| Chronology | Current Month | Current Thread | Current Date |
| [Year List] [Month List (current year)] | [Date Index] [Thread Index] | [Thread Prev] [Thread Next] | [Date Prev] [Date Next] |
Greetings, One of the primary goals I had when I began teaching was to have a demonstration for each physics concept that I taught. The number grew as the years went by. Some were made, some were purchased, etc. The list has grown to over 500.
Students would be motivated and the concept better understood when the demonstration was performed either by me or many times by a student.
In many cases, the demonstration took physics out of the classroom, so to speak, and into the real world.
And in every class, there were some students who were on the lookout for physics in the things around them and were quick to report when they found something.
Being able to see the physics around them really, in my opinion, enhances the life of a person that could do so.
Have a Great Day
Website rheckathorn.weebly.com
On Jun 9, 2016, at 5:08 PM, David Craig <craigda@lemoyne.edu> wrote:
Thank you for the thoughtful feedback, I’m interested to hear more.
I lost interest a long time ago in worrying about what students SHOULD do. (As John D has noted, this is probably not the same for every student anyhow.) I am more concerned with what they DO do, based on some years of observation and corresponding efforts to shape student responses to what is asked of them.
The best students by and large take care of themselves. It is the behavior of middling and even struggling students that I hope to socially engineer to achieve, to the greatest extent that I can, the outcome that I want: meaningful learning experiences. Across the board, but most especially in more advanced courses, my starting point is the premise that most meaningful learning in physics comes from DOING physics, usually through thoughtful engagement with problems and projects. I’d be hard to convince that problem sets, projects and the like are not ESSENTIAL to meaningful learning — though it might be interesting to hear arguments to the contrary. With that as my starting point, the question is then, what course structures are most effective at promoting genuine engagement (as opposed to simple answer-seeking) with the course material by MOST (likely never all) students in the course (not just the “good” ones.)
To observe that students “should” do this or that, for the love of learning or because it will help them in the future or because it’s part of being a mature learner or whatever else, may be valid — if a bit smug — but is not especially helpful. Rather, I contend that this is largely a structural matter. It’s not exactly revolutionary to note that students respond differently to different sets of requirements and expectations. What kinds of requirements and expectations are most effective at achieving the desired outcomes? John D is quite right that students often live up to our expectations, and indeed, those expectations are communicated, both directly and indirectly, by what a course asks of them. My aim in posting was to probe what others have learned about possible answers to this question.
My experience is that offering no incentive to do homework beyond the fact that they “should” do it to learn the materia
_______________________________________________
Forum for Physics Educators
Phys-l@www.phys-l.org
http://www.phys-l.org/mailman/listinfo/phys-l