If you’re a teacher — of physics, or any other physical science — and haven’t yet picked up a copy of Edward Redish’s Teaching Physics with the Physics Suite , I’m making a bid right now that you do so.
I finally read it — really read it — instead of just browsing through a chapter […]

 
Below I am reposting a rather long piece taken verbatim from the website of Steve Detweiler who just says that it’s an “amusing anecdote from a friend of mine.” So, I’m not sure of the veracity of the story, and some claim that it’s an urban legend. It may well be. But […]

Today’s session is all about using diagnosis, or assessment, in your teaching (”Designing a Diagnostic Learning Environment in the Pre-College Classroom”; Lezlie DeWater, Eleanor Close, and Hunter Close).
In the last post I talked about one way to elicit students ideas, using a video and brainstorm. This time, they gave us a bunch of pull-back […]

For the next several days I’ll be liveblogging from the AAPT conference. Below are my posts on today’s session on diagnostic learning environments.
Today’s session is all about using diagnosis, or assessment, in your teaching (”Designing a Diagnostic Learning Environment in the Pre-College Classroom:; Lezlie DeWater, Eleanor Close, and Hunter Close).
Formative assessment is assessment that […]

I guess that I’m the last person to see this, but this YouTube video on digital technology and college education from Kansas State University made the rounds a while back. It’s a very moving presentation of how distanced students feel from their own learning and the role that technology plays in that.
[kml_flashembed movie=”http://www.youtube.com/v/dGCJ46vyR9o” width=”425″ […]

One of our main messages here at the Science Education Initiative is that it’s important that teachers both find out what their students difficulties are, and then choose their instructional strategies accordingly.
That sounds easy, but for the average college faculty (facing a sea of 200 faces) or the average K12 teacher (who has to prepare […]

I’m at the American Physical Society conference in Denver this weekend (a nice way to spend a rainy weekend) and heard a very interesting talk this morning by Zahra Hazari, from Clemson University on gender bias in how students evaluate their teachers. It was a very nice study, with very interesting results. She […]

Firstly, I just have to say how beautiful the view is outside the airplane window right now. It’s been an extraordinarily bumpy ride on my trip from San Francisco back to Denver, and I’m a real nail-biter when it comes to turbulence. But now we are above the clouds and the sky is […]

This blog post was written from a session at the February AAPT — Eugenia Etkina - Pedagogical Content Knowledge (PCK)
What you believe about how people learn, and about the role of teachers and students is in the classroom, WILL affect your teaching.
For example, do you believe that a student misconception is something that needs to […]

Look at this picture. What will happen to the balloon when we push the cart forward, and why? (Don’t watch the video first — come up with ideas and reasons first).

Make as many predictions, and reasons, that you can, even if you don’t believe them all.
Remember that coming up with the right explanation […]