Gay Stewart joined our department in May of 1994. She received her Ph.D. in experimental high energy physics from the University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign, but her interests were drawn to the condition of science education in the U.S. She has devoted much time to the study of current models for science education both in here and abroad. This research led her to accept a position at UA to develop the new University Physics II course, the introductory calculus-based course covering electromagnetism and optics. She felt that this offered the perfect opportunity to implement ideas she had synthesized from the broad literature in interactive learning techniques and her experience in teaching and course management at a very large Ph.D.-granting institution.
U.S. educators agree that science education is slipping, but hotly debate the reasons why. Commonly, school systems are blamed for sending underprepared students into higher education. However; school systems depend on universities to provide well-trained instructors. As long as students avoid sciences courses as much as possible during college and leave the courses with an unfavorable impression of science, they will be unable to communicate the beauty and necessity of science to their own students.
College students were asked "What makes science courses so unpopular?" A frequent complaint is that science doesn't have anything to do with their daily lives. Other common complaints in introductory physics: (1) the emphasis on "how" questions, while neither asking nor answering the "why" questions; (2) the absence of a sense of community within the class; (3) laboratory experiments that are rarely in sync with the lecture.
Science education research has identified several other problems. The standard course format discourages student participation. The classes are often perceived as intensely competitive, discouraging the participation of women and minorities. Students make extremely small gains in mastery of course materials. They have trouble relating to abstract concepts. They learn little or nothing about the way scientists actually think about problems, or even about what science is. Students use formula-centered problem-solving strategies that differ from those used by experienced scientists, and the knowledge they gain in introductory physics is a randomly organized set of facts and equations, with little conceptual understanding and many misconceptions. Approaches developed to overcome these problems have had some success in small institutions, or for a particular professor, but are too expensive or complicated to transfer to large comprehensive universities. Graduate students, the future instructors of science, are inadequately trained as educators.
Dr. Stewart is developing a process model for learning in physics. The process of learning is broken up into educational actions, that is, actions that an expert educator would deem to have educational merit. These actions, once identified, are explored. Simple modifications of traditional actions, such as the way students are required to do homework, are found to cause large differences in the educational value of these actions. Once the model is well developed, it should be possible to optimize the educational value of any course for the resources available.
Dr. Stewart has recently been implementing broad changes to address the identified problems; the changes have been evolving as the model grows. Class time is devoted to answering student questions and providing a framework for their new knowledge. Quantitative experimental results provide verification of the carefully chosen homework assignments. Concepts are related to everyday phenomena familiar to the student. Students are taught how to think about physics problems. Cooperative learning, found to improve retention of female and minority students, is emphasized. Graduate and advanced undergraduate students are brought into the teaching process as apprentices. The course structure requires students to come prepared to ask questions. Concepts are presented within the framework of answering the questions, giving students an opportunity to synthesize information and taking them out of the role of passive learner. Conceptual understanding is stressed.
Laboratory activities and demonstrations that emphasize or develop the concepts take place in the classroom at just the right time. The frequent use of familiar materials provides students with personal experience with science. Exploration is encouraged, with materials made available outside of class. Pre-prepared scientific kits are used sparingly since real science rarely involves taking a box off the shelf and knowing what all the answers will be. An activity guide implementing interactive learning techniques is under development.
The course encourages students to work in groups, and it is made clear that helping someone else will not hurt anyone's grade. Students make excellent teachers for others struggling with a concept they are all trying to master. Students discover that explaining a concept aides their own understanding.
Albert Einstein wrote "The most beautiful thing we can experience is the mysterious. It is the source of all true art and science." It is the why of things that engages the imagination, that makes science one of the great creative endeavors of humanity. Students must leave our classes not with an assemblage of facts, but with the ability to learn science, so that they may always explore the why.*