Pedagogic strategies

Socratic class-participation: Rather than relying exclusively on non-traditional ways to teach the usual material, I prefer suplementing innovative strategies such as the open flipped classroom with conveying the material itself in an innovative manner, as can easily be seen from the videos of my actual lectures, uploaded to Youtube. By interacting with the students during the lecture, asking them to think about the concpets being discussed, encouraging them to come up with suggestions and resolutions, there is a distinct advantage to their presence in a classroom rather than watching a video or reading a textbook on their own.

For example, watching "Galilean Invariance & Relativity:Inertia's logic: a trained ice-skating elephant" (please pardon the poor sound) indiates how I challenge students in real time to think of the scenario I am constructing and to offer their opinions, and also how I enfranchise the ancient view not simply present the new one, since it is likely that the conceptions held by the student who has not yet studied physics are closer to the ancient one than to the new one. Rather than thinking that the ancients were silly or primitive, students can appreciate how intuitive their propositions were and how deep and counterintuive are the more modern realizations, and come to the newer ideas via a process which in some sense retraces the development of science, a sort of paralel to "ontogeny recapitulates phylogeny", rather than simply being told it as received truth.

See eg from 6:40 where logic deduciton experiment exprience are utilized together with a basic fundamental princliple of nature as expressed in physics, "Galilean invariance" or Galilean relativity", to demonstrate a basic aspect of 'the law of inertia".

The video "Eternal effect of a finite push: No metaphysics required" develops the notion of inertia, repeating it several times, and then the slides tie it in to the idea of Galilean inertia/relativity presented in the previous video.

Helping students see the beauty rather than telling them it exists: We are familiar with the eloquent declamations by physicists, odes to the beauty of physics, and how it is an important part the human cultural heritage and so on [see eg this and this], and but wouldn't it be nice if students in a beginning physics class actually ancountered this beauty, so that they can be convinced of it from physics itself and not by the earnest declarations of physicists. This is part of what motivates for example the process of discovery in the lecture captured in this video 'deriving' "F = ma", and this one arriving at "F = GMM/r2".

Problem-solving, not number-crunching: It is of course crucial for students to solve problems, however the purpose of problem-solving in physics for non-majors is NOT to enable them to make calculations in their professional life, but rather as an indispensable aid to truly understanding the material they learned in the theory seciton. Although in some disciplines theory is sufficient to teach theory, it is geenrally not the case in physics - only by exercising one's brain to solve problems does one end up truly understanding the theory.

As a result, I am actually strogly opposed to exercises which require students to perform mathematical manipulations which are too sophisticated for them to be able to obtain an approximate result simply using logical reasoning and experience, and so I do not encourage the use of software packages. What is important is for the student to be able to use the appropriate formula in the correct way given the parameters of the exercise etc, and to have a sense of the magnitude of the numbers involved, and to be able to determine whether the solution 'makes sense' theoretically and numerically. In most physics courses for non-physics majors, most times obtaining the 'exact answer" is of little importance. {ersonally I prefer an exam quesiotn performed with intelligent estimates giving an approximate answer which makes sense over a string of complicated mathematical manipuations which lead to a precise result but where it is not likey that the student really understood the conceptual trail leading from the input of the numbers to the numerical end-result.

As an instructor, making it more likely that the physics lab component will accomplish its goal: Do labs help students understand the concepts? To solve the assigned problems? Are they meant to teach students how to use equipment? To gain an appreciation for precision? As preparation for career in experimental physics, or in engineering?

Would the time spent in labs and then on lab-report preparation be better spent instead on guided problem-solving or exposing interested students to a curated viewing of videos covering advanced topics? After completing a typical semester of labs, do most students feel it was an accomplishment?

I don't intend to offer an opinion on the above, but I do prefer as instructor to provide at least a 15 minute preparation for lab, by giving students the chance together in class to try to mentally design an experiment which would test the concept learned in that class. For example, encouraging them to try to use materials at hand (coins, chairs, light-bulbs, other objects etc) to try to actually execute a crude version of the experiment. Then to think through the limitations and the likely numerical results etc, without at all focussing on the equipment they will find in the lab, or the expected charts to draw or statistical analyses etc - all topics which instead could later be covered by the lab instructor. In this way when they enter the lab they are far more prepared to achieve the significant aspect from the point of view of the class-work, while also learning the aspects important as preparation for the labs of later courses, or a career with measuring apparatus.

