Re: [Phys-L] MOOC: Edx Offers Mechanics course by Prof.Walter Lewin

["John Clement" <clement@hal-pc.org>]

Trust but verify!  I do not trust accounts of great teachers unless there is
some way of verifying that they are actually achieving results.  Energetic
demos do not work better.  But research based demos do work better.  The
Mazur method works better, but he does not necessarily get into the
audience.  He does listen to them when they discuss, but it is not necessary
to actually go out into the middle of the students.  All teachers ask
questions, but are they the right ones?  When a question is asked and
students are not forced to all think about them, then the questions only
engage just a small number.  That is one of the important ideas behind a lot
of research based materials such as the ILDs or Mazur's method.  The
questions are asked and all students have to respond and commit to an answer
either by voting, or by writing it down on a prediction sheet that is
collected for a grade.

The problem with lectures is that they produce assimilation.  That is where
the ideas are merely added to existing schema.  Research based methods
produce accomodation.  That is where there are changes in the basic patterns
of thinking.  This is straight from Piagetian thinking.  Modern cognitive
research shows that when a paradigm is challenged, the person goes through
many stages of justification to hold onto it even in the face of an
absolutely convincing demonstration that their ideas do not line up with
physical facts.

Again, the research showed that well regarded teachers did not achieve
better results than the others, so I am always very skeptical of any claims
of a particular teacher being superior, unless there is research based
evidence.

Trus me... should never be used.  I remember a salesperson saying "it stands
to reason...".  Both phrases are designed to convince without showing any
real evidence.

Dr. Lewin may be very popular, but what is the actual evidence that he
achieves superior learning?  SETS do not count because they do not evaluate
actual learning.  RPI had some very popular teachers, but when the students
were evaluated for learning they did not show very good gains.  But after
putting in place some research based ideas, the gain went up considerably.
RPI always had a great reputation for quality teaching, but alas, the
reality did not match the perceptions.

John M. Clement
Houston, TX


> Trust me...Dr. Lewin is effective and an amazing teacher all 
> the while lecturing.  But his lectures are never conventional 
> lectures.  He is in the audience and gets the people involved 
> with questions, energetic demos, and does whatever it takes 
> to get everyone involved,  all for a man in his (?) 70's.  He 
> never quits.  The guy brings a nice change of pace to MIT not 
> known for its great "teaching".  With apologies to the 
> wonderful teachers I have known there.