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Re: [Phys-l] Inquiry




Hi all-
I think we can make this discussion more concrete.
I am trying to write a calculus text that is intended to be read,
and in the reading to teach the student how to read. So invite eacdh of
you to try Chapter 1 of the text by reading through it and working all the
examples (est. time for a teacher, 45 minutes). You may even want to try
it out on some of your students.
I will greatly value your opinions as to how well the design of
the book helps implement my goals.
The introduction and first two chapters are at
http://www.hep.anl.gov/jlu/index.html
click under "book", either postscript of .pdf

The introduction has some possibly helpful comments as to how to read the
book. Chapter 3 is also available on the same websiqte.


Of course what you get from teacher's opinions may not be valid for the
reasons I have outlined. I would say we are generally not very good judges
of what is good for students. It would be better if the teachers gave a
standard diagnostic test such as the Calculus conceptual diagnostic. If
only 1 chapter is tested, then one has to do matched sets rather than pre
and post, because the pre and posttest may be too close to each other.
According to the information I have gotten from another researcher, the 2
tests must be separated by at least 2 weeks. Of course a delayed posttest
would also be better because conceptual understanding appears to rise for
about 2 weeks after a good IE lesson.

John M. Clement
Houston, TX