Effective testing: Even when teaching the usual material, from a standard college textbook, It makes no sense to continue with the the second hour of a 2-hr class if the first hour was not really understood, especially if the second part depends intimately on the frst part. Although it is crucial to test the students' comprehension of the class as part of the class, it is no less important to do it in a non-judgemental non-confrontational non-threatening way. And often it is the success of the intructor's method or their ability to convey ideas which really needs the most testing!

Many instructors have probably at one time or another during a final exam while walking about the room peeking at students' papers, felt the pit in the stomache feeling of "Oh no, they really didn't understand anything". To prevent this of course on must test early, and sit with students as they try to solve examples and homework problems, to diagnose their difficulties and potetntialy the instructor's own failure in conveying the ideas. The start-up world adapted the scientific method to its purpose and created concepts such as "the lean startup", and physics teaching can learn from that approach by testing one's assumptions about what was conveyed, making sure to talk to the end-user/client, in this case the student, and if the process is not working be ready to pivot to some other teaching method.

Flipped classroom: It is rather obvious that a student who prepares for an upcoming class will be better prepared for the class, and that more time can be spent on problem solving in class if some of the lecture material is covered by the student prior to the class. The trick is two-fold: to intelligently divide the material in to that which can be done on one's own and that for which an instructor is need, and the other crucial component is to ensure that indeed students have covered tha tmaterial - giving a leture with the assumption that students have done the preparatory work without having a means to determine whether this actually was the case, is obviously a recipe for disaster. So it becomes necessary to devise some sort of quiz on the pre-class material which is graded and the grades viewed by the instructor prior to theclass. Unsurprisingly, if one can intelligently divide the material as mentiond and indeed students spend the time prior to the class and take the quizz and do well, then students will clearly do better on the material presente din the class later on than students who are encountering it for the first time.

How does one motivate students to do the work and take the quizz? Video presentations are generally more conducive than text material, and the quizz and the grade on it must of course be part of the course-requirement.

Technology enables all of this: students can view videos of relevant material, instructors can easily prepare slides, annotate them with audiio and upload them online, there is software to administer and grade quizzes, etc.

However, it is notorious that actually getting a classful of students to agree to this method with the pre-class time-committment required cannot be taken for granted, not can the follow-through by the students in actuality.

In some cases I actually prefer a tabula-rasa situation where the student is totally unprepared beforehand, and we can develop the concepts together, live in real-time in the classroom, withough them already knowing what received wisdom declares the 'correct answers' to be - as you can see me do in my "Intro to Physics" lecture videos.

Pre-med: Some course are highly prescribed, eg pre-med physics, and the sole purpose of the course is - unfortunately - to determine the trascript-grade which medical colleges will look at as part of their filter to select out the 'brightest' studetns, and to get them to pass the MCAT with a sufficenltly high grade, another part of the filter. In such cases, intellectual integriy is in conflict with ordinary integrity since the purpose of the instructor becomes helping the students acquire - in return for the high tuition they are paying - the ability to get a good grade on the course exam and the MCAT - however unmotivating or almost repugnant that is for an idealist who is motivated by the quest to help others understand the beauty of physics.

What is the purpose of a physics course for physics majors? If a physics course is meant to educate about nature then perhaps it achieves its goal, and perhaps the same can be true for those heading to applied physics. However does it serve to prepare young people to become researchers, discovering new theories?

For future researchers: It would be nice to devise a method to help young physicists develop the part of the brain which enables one to come up with innovative ideas and no less importantly to then express them quantitatively, and even suggest ways to test them experimentally. It is not at all obvious that the best training method for discovery of new theories is to expose them to already-known ideas and have them solve problems on this material - it maybe that these novel-theory-generating 'mental pathways' are better-developed by having PhD candidates practice doing what they hope to eventually achieve (ie invent a new thoery), for example by challenging them to develop the already-known on their own or together with the class - known to professionals, contained in textbooks, but not known yet to those who have not taken the course.

Designing or re-designing a course to fit the needs & interests of the students: As the degree-design mentor for many science-majors pursuing an individually-designed BA, and as STEM course-mentor responsible for the science-requirement courses of non-science majors, I was able to design courses to fit the specific goals, interest and abilities of individual students, but this is not a luxury which is possible in a classroom setting. However, even with such a limitation it is possible to some degree - see eg my account of re-designing astronomy and differential equations courses, and re utilizing material from popular well-written books to introduce general relativity and quantum physics into a freshman algebra-based college physics course.

