gerace-2005tlc

root — Sun, 13 Jan 2008 22:34:12 +0000

Teaching vs. Learning: Changing Perspectives on Problem Solving in Physics Instruction

Gerace, William J.
Beatty, Ian D.

(2005)

An invited keynote talk at the 9th Common Conference of the Cyprus Physics Association and Greek Physics Association (Developments and Perspectives in Physics: New Technologies and Teaching of Science), Nicosia, Cyprus, Feb 4-6 2005.

Problem solving is central to physics instruction. Results from Physics Education Research (PER), however, demonstrate that traditional ways of teaching with problem solving are inefficient and ineffective for promoting true physics expertise. PER findings give rise to a perspective on physics expertise, learning, and problem solving that can illuminate the reasons why problem solving in traditional instruction fares poorly and suggest remedies. At the heart of the remedies lies a rethinking of the instructional model in which teachers focus less on presenting subject material and more on engineering learning experiences and guiding students' learning efforts, while students strive to become active, selfmonitoring constructors of knowledge.

Attachment	Size
Conference paper (PDF)	166.94 KB

beatty-2006deq

root — Sat, 27 Oct 2007 21:27:56 +0000

Designing effective questions for classroom response system teaching

Beatty, Ian D.
Gerace, William J.
Leonard, William J.
Dufresne, Robert J.

(2006)

American Journal of Physics 74(1), 31-39.

Classroom response systems (CRSs) can be potent tools for teaching physics. Their efficacy, however, depends strongly on the quality of the questions used. Creating effective questions is difficult, and differs from creating exam and homework problems. Every CRS question should have an explicit pedagogic purpose consisting of a content goal, a process goal, and a metacognitive goal. Questions can be engineered to fulfil their purpose through four complementary mechanisms: directing students' attention, stimulating specific cognitive processes, communicating information to instructor and students via CRS-tabulated answer counts, and facilitating the articulation and confrontation of ideas. We identify several tactics that help in the design of potent questions, and present four "makeovers" showing how these tactics can be used to convert traditional physics questions into more powerful CRS questions

Permalink(s): Arxiv (physics/0508114), Scitation

DOI(s): 10.1119/1.212175

Attachment	Size
Complete article (PDF)	890.1 KB

Based upon a talk given by Ian Beatty at the Winter 2005 AAPT meeting in Albuquerque, New Mexico. (This paper replaces beatty-2005deq, which was the preprint version.)

Scientific Reasoning Research Institute - physics instruction

gerace-2005tlc

beatty-2006deq