Hake:20091208

Published to Physics and Society list at U Arkansas December 8, 2009. No permissions granted, get body from list.

Abstract

Jack Uretsky, in a Phys-L post "Re: Student engagement" wrote: "American education has produced a number of physics Nobelists. How many were products of physics courses that would be approved by PER enthusiasts?" My answer: "Probably near zero. BUT SO WHAT?" Physics Education Researchers (PER's) have attempted to design courses which enhance the learning of the vast majority of AVERAGE students, not potential Nobelists. Why the emphasis on the "average student" rather than the "exceptional student"? Because most exceptional students will learn on their own, even despite the (for them) usually helpful but unnecessary "interactive engagement." On the other hand, the fate of life on planet Earth is in the hands and minds of the masses of "average students" who, at least in democracies, control national policy - see e.g., "The Threat to Life on Planet Earth Is a More Important Issue Than David Brooks' 'Skills Slowdown [Hake (2009)].

Body

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Richard Hake, Emeritus Professor of Physics, Indiana University

24245 Hatteras Street, Woodland Hills, CA 91367 Honorary Member, Curmudgeon Lodge of Deventer, The Netherlands rrhake at symbol earthlink.net> http://www.physics.indiana.edu/~hake/ http://www.physics.indiana.edu/~sdi/ http://HakesEdStuff.blogspot.com/

http://iub.academia.edu/RichardHake

"A remarkable feature of American colleges is the lack of attention that most faculties pay to the growing body of research about how much students are learning and how they could be taught to learn more. Derek Bok (2005) in "Are colleges failing? Higher ed needs new lesson plans."

References

[Tiny URL's courtesy http://tinyurl.com/create.php.] Arons, A.B. 1997. Teaching Introductory Physics. Wiley. Amazon.com information at http://tinyurl.com/ykx4bak.

Bok, D. 2005. "Are colleges failing? Higher ed needs new lesson plans," Boston Globe, 18 December, copied into the APPENDIX of Hake (2005a). Bok wrote: ". . . . studies indicate that problem-based discussion, group study, and other forms of active learning produce greater gains in critical thinking than lectures, yet the lecture format is still the standard in most college classes, especially in large universities. Other research has documented the widespread use of other practices that impede effective learning, such as the lack of prompt and adequate feedback on student work, the prevalence of tests that call for memory rather than critical thinking, and the reliance on teaching methods that allow students to do well in science courses by banking on memory rather than truly understanding the basic underlying concepts."

Hake, R.R. 1967, "Paramagnetic Superconductivity in Extreme Type II Superconductors," Phys. Rev. 158(2): 356-376.

Hake, R.R. 1998a. "Interactive-engagement vs traditional methods: A six thousand-student survey of mechanics test data for introductory physics courses," Am. J. Phys. 66: 64-74, online at http://www.physics.indiana.edu/~sdi/ajpv3i.pdf.

Hake, R.R. 1998b. "Interactive-engagement methods in introductory mechanics courses," online at http://www.physics.indiana.edu/~sdi/IEM-2b.pdf (108 kB). A crucial companion paper to Hake (1998a). Average pre/post test scores, standard deviations, instructional methods, materials used, institutions, and instructors for each of the survey courses of are tabulated and referenced. In addition the paper includes: (a) case histories for the seven IE courses whose effectiveness as gauged by pre-to-post test gains was close to those of T courses, (b) advice for implementing IE methods, and (c) suggestions for further research. Submitted on 6/19/98 to the Physics Ed. Res. Supplement to Am. J. Phys, but universally ignored because it was rejected by the editor on the grounds that the very transparent Physical-Review-type data tables [see e.g., Table II of Hake (1967)] were "impenetrable"! :-(.

Hake, R.R. 2005. "Are colleges failing?" AERA-L post of 19 Dec 2005 17:54:37-0800; online on the OPEN! AERA-L archives at http://tinyurl.com/2rdc88. The APPENDIX contains a copy of Bok (2005).

Hake, R.R. 2008. "Design-Based Research in Physics Education Research: A Review," in Kelly, Lesh, & Baek (2008). A pre-publication version of that chapter is online at http://tinyurl.com/2lsgzl.

Hake, R.R. 2009. " 'The Threat to Life on Planet Earth' Is a More Important Issue Than David Brooks' 'Skills Slowdown', " online at http://tinyurl.com/l28ojd with a provision for comments.

Horton, M. 2009. "Student engagement," Phys-L post of 4 Dec 2009 01:39:05-0600, online on the OPEN! Phys-L archives at https://carnot.physics.buffalo.edu/archives/2009/12_2009/msg00014.html.

Kelly, A.E., R.A. Lesh, & J.Y. Baek. 2008. "Handbook of Design Research Methods in Education: Innovations in Science, Technology, Engineering, and Mathematics Learning and Teaching, Routledge. Publisher's information at http://tinyurl.com/4eazqs; Amazon.com information at http://tinyurl.com/5n4vvo.

McDermott. L.C. & E.F. Redish. 1999. "RL-PER1: Resource letter on physics education research," Am. J. Phys. 67(9), 755-767; online to subscribers at http://scitation.aip.org/dbt/dbt.jsp?KEY=AJPIAS&Volume=67&Issue=9.

Uretsky, J. 2009. "Re: Student engagement," Phys-L post of 5 Dec 2009 22:33:27-0600, online on the OPEN! Phys-L archives at online on the OPEN! Phys-L archives at https://carnot.physics.buffalo.edu/archives/2009/12_2009/msg00031.html.