Building a Science of Teaching Physics: Learning What Works and Why

1/18/99


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Table of Contents

Building a Science of Teaching Physics: Learning What Works and Why

Millikan on teaching physics

Millikan on the nature of the electron

Where are we now?

What is science? Building a community consensus

Doing physics education as science

Five general cognitive principles from cognitive psychology and education research

PPT Slide

PPT Slide

PPT Slide

PPT Slide

Implications

Constructivism is a 4 letter word

“Scientific Constructivism”

Implications for instruction

Why PER?

What do we find?

Example: Wavepulse math

Interview response of an “A” student

Example: Electric and magnetic forces

Magnetic poles problem: (UW PEG)

Results

Example: The concept of velocity

Instantaneous velocity problem

A solution exists

Most students can learn to understand instantaneous velocity

An experiment

Less instruction on the topic produced better results

The results were strikingly robust

Implications

Example: Evaluating the Newtonian viewpoint

The Force Concept Inventory

PPT Slide

Analyzing the results

Do research-based instructional models produce better conceptual gains?

Research design

Tutorials produced significantly higher gains than recitations

Extension to many schools

PPT Slide

Implications

If PER is interdisciplinary, can it be physics?

PER still needs to be physics

Physicists need to be involved in PER

Building a community consensus of physics education

Building a community consensus of physics education

Author: Edward F. Redish

Email: redish@physics.umd.edu

Home Page: www2.physics.umd.edu/~redish/

Other information:
Robert A. Millikan award lecture, presented at AAPT Summer Meeting, Lincoln NE, 6 August 1998.