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Re: [Phys-l] learning, judgment, self-assessment, etc.



Why not come close to home and ask why we tolerate a curriculum that is a
mile wide and an inch deep? How can this be changed? What sort of mental
levers need to be twisted to change this? Has anyone had small success
changing this paradigm?

I would like to try to address this in some detail. It's pretty late tonight though, so I pray defer for a bit.

WRT my earlier description of teaching 2 semesters, having never taught before, after being in industry for 31 years: it's even worse, or perhaps even better, than it sounds. I was not hired to teach "regular." I was hired to help teach a brand spanking new SCALE-UP classroom, the one inaugural SCALE-UP classroom (so far) at this University. Never had heard of it before. I'm not sure I'm joking when I claim that it's possible (?) I am the only person in the vicinity (?) country (?) (world?) whose ABSOLUTE SOLE not to mention FIRST teaching experience is the college undergraduate SCALE-UP physics classroom, other than those of course who first created/pioneered the concept. Can't tell you a thing about a regular lecture classroom because I've never done one yet.

I have sooo much to say about this thing. Everything that went right, everything that went wrong. What I saw that worked. What I saw that didn't. How I was mentored. How I was not. How I mentored myself. How I applied (or tried to) 31 years of "private sector" experience. How I had my head handed to me on a plate. How I gained respect. How I relearned things I realized I never learned correctly to begin with. How I tried to fix that for 19 year olds. All from a virgin perspective.

J Denker said, among other things, today:

I was *not* suggesting letting the inmates run the asylum.
Explicitly not.

Peer instruction needs to be closely supervised ... especially at
first (but not just at first). Ditto for "inquiry" in general.
As the saying goes, if the blind lead the blind, both shall fall
into the ditch.

As J Denker likes to also say, if rarely, "amen brother."

Note that I am not foreshadowing categorical statements about the success or failure of my experience. The SCALE-UP classroom at unsaid University has not, nor will, I think, go away, after holding its own, more or less, in its inaugural year. And in general, I will ultimately claim that is a good thing. If nutrition is there.

I had been debating whether to share my experience here. After all, I don't consider myself much of a teacher, despite being hired as one. But, I took it more seriously than any employment in the last 2 decades, so I'll give it a shot.


Stefan Jeglinski