Independent study and the purpose of a university education: To some extent a college's task is to broaden the students' horizons, and to some extent to impart knowledge about specific subjects, especially as need to prepare them for future employment. These goals need howeve rnot conflict - on various occasions I was in a position where I needed to hire, and always preferred the bright creative independent-thinking candidate over the "more-educated" one.

For the right student, and when appropriate mentoring is available, even in a highly-structured program perhaps some opportunity should be granted for the student to strike off on their own. And if the effort fails, certainly they can learn something useful or even important from that too. And then even more useful would be to learn how to mine a failure, and to appreciate the importance of this skill.

For grad students: I believe there is more need of guidance for the typical grad student regarding how to design one's graduate study towards a desired eventual career choice, and how to choose whehter to aim at academia or otherwise, as well input into the very crucial issue of which type of research project and which (type of) thesis advisor to choose. I think most of us who have pursued a phd would understand how such guidance could be of use to "a typical grad student".

The Flipped Classroom and College Physics Students ... https://eric.ed.gov › ...by JLL Cagande · 2018 · Cited by 15 — This study investigated the effect of a flipped classroom implementation on college physics students' motivation and understanding of kinematics graphs.

About Us - Flipping Physics https://www.flippingphysics.com › about After being an engineer for a while I went back to the University of Michigan and graduated with a Master's in Education in 2000. I started teaching High School ...

How to Flip a Classroom – Inside and Out - Flipping Physics https://www.flippingphysics.com › how-to-flip If you are a teacher who is interested in flipping your class, this video is a great ... Khan Academy has the highest quantity of original videos, however, ...

FlipIt Physics https://www.flipitphysics.com Grounded in physics education research, FlipItPhysics is a complete course solution for the calculus–based and algebra–based physics courses that redefines ...

An Experiment in Flipped Physics | Center for Teaching ...https://teaching.berkeley.edu › news › experiment-flipp...Aug 8, 2014 — I carried out an experiment in teaching Physics in a flipped environment: students listened to my recorded lectures on their own schedule, ...

Introducing FlippedAroundPhysics (and Flipped A-Level ...https://flippedlearning.org › academic_subject › science Introducing FlippedAroundPhysics (and Flipped A-Level Physics Materials) ... simulations from the University of Colorado https://phet.colorado.edu , and the ...

Use of a Social Annotation Platform for Pre-Class ... - Frontiers https://www.frontiersin.org › feduc.2018.00008 › full by K Miller · 2018 · Cited by 39 — Even in traditional (non-flipped) college courses, pre-class ... image of the textbook book is from OpenStax, University Physics, Volume 1.

The Practice and Exploration of College Physics Flipped ...https://www.atlantis-press.com › article PDF In college physics teaching practice in recent years, the author adopted the flipped classroom teaching method, gained some.

Application of Flipped Classroom in University Physics ...https://www.atlantis-press.com › article: Flipped Classroom; College Physics Experiment; Teaching Mode. Abstract. Flipped classroom is a teaching mode that reverses the two stages in a ...

'Flipped' classrooms improve physics education - Phys.org https://phys.org › Other Sciences › Social Sciences Dec 15, 2015 — And yet thousands of students enrol yearly in university classes to undertake the daunting task of solving questions far more complex than that.

https://www.stanforddaily.com › 2017/06/03 And one of the biggest hurdles is getting into medical school in ... five biology courses, three physics classes, two writing classes, ...

(PDF) Technology for Active Learning - ResearchGatehttps://www.researchgate.net › publication Visualizations. Patterned in some ways after the Studio Physics project of. Rensselaer Polytechnic Institute19 and the Scale-Up project of.

Pedagogical Effects on Student Learning, Attitude, and ...https://scholarworks.gsu.edu › cgi › viewcontent Z Topdemir · 2020 — However, only SCALE-UP is effective in improving students' attitudes and ... SCALE-UP, a technology-rich studio physics model (integrated lecture.

Active learning classroom design and student ... - ERIChttp://files.eric.ed.gov › fulltext M Odum · 2021 — of ALCs is often linked to the creation of “physics studios” ... SCALE-UP classrooms utilized student-centered pedagogies.

https://aapt.scitation.org/doi/10.1119/10.0002740 We share a flipped class approach to university calculus-based general physics that shows increased learning and high student satisfaction compared to traditional lecture classes.

