heat.
And all the big misconceptions (e.g., floating astronauts are
accelerating).

Ratio = fraction = divide. Kids get even these simple terms
confused. Some
of mine can't even read a meter stick!

How did it get this way? Where do we go from here?

Forum for Physics Educators <phys-l@carnot.physics.buffalo.edu>
writes:
In other words, if a student finds me incomprehensible, it's all the
student's fault. If you ask the student for a ratio, and, as often
happens, you get back a difference, it was the student's fault
that you
used a word that the student didn't understand. (See Arons on
student
ignorance of the meaning of certain terms).
Regards,
Jack


On Tue, 24 Feb 2009, Michael Edmiston wrote:

Mightn't it be a good idea to start talking to them in language
they
understand and finding out how effective that approach is?
Regards,
Jack

If a student wants to understand, and is therefore actually
trying to
understand, and therefore is actually investing some time in the
subject...
then understanding is going to happen one way or another. It might
first
hit them from studying the text; it might first make sense during
the
lab;
it might first come from the lecture; it might first come from
working
on a
problem set; it might first require a visit to my office. The only
times I
have been unsuccessful with students who are actually trying have
been
when
the students have actual learning disabilities or have huge holes in
their
backgrounds that I can't fix in the allotted time.

I don't know what percentage to use, but I would guess that over
90% of
my
students who aren't getting it are in that situation because they
aren't
investing any time in it. And they aren't investing any time
because
they
don't really want to know. And they don't want to know because
they see
this course as an artificial hurdle. That is, it's something
someone
said
they have to take, but they don't see any reason they should have to
take it
because "they are never going to use any of this stuff in their
chosen
profession."

Lacking the desire to understand the material, I don't think
there is
any
language that will be effective.

Michael D. Edmiston, Ph.D.
Professor of Chemistry and Physics
Bluffton University
1 University Drive
Bluffton, OH 45817
419.358.3270
edmiston@bluffton.edu


_______________________________________________
Forum for Physics Educators
Phys-l@carnot.physics.buffalo.edu
https://carnot.physics.buffalo.edu/mailman/listinfo/phys-l


--
"Trust me. I have a lot of experience at this."
General Custer's unremembered message to his men,
just before leading them into the Little Big Horn Valley



_______________________________________________
Forum for Physics Educators
Phys-l@carnot.physics.buffalo.edu
https://carnot.physics.buffalo.edu/mailman/listinfo/phys-l


_______________________________________________
Forum for Physics Educators
Phys-l@carnot.physics.buffalo.edu
https://carnot.physics.buffalo.edu/mailman/listinfo/phys-l

_______________________________________________
Forum for Physics Educators
Phys-l@carnot.physics.buffalo.edu
https://carnot.physics.buffalo.edu/mailman/listinfo/phys-l