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Re: [Phys-L] Conceptual Physics Course



You can only hope to provide an effective framework and tools so that students can improve their knowledge, understanding, and skills. Unfortunately, in the case of many 'Conceptual Physics' courses, the bulk of the students are there because somehow that course is REQUIRED! That automatically means that many (if not most) of the students are not really interested in learning physics. They are interested in getting this requirement out of the way. Of course, one of your goals could be to try and really interest the students in the material (and here is where the 'themed' course can help), but we have to all understand that we cannot teach if the students don't want to learn.

In this light, you will never get all the students up to the same 'level' unless that level is extremely low. The real skill for the instructor is to find a framework and the tools that allows the most interested and capable students to move up a lot, the middling students to move up a reasonable amount, and still get the reluctant and obstinate students up at least a little. The task is NOT easy!

rwt

Richard Tarara
Professor of Physics
Saint Mary's College

Free Physics Software
www.saintmarys.edu/~rtarara/software.html



----- Original Message -----
Here's another question, for everyone on the list, about goals: Should
the purpose of a course be to get the students in that course up to
one
and the same level in terms of skills and knowledge or should it be to
bump everyone up by the same amount (so that each student experiences
the maximum possible increase in skills and knowledge)?
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