Physics Demonstrations: Both Education and Entertainment

Some blog followers might be interested in a discussion-list post “Physics Demonstrations: Both Education and Entertainment” [Hake (2011)].

The abstract reads:

********************************************
ABSTRACT: PhysLrnR’s Noah Podolefsky (2011) wrote (paraphrasing): “Perhaps the reason we don't have evidence that demos promote interest is that nobody has bothered to look for it because the research agenda has been mostly focused on quantifiable measures of content learning.”

But Coleman, Holcomb, & Rigden (1998) did look for it and reported that a survey at Virginia Tech confirmed students’ approval of demonstrations “clearly and unambiguously,” and that many “students commented in detail on the educational value of the demonstrations.”

What seems to have eluded the physics education community is that both students’ enjoyment and learning can be drastically increased by transforming lecture demonstrations into “Socratic Dialogue Inducing (SDI) Labs” http://bit.ly/9tSTdB in which the students themselves do the demos and discuss the physics behind the demos among themselves, with Socratic guidance as needed.
********************************************

To access the complete 22 kB post please click on http://bit.ly/rtrMbp.


Richard Hake, Emeritus Professor of Physics, Indiana University
Honorary Member, Curmudgeon Lodge of Deventer, The Netherlands
President, PEdants for Definitive Academic References which
Recognize the Invention of the Internet (PEDARRII)

rrhake@earthlink.net
http://www.physics.indiana.edu/~hake
http://www.physics.indiana.edu/~sdi
http://HakesEdStuff.blogspot.com
http://iub.academia.edu/RichardHake

“I am deeply convinced that a statistically significant improvement would occur if more of us learned to listen to our students . . . By listening to what they say in answer to carefully phrased, leading questions, we can begin to understand what does and does not happen in their minds, anticipate the hurdles they encounter, and provide the kind of help needed to master a concept or line of reasoning without simply ‘telling them the answer’.. . . .Nothing is more ineffectually arrogant than the widely found teacher attitude that ‘all you have to do is say it my way, and no one within hearing can fail to understand it.’. . . . Were more of us willing to relearn our physics by the dialogue and listening process I have described, we would see a discontinuous upward shift in the quality of physics teaching. I am satisfied that this is fully within the competence of our colleagues; the question is one of humility and desire.”
- Arnold Arons (1974)

REFERENCES [URL’s shortened by http://bit.ly/ and accessed on 28 July 2011.]
Arons, A.B. 1974. “Toward wider public understanding of science: Addendum,” Am. J. Phys. 42(2): 157-158; online to subscribers at http://ajp.aapt.org/resource/1/ajpias/v42/i2 .

Hake, R.R. 2011. “Physics Demonstrations: Both Education and Entertainment,” online on the OPEN AERA-L archives at http://bit.ly/rtrMbp . Post of 31 Jul 2011 14:16:04-0700 to AERA-L and Net-Gold. The abstract and link to the complete post were transmitted to various discussion lists.

Re: Is Physics Difficult? understanding acceleration, etc...”

Some blog followers may be interested in a recent post "Re: Is Physics Difficult? understanding acceleration, etc..." [Hake (2010)]. The abstract reads:

********************************************

ABSTRACT: Jatila van der Veen, in her post "Re: Is Physics Difficult? understanding acceleration, etc..." wrote: "To see whether students understand a concept, try having them DRAW their interpretation of a concept such as acceleration, and write a short explanation of their drawing."

Better yet, try having students *operationally* define kinematic terms such as position, velocity, and acceleration by means of drawings as in "Socratic Dialogue Inducing" (SDI) Labs http://bit.ly/9tSTdB . My experience has been that such student endeavor requires extensive guidance supplied by (a) the SDI lab manual, (b) fellow students during collaborative discussion, and (c) the Socratic instructor in response to students' questions or lab manual entries.

Thus SDI labs, as most other constructivist-type "Interactive Engagement" methods are *not* "minimally guided," an appellation applied by Kirschner, Sweller, & Clark KSC (2006) to "constructivist, discovery, problem-based, experiential, and inquiry-based teaching." KSC then proclaimed them all to be failures, contrary to the mountain of evidence for their success relative to traditional methods of instruction.

********************************************

To access the complete 14 kB post please click on http://bit.ly/gTiuwT .

Richard Hake, Emeritus Professor of Physics, Indiana University

Honorary Member, Curmudgeon Lodge of Deventer, The Netherlands

President, PEdants for Definitive Academic References which Recognize the of the Internet (PEDARRII)

rrhake@earthlink.net>

http://www.physics.indiana.edu/~hake

http://www.physics.indiana.edu/~sdi

http://HakesEdStuff.blogspot.com

http://iub.academia.edu/RichardHake

"When we say force is the cause of motion we talk metaphysics, and this definition, if we were content with it, would be absolutely sterile. For a definition to be of any use, it must teach us to *measure* force; moreover, that suffices; it is not at all necessary that it teach us what force is *in itself*, nor whether it is the cause or the effect of motion."

Henri Poincare (1905) [My *emphasis*.]

REFERENCES [All URL's shortened by http://bit.ly/ and accessed on 5 December 2010.]

Hake, R.R. "Re: Is Physics Difficult? understanding acceleration, etc..." online on the OPEN! AERA-L archives at http://bit.ly/gTiuwT . Post of 5 Dec 2010 19:58:35-0800 to AERA-L, Net-Gold, & PhysLrnR. The abstract and link to the complete post are being distributed to various discussion lists.

The Socratic Method

Some blog followers may be interested in:

Hake, R.R. 2007. "The Socratic Method of the Historical Socrates, Plato's Socrates, and the Law School Socrates," online at http://tinyurl.com/60d097 . Post of 21 June to AERA-J, AERA-L, AP-Physics, AP-Biology, ASSESS, Biopi-L, Biolab (rejected), Chemed-L, EdResMeth, EvalTalk, Phys-L, PhysLrnR, POD, STLHE-L, and TIPS. 

ABSTRACT: The "Socratic Method" means different things to different people. I discuss three interpretations: the "Socratic Method" of (a) the historical Socrates as advocated by the late Arnold Arons, (b) Plato as illustrated in the Meno, and (c) most law schools. Although the Socratic Method of the historical Socrates has been demonstrated to be relatively effective in enhancing students' understanding of the conceptually difficult Newtonian mechanics, it is not a panacea, but is most useful for finding out what and how students are thinking, guiding them to construct their own understanding of difficult concepts, and conveying fruitful approaches and reasoning skills.