[Phys-l] Is Newtonian Mechanics What Most Needs to be Known? (was How Much Value is Added. . . .)

[Richard Hake <rrhake@earthlink.net>]

Is Newtonian Mechanics What Most Needs to be Known? (was How Much 
Value is Added. . . .)

The abstract of my post "How Much Value is Added at Elite 
Institutions - Response to Haim #2" [Hake (2011)], reads in part 
[bracketed by lines "HHHHH. . . . ."]:

HHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHH
In my post "How Much Value is Added at Elite Institutions?" [Hake 
(2011c)], I wrote:

". . . . demonstrations that the less-than-stellar value-added 
assessments of Korsunsky's high school and Stuyvesant High School are 
inequitable would require meaningful value-added measures such as 
normalized average pre-to-posttest gains on valid and consistently 
reliable tests of higher-order learning. . ."

Math-Teach's "Haim" responded: "The problem is that you are not sure 
what you are measuring."

NONSENSE! In the case of Harvard, the higher-order learning consisted 
of conceptual understanding of Newtonian mechanics.
HHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHH

To which Marion Brady (2011) <http://bit.ly/fjXM4e> responded:

"I'm . . . .  just wondering if this isn't reinforcing the 
traditional assumption that we know enough about the student's 
probable fate and the world's probable future to assert that, in a 
near-infinity of options, this particular content is what most needs 
to be known?"

MARION IS INCINERATING A STRAW MAN. If he and others would take a few 
minutes to scan my complete post at <http://bit.ly/gxUOAb> they would 
find that I neither stated nor implied the manifest absurdity that 
Newtonian mechanics is what *most* needs to be known - it's only the 
third or fourth particular content in order of what needs to be known 
;-).

Richard Hake, Emeritus Professor of Physics, Indiana University
Honorary Member, Curmudgeon Lodge of Deventer, The Netherlands
President, PEdants for Definitive Academic References which Recognize the
      Invention of the Internet (PEDARRII)
<rrhake@earthlink.net>
<http://www.physics.indiana.edu/~hake>
<http://www.physics.indiana.edu/~sdi>
<http://HakesEdStuff.blogspot.com>
<http://iub.academia.edu/RichardHake>

"Of all the intellectual hurdles which the human mind has confronted 
and has overcome in the last fifteen hundred years the one which 
seems to me to have been the most amazing in character and the most 
stupendous in the scope of its consequences is the one relating to 
the problem of motion."
   Herbert Butterfield (1957/1997) in "The Origins of Modern Science" 
(quoted in Arons (1997,
      p.  23)


REFERENCES [URL's shortened by <http://bit.ly/> and accessed on 27 Jan 2011.]
Arons, A.B. 1997. "Teaching Introductory Physics." Wiley.  Amazon.com 
information at <http://amzn.to/bBPfop>. Note the searchable "Look 
Inside" feature.

Brady, M. 2011. "Re: How Much Value is Added at Elite Institutions - 
Response to Haim #2," online on the OPEN! EDDRA2 archives at 
<http://yhoo.it/hNPELq>. Post of 27 Jan 27 1:51 pm (Yahoo fails to 
indicate the time zone).

Butterfield, H. 1957/1997. "The Origins of Modern Science 1300-1800," 
Free Press. Amazon.com information at <http://amzn.to/hP2TMP>, note 
the searchable "Look Inside" feature.  First published in 1957.

Hake, R.R. 2011. "How Much Value is Added at Elite Institutions - 
Response to Haim #2 " online on the OPEN! AERA-L archives at 
<http://bit.ly/gxUOAb>.  Post of 26 Jan 2011 16:14:36-0800 to AERA-L 
and Net-Gold.  The abstract and link to the complete post are being 
transmitted to various discussion lists are also online on my blog 
"Hake'sEdStuff" at <http://bit.ly/eyTZAj> with a provision for 
comments.