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Re: [Phys-L] Indicators of quality teaching(Was:MOOC:EdxOffers Mechanics course by Prof.Walter Lewin)



John,

Some clarification on the Chinese data?

Are the gains you quote over all of high school? Or exactly over what time period.

Are you referring to normalized gain for the Chinese?

Joel

|-----Original Message-----
|From: Phys-l [mailto:phys-l-bounces@phys-l.org] On Behalf Of John Clement
|Sent: Monday, June 24, 2013 1:43 PM
|To: Phys-L@Phys-L.org
|Subject: Re: [Phys-L] Indicators of quality teaching(Was:MOOC:EdxOffers
|Mechanics course by Prof.Walter Lewin)
|
|Yes, some extra time is used. But just devoting extra time is very unlikely by
|itself to produce higher gains. If the course is taught conventionally the
|increase in gain due to extra time will, I predict, will be very small.
|The higher gain is mainly due to the method and not just the extra time. So if
|anyone who teaches using conventional methods wants to test this
|prediction, go for it. See if it is possible to change 13% gain to 50% gain. You
|might change 13% to 15%, but I doubt that extra time by itself will do much
|more. I could be wrong and it might produce 20%. The truism that extra time
|produces much higher gain is just that, a truism. But it has not been well
|tested and quantified.
|
|Now this being said, it is true that the Chinese get higher FCI scores.
|This is because students get physics every year in HS. In other words the
|extra time is much much greater and spread out so as to give time for
|accomodation. Also all Chinese students take physics so looking at FCI scores
|for all students shows depressed American scores. Accomodation may
|require at least 2 weeks after the introduction of a new concept. This is based
|on comments by Laws and the experience of Shayer & Adey.
|
|Some things are easily learned if you just devote extra time, but when
|accomodation is needed I submit that extra time is not the important factor.
|Extra time alone is brute force, when what you need is intelligent learning.
|
|John M. Clement
|Houston, TX
|
|>
|> ?? Rick has just told you that he both gets good gains and spends more
|> time - and you give a knee-jerk response of "It doesn't work very
|> well". Is no one's experience valid but yours?
|>
|
|
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