PhD

This page is an overview of work I would like to accomplish during advanced study in the history and social studies of science. Specific details and references can be found in the pages linked from this page. Comments are welcome in the discussion page.

Research scope

I hope to earn a PhD studying curriculum change. A nascent but growing body of research is examining how physics educators shape the content of their curriculum. In my theory, we should consider allowing our curriculum to evolve and to diversify with time, but I want to know how it has done so before.

The work will draw on my experience as a physics teacher; my studies of the history of physics and the history of science; the sociology of science; and others' research into curriculum-change.

The work would study and result in active changes to the standard physics curriculum, either at the high school level or at the introductory college level.

Problems to address

• Physics has lagged behind the rest of science, technology, engineering, and math (STEM) disciplines in appealing to broad segments of the population of students, notably females and underprivileged minorities.
• Curriculum change is slower in physics than in other STEM disciplines.
• There is less research on curriculum change in physics than in other fields.
• Educators are looking for curricula to satisfy needs of students on new and diverse career pathways.
• At each transition stage, from high school to college, from undergraduate to graduate, sometimes even from introductory to upper-level undergraduate, educators are identifying a widening gap between what is taught and what is considered prerequisite at the higher level.
• The movement towards standardization of state-mandated "core curriculum" has forced a certain amount of monoculture in course content, especially for those only taking one year of physics in high school. Unlike in other countries, American students usually only take one year of physics in high school, so standardization has an important impact on their experience.
• Introductory physics courses are repelling students.

Questions to answer

• How has physics curriculum changed in the past?
• How can physics curriculum change now?
• Has physics curriculum become stagnant? If so, when?
• What have been the impediments to change?
• What have been the catalysts of change?
• Who or what are the arbiters of the canonical physics curriculum?
• Is physics curriculum tightly controlled?
• How much have physicists, or even the general public, been able to steer the course of physical science using the schools?
• How much of the change in natural philosophy over time is attributable to the rendered curriculum, and how much of that change can be attributed to foresight of those in power?
• Opposite to the previous question, how much has the canonization of the curriculum prevented progress in physical understanding?
• Do textbooks lead or follow changes in physics curriculum?
• What might a reformed physics curriculum look like in the future, based on this research?

Abstract

Physics is one of the least attractive of the high school standard courses. Given the choice of what to study, students self-segregate by socio-economic status (SES) and gender, with low-SES and females selecting out of physics or being selected out of physics.

Physics curriculum may be the most un-changed curriculum since the modern high school system of credits was established with Carnegie Units around 1910. In other words, physics, of all standard high school subjects, may have changed the least in the past 100 years. An example of change would be the study of nuclear physics, because such study would be unrecognizable to someone schooled before the discovery of the neutron, fusion, etc. Subtler changes would be in the presentation of kinematics and dynamics, in the stress on vectors, momentum, and simple motion problems.

The movement towards standardization of state-mandated "core curriculum" have forced a certain amount of monoculture in course content, especially for those only taking one year of physics in high school. Unlike in other countries, American students usually only take one year of physics in high school, so standardization has an important impact on their experience. On the other hand, there are competing sets of standards applicable to most schools: Two of the biggest are statewide curricula, for example "Regents Physics" in New York State, and Advanced Placement curriculum, driven by the AP tests.

Diversity in the content may better serve a large country like the U.S. Diversity should also allow physics in total to attract a wider group of students.

Physics Education Research (PER) has focused on how to teach the canon better, not what to teach. Science is absent from the history of curriculum.

Therefore, I propose trying to diversify the scope and sequence of physics courses. Not every school should include all the diversity, but the curriculum should look more diverse between schools. However, we should avoid reproducing the socio-economic divisions that can be perpetuated by only providing low-paid vocational education to one SES group and elite education to another.

Methods

I will use several methods. Answer to key questions will necessitate shifts in this methods, so this is only an initial map:

1. Trace the path of the content of physics courses.
   1. Review physics textbooks from the past 200 years.
   2. Review physics lab equipment from the past 200 years.
   3. Seek evidence of significant control of the physics curriculum by professionals, educators, governments.
   4. Timeline the introduction or demise of fields of study.
   5. Interview educators, ask how they choose what to teach. Ask what they think is the scope of their field.
   6. Use critical historical methods to find how content choices have been made.
2. Examine the impact of the current canon on students and society.
   1. Examine student affective variables before, during, and after exposure to the physics canon.
   2. Relate students' outcomes to variables in the curriculum itself.
3. Identify curriculum change.
   1. Measure diversity of curriculum.
   2. Identify links between curriculum branches and populations, purposes.
   3. Identify people involved in curriculum change.
      1. Determine their power and effectiveness.
      2. Determine their limitations.
4. Create change
   1. Itemize change vectors (both what would be changed and what would the change be?).
   2. Determine what changes would be socially acceptable/unacceptable.
   3. Determine what changes would be manageable.
   4. Pick a target group.
   5. Document achieved changes.
   6. Predict effects, partly based on previous work.

Concepts

• The canonical physics curriculum
• Diversity
  • Diversity of students
  • Diversity of the human endeavor
  • Diversity of the curriculum
• Hidden curriculum
• Recapitulation of historical science in science curriculum
• Curriculum change
  • Resistance to change
• Social relevance
• Learning standards

Courses

Cornell, STS 3301,Making of Modern Science--The Physical Sciences

I enrolled extramurally Fall 2009, but I see this as learning and research for the PhD.

Cornell, EDUC 6470, Innovative Teaching in the Sciences

I enrolled extramurally Spring 2010, but I see this as learning and research for the PhD.

Collaboration

• Cornell Physics Department
  • Don Holcomb?
• Cornell Physics Teacher in Residence
• Cornell Outreach (CNS, CIPT,...)
• Cornell Education Department
• Area high schools
  • Lehman Alternative Community School?
  • Ithaca High School?
  • New Roots Charter School?
  • Lansing High School?
  • Dryden High School?
  • etc.?
• Other physics teachers
• University physics professors
• Michigan State
  • Wolfgang Bauer?
• APS

Possible support for this work

NSF Discovery Research K-12

"DR K-12 especially encourages proposals that challenge existing assumptions about learning and teaching within or across STEM fields, envision needs of learners in 10-15 years, and consider new and innovative ways to support learning."

References

Bibliography (Also see specific pages for more references)