What Else (Besides the Syllabus) Should Students Learn in Introductory Physics?
We have surveyed what various groups of instructors and students think students should learn in introductory physics. We started with a Delphi Study based on interviews with experts, then developed orthogonal responses to “what should we teach non‐physics majors besides the current syllabus topics?”...
| Main Authors: | , , |
|---|---|
| Other Authors: | |
| Format: | Article |
| Language: | en_US |
| Published: |
American Institute of Physics
2013
|
| Online Access: | http://hdl.handle.net/1721.1/76693 https://orcid.org/0000-0002-9298-3897 https://orcid.org/0000-0001-5697-1496 |
| _version_ | 1811089073425612800 |
|---|---|
| author | Pritchard, David E. Barrantes, Analia Belland, Brian R. |
| author2 | Massachusetts Institute of Technology. Department of Physics |
| author_facet | Massachusetts Institute of Technology. Department of Physics Pritchard, David E. Barrantes, Analia Belland, Brian R. |
| author_sort | Pritchard, David E. |
| collection | MIT |
| description | We have surveyed what various groups of instructors and students think students should learn in introductory physics. We started with a Delphi Study based on interviews with experts, then developed orthogonal responses to “what should we teach non‐physics majors besides the current syllabus topics?” AAPT attendees, atomic researchers, and PERC08 attendees were asked for their selections. All instructors rated “sense‐making of the answer” very highly and expert problem solving highly. PERers favored epistemology over problem solving, and atomic researchers “physics comes from a few principles.” Students at three colleges had preferences anti‐aligned with their teachers, preferring more modern topics, and the relationship of physics to everyday life and also to society (the only choice with instructor agreement), but not problem solving or sense‐making. Conclusion #1: we must show students how old physics is relevant to their world. Conclusion #2: significant course reform must start by reaching consensus on what to teach and how to hold students’ interest (then discuss techniques to teach it). |
| first_indexed | 2024-09-23T14:13:21Z |
| format | Article |
| id | mit-1721.1/76693 |
| institution | Massachusetts Institute of Technology |
| language | en_US |
| last_indexed | 2024-09-23T14:13:21Z |
| publishDate | 2013 |
| publisher | American Institute of Physics |
| record_format | dspace |
| spelling | mit-1721.1/766932022-10-01T19:51:44Z What Else (Besides the Syllabus) Should Students Learn in Introductory Physics? Pritchard, David E. Barrantes, Analia Belland, Brian R. Massachusetts Institute of Technology. Department of Physics MIT Experimental Study Group Pritchard, David E. Barrantes, Analia We have surveyed what various groups of instructors and students think students should learn in introductory physics. We started with a Delphi Study based on interviews with experts, then developed orthogonal responses to “what should we teach non‐physics majors besides the current syllabus topics?” AAPT attendees, atomic researchers, and PERC08 attendees were asked for their selections. All instructors rated “sense‐making of the answer” very highly and expert problem solving highly. PERers favored epistemology over problem solving, and atomic researchers “physics comes from a few principles.” Students at three colleges had preferences anti‐aligned with their teachers, preferring more modern topics, and the relationship of physics to everyday life and also to society (the only choice with instructor agreement), but not problem solving or sense‐making. Conclusion #1: we must show students how old physics is relevant to their world. Conclusion #2: significant course reform must start by reaching consensus on what to teach and how to hold students’ interest (then discuss techniques to teach it). National Science Foundation (U.S.) (NSF grant PHY-0757931) 2013-01-30T21:32:23Z 2013-01-30T21:32:23Z 2009-07 Article http://purl.org/eprint/type/ConferencePaper 978-0-7354-0720-6 0094-243X 1551-7616 http://hdl.handle.net/1721.1/76693 Pritchard, David E. et al. “What Else (Besides the Syllabus) Should Students Learn in Introductory Physics?” in Proceedings of the 2009 Physics Education Research Conference, Ann Arbor, MI, 29-30 July 2009. 43–46. Web. (AIP Conference Proceedings; no. 1179) https://orcid.org/0000-0002-9298-3897 https://orcid.org/0000-0001-5697-1496 en_US http://dx.doi.org/10.1063/1.3266749 Proceedings of the 2009 Physics Education Research Conference Creative Commons Attribution-Noncommercial-Share Alike 3.0 http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc-sa/3.0/ application/pdf American Institute of Physics MIT web domain |
| spellingShingle | Pritchard, David E. Barrantes, Analia Belland, Brian R. What Else (Besides the Syllabus) Should Students Learn in Introductory Physics? |
| title | What Else (Besides the Syllabus) Should Students Learn in Introductory Physics? |
| title_full | What Else (Besides the Syllabus) Should Students Learn in Introductory Physics? |
| title_fullStr | What Else (Besides the Syllabus) Should Students Learn in Introductory Physics? |
| title_full_unstemmed | What Else (Besides the Syllabus) Should Students Learn in Introductory Physics? |
| title_short | What Else (Besides the Syllabus) Should Students Learn in Introductory Physics? |
| title_sort | what else besides the syllabus should students learn in introductory physics |
| url | http://hdl.handle.net/1721.1/76693 https://orcid.org/0000-0002-9298-3897 https://orcid.org/0000-0001-5697-1496 |
| work_keys_str_mv | AT pritcharddavide whatelsebesidesthesyllabusshouldstudentslearninintroductoryphysics AT barrantesanalia whatelsebesidesthesyllabusshouldstudentslearninintroductoryphysics AT bellandbrianr whatelsebesidesthesyllabusshouldstudentslearninintroductoryphysics |