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Several Strands
Elementary education Physics Education (HS & college) General Science education Psychology (especially Piaget) Strands are intertwined and early ideas are now coming back.
A brief History
Robert Karplus Late 50s became interested in his childrens schooling. Left theoretical physics to develop SCIS curriculum for elementary school. It was research based. He along with Lawson and others developed the Learning Cycle
Learning Cycle
1. 2. 3. Exploration (inquiry labs) Concept development / term definition Application of concepts All 3 phases are necessary They must be in this order This improves content understanding and student thinking ability.
Kinematics graphs
Heather Brasell Late 80s Showed student Misconceptions with kinematics graphs Found labs using the sonic ranger improved understanding more than paper and pencil tasks.
Lecturers at AZ State
1. Theoretician, logical orderly, proofs 2. Well prepared demos, highly conceptual 3. Experimentalist, emphasized problem solving 4. First time teacher followed book closely Same book, same content
Lectures
All the same. All uniformly low. Higher scores were achieved by a course with minimal lectures using the learning cycle. CONCLUSION: Conventional lectures, problem solving, demonstrations are not very effective.
Richard Hake
1998 6000 student comparison Found that Normalized gain is independent of pretest G = (post pre) / (max score pre) G is the fraction of Concepts understood / initially NOT
Results
Conventional courses 0 25% G Indirect measurement 10% G Interactive Engagement (research based) 30 70% G
Why ?????????????
Misconceptions taught & natural Too much material (mile wide/inch deep) Lack of coherence in books/ standards Learning cycle not followed Miscommunication teachers say one thing / students hear something else.
Solutions
Follow a learning cycle approach Carefully targeted inquiry labs. Pre/Post test to see how well you do Engage students in doing thinking.
McDermott method
1. Predict Students must predict results 2. Confront Experiment reveals misconceptions (Piagetian surprise) 3. Resolve Students come up with explanations. This comes from Piagets ideas about how students learn!
Results
Sequence
Show and explain situation (concrete introduction) Gather student predictions (short time) Demonstrate & Take data Students copy result Ask for student explanation Bridge to similar situations
Effective Demonstrations
Catherine Crouch Harvard Conventional demonstrations are extremely ineffective. But Student prediction of the result improves understanding.
Modeling AZ State
Method of teaching Supplies complete materials Teachers experience curriculum materials Best developed training program Coherent curriculum/whiteboarding 4 weeks in summer in Tempe or at other locations.
Preconceptions in Mechanics
Clement & Camp Uses Anchor & Bridging analogies Start with well known correct intuition Bridge by a series of analogies to target conception. Copyable student WS.
Minds on Physics
Leonard et al Univ. Mass Amherst 6 volume activity based course Designed to enhance problem solving Teacher manual is extensive. NOT a workbook as students hand in separate sheets. Uses many techniques!
Mechanics
Students need to have multiple ways of looking at physics. 1. Pictures 2. Graphs 3. Descriptions 4. Equations Must translate between all 4
Pictures
Strobe or Motion Diagrams.
7m
1. Is the Acceleration +, 0, or - ?
Students must
Learn to interpret motion maps ---- Draw Motion maps ---- Draw graphs from motion maps Describe the motion completely Write equations from motion maps and graphs. And in reverse.
Lawson Test
Tests general skills such as proportional reasoning, 2 variable reasoning Only 25% of regular students have proportional reasoning 75% of honors students have proportional reasoning. Scores on this test need to be targeted.