I ask this question because I have been teaching physics for decades, and I have yet to find a suitable "theory" for my discipline. I teach in the traditional way: lecture, homework, and exams consisting of show-your-work problems.
I have heard people from other disciplines talk about things like reading across curriculum, inquiry-based learning, civic engagement, just-in-time teaching, modeling, and a host of other ideas that I can't remember. I have always asked myself - partly due to the pressure from the administration, which invariably consists of faculty from humanities and social sciences and seeks uniformity across all disciplines - if it is possible to incorporate these ideas in technical disciplines like physics, chemistry, and engineering, and have failed to find an answer that I can use in my own teaching. Maybe science teaching is completely different from, say humanities, and science teachers ought to ignore research findings by their non-science colleagues.
I have also wondered if South Koreans, Chinese, and Indian educators - whose students have completely taken over the (hard) science departments in all major universities in the US - debate over education "theories" as we do. How do these students get to be so good in math and (hard) sciences? Is it in their genes? Is it in their culture and upbringing? And why do we seem to be stuck despite so many committees that are periodically formed and academic units that have popped up on many campuses to advance our students' science, technology, engineering, and math (STEM) capabilities?
I have heard people from other disciplines talk about things like reading across curriculum, inquiry-based learning, civic engagement, just-in-time teaching, modeling, and a host of other ideas that I can't remember. I have always asked myself - partly due to the pressure from the administration, which invariably consists of faculty from humanities and social sciences and seeks uniformity across all disciplines - if it is possible to incorporate these ideas in technical disciplines like physics, chemistry, and engineering, and have failed to find an answer that I can use in my own teaching. Maybe science teaching is completely different from, say humanities, and science teachers ought to ignore research findings by their non-science colleagues.
I have also wondered if South Koreans, Chinese, and Indian educators - whose students have completely taken over the (hard) science departments in all major universities in the US - debate over education "theories" as we do. How do these students get to be so good in math and (hard) sciences? Is it in their genes? Is it in their culture and upbringing? And why do we seem to be stuck despite so many committees that are periodically formed and academic units that have popped up on many campuses to advance our students' science, technology, engineering, and math (STEM) capabilities?
via JREF Forum http://forums.randi.org/showthread.php?t=269239&goto=newpost
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