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However, the scientist of the future need skills, basic and advanced.
The teacher's problem is to make clear why the rote skills are needed to
underpin new discoveries.
In the same vein, why would an intelligent, curious student prefer to
answer questions that are essentially recall and requests to repeat a
drilled skill? Students who prefer such treatment have some serious
changing to do in order to become effective scientists. Continuing to
ask this type of questions (above) in physics classes is a sure way to
get technicians who are not interested particularly in understanding what
they are doing or calculating in to physics. Is that what we want? Can
we afford to load up on such students?
Dewey
On Aug 29, 2011, at 8:37 PM, robert fuller wrote:
Do clicker questions you are using encourage student motivation for
learning?
I would like to refer you to the motivation for learning work of Malone.
Malone, T.,"Toward a Theory of Intrinsically Motivating
Instruction", Cognitive Science 4, 333-369 (1981).
His suggestions:
Intrinsically Motivating Instruction
Challenge
Provides goals whose attainment is uncertain
Fantasy
make instructional environments more interesting and more educational
Curiosity
provide an optimal level of informational complexity
I think too often the questions we physics teachers ask are not
intrinsically interesting to the students.
Bob Fuller
UNL