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Re: [Phys-l] Any teaching tips



Bob,

I used to introduce conceptual essay questions to my students slowly. One or two on the first exam, with increasing numbers in later exams. I spent a lot of time giving feedback on these questions, much the way you would write comments on a written paper. High school and college students have a difficult time expressing themselves in print (and I fear it is getting worse with texting), and so unfortunately, helping people write is part of the job of a physics teacher.

Aside from essay questions, I have found that transfer problems, mentioned in my other post, are very effective and drawing out understanding. A somewhat advanced example: Suppose you have covered double slit interference, but have stressed the derivation of the result for maxima and minima rather than just using the formula. You have told the students they need to understand this process of going from first principles to an equation you can use. On the test, you give them three slits to analyze. Those who have memorized the derivation for two slits will be completely lost. Those who understood the process will be able to tackle the three slits.

One warning about using transfer problems. The test scores will go down dramatically. This is partly because they are simply more difficult and partly because it's difficult for the teacher to predict exactly how difficult a problem will be for the students. When coming up with brand new situations, there are sometimes small snags that you fail to anticipate.

Bill


On Jan 27, 2011, at 12:02 PM, LaMontagne, Bob wrote:

I agree with what Rick has posted below. I have had considerable difficulty, however, testing conceptual understanding. I have tried in the past to get away from "plug and chug" problems on exams and use more essay type questions meant to test conceptual understanding. Those efforts failed miserably. I'm sure part of the problem was my inability to write good coneptual questions. However, I found that a big part of the poor performance was the students inability to read questions and to write coherent answers. They do far better with textbook type problems where they can organize material in a template and plug numbers into a formula. Most can explain to me verbally how they attacked a problem - I can tell when they come to my office for help that they really do understand the physics and have gotten hung up on a minor detail - but they cannot give a written explanation of the same concept they have just explained to me verbally.

Bob at PC