Flipped Classes - Wake Forest Universityhttps://matthews.sites.wfu.edu › teaching › flipped GE Matthews · 2020 — Studio Physics,5,6 SCALE-UP,7 and flipped classes.8-12. A broad range of instructional techniques have positive impact on student problem-solving skills.13 ...

Why do medical schools require students to take physics ...https://www.quora.com › Why-do-medical-schools-req...So, a premed student is sitting in physics class while the professor is talking about, say, moments of inertia. The premed is not very interested and ...

https://forums.studentdoctor.net/threads/failed-my-1st-physics-midterm-now-what.773581/

https://talk.collegeconfidential.com/t/advice-needed-premed-failing-physics/1856612

2016 https://blogs.scientificamerican.com/guest-blog/it-s-time-to-retire-premed/

the American Association of Medical Colleges released a new version of the MCAT that includes sections on social sciences and psychology. These are encouraging reforms, but we need to do more

From the web: Strategies etc for a "Flipped Classroom"

The design of a flipped classroom can vary widely depending on discipline, institution, course, and even instructor. However, a common, shared approach is that most of the transmission of course content is moved outside of the classroom, either by reading a text, viewing course notes, exploring online materials, using an intelligent tutoring system, or watching screencasts of lectures or

annotated slides. In turn, more assimilation and practice with the content occurs

during class time [17].

In a flipped course, class sessions might be devoted to

discussing challenges uncovered in students’ pre-class preparation, working

through problems, and engaging in collaborative learning with peers. Various

flipped models include quizzes to assess student pre-class preparation, in-class

clicker (personal response system) questions, just-in-time teaching, working

at the board in pairs, lab assignments, problem-solving in groups, peer discus-

sion, student presentations, and doubtless, countless others [3,9,11–14,17].

Flipping can be applied in many different modes, for example, as a one-time

class to teach a single topic, as a series of lessons, or as a design of an entire

course [18].

Recently, studies in STEM disciplines and economics have looked

into the flipped approach. A common thread in many results is that while

students go through an initial phase of adjustment to a flipped approach, many

view the flipped (or alternatively, “inverted”) approach favorably in the end.

Work in [11] describes how the inverted model can appeal to all types of

learners since more than simply a lecture occurs during class time. The model

also allows for more personal interactions, both between students and their

professors as well as their peers [19]. Students also have immediate access to

help while working through difficult problems and can clear up misconceptions

early on [4].

In contrast, some feel that “flipping is simply a high-tech version of an

antiquated instructional method: the lecture” [1]. This drawback largely cen-

ters on classrooms where the majority of class time is spent doing homework

problems and not engaging students in other learning activities. It is also not

always clear if flipping actually has a direct effect on learning [2]. Another

concern with flipping is that if students do not actually prepare before class,

class sessions will not be effective [13…

..

Students in the flipped classroom were instructed to watch screencasts prior to coming to class. These screencasts were short – typically, under 15 minutes – and served as the basis for each of the lectures in the traditional class. Screencasts consisted of a movie of a presentation-type slide along with a soundtrack of the instructor talking.

an instructor recorded a screecast by viewing the slides on a computer, explaining them, and using a pen tablet to point to items on the slide and, at times, annotate them with additional notes. Students watched the screencasts through YouTube and could also download a pdf file of the slides as marked up by the instructor. The final slide of each screencast was the same list of goals displayed during the traditional format class.

Before almost every class period, students were required to complete the same online checkpoint quizzes that students in the traditional class took after class.

During each of the flipped class periods, the first 5 to 10 minutes were devoted to discussing the goals of the screencast.

During the traditional lecture class, the instructor presented the material(e.g., definitions, concepts, basic facts, and example problems) at the board,engaging students in questions and brief opportunities to discuss concepts or problems with their peers. Typically, lecture lasted for about 45–50 minutes and the remaining time was devoted to demonstrations of computations or class activities such as worksheets and labs.

..........................

https://www.researchgate.net/publication/283707644_Flipped_Calculus_A_Study_of_Student_Performance_and_Perceptions

In this paper, we describe a controlled study that compares two sections of a popular introductory-level mathematics course (both taught by the same instructor) using a traditional lecture approach in one section and a flipped approach in the other.

Our data reveal that students performed similarly on graded components of the course, and the majority of students in both sections were comfortable with the format of the course, although each section indicated a desire to include components of the format from the other section. Students in both sections also reported that they found benefit in resources created for the flipped section but were made available to both sections. However, students in the flipped class seemed to have a higher comfort level with performing computations using a computer software package, a central component of the course.