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
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
Example:Evaluating the Newtonian viewpoint
The Force Concept Inventory
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
If PER is interdisciplinary, can it be physics?
PER still needs to be physics
Physicists need to be involved in PER
Building a community consensusof physics education
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.