Addressing Academic Challenges Facing High School Physics Students: A Synopsis AndAnnotated Bibliography Of Peer-Reviewed Literature Addressing Classroom Culture, Gender,Relevance And Introductory Physics InstructionChristopher W. GoslingBuffalo State CollegeAuthor NoteChristopher W. Gosling, South Wales, New York.This manuscript was completed in partial requirement for EDF 529: Adolescent Psychology and for PHY 690: Masters Project and supported by the State University College of New York at Buffalo Department of Physics. Dr. Dan MacIsaac contributed considerably to this work. Mr. Laurance Hiller of North Tonawanda High School and Lynn M. Bennett contributed tothis manuscript.Correspondence concerning this article should be addressed to Christopher W. Gosling, The Gow School, Post Office Box 85, 2491 Emery Road, South Wales, New York 14139. Email: [email protected] Head: ACADEMIC CHALLENGES FACING HIGH SCHOOL PHYSICS STUDENTSAbstractHigh school students have traditionally been taught physics by way of lectures, nonparticipative demonstrations, and cookbook laboratories. Not surprisingly, students leave the physics classroom with vague understandings of physics as a science and way of understanding our world. This problem is exasperated for female students, whose interests and culture are not addressed by typical examples and applications of physics. Challenges facing adolescent physics students can be addressed by cooperative learning in a supportive classroom culture and curricula tailored to meet the interests of all physics students in a concrete manner. Students’ learning experiences can be drastically improved so they leave high school with a solid conceptual understanding of physics and its impact on their lives. In this manuscript, I present and discuss the classroom application of an extensive literature base addressing these above issues for use by working physics teachers and scholars of classroom physics teaching.Addressing Academic Challenges printed 9:07 PM 1/13/19 Page 3Addressing Academic Challenges Facing High School Physics StudentsIntroductionAdolescents traditionally begin their formal study of physical science in middle school. They most often progress in the sequence of biology, chemistry, and eventually a senior elective if they continue their study of science (Lederman, 1998). Of these electives, physics is widely considered to be the most academically demanding. Even after instruction students often believe that physics is tremendously difficult and incomprehensible to a majority of the general population (Knight, 2004). The roots of this situation lie not only in the subject’s demanding subject matter as a reputed “hard science,” but also because of the abstract nature of physics as it is traditionally presented (via mathematical formulisms).Many former physics students remember physics as their “worst subject” (Knight, 2004), and nearly always these memories include images of a lecturer and associated experiments in a laboratory. Concerning the former image, Arons eloquently writes, …research is showing that didactic exposition of abstract ideas and lines of reasoning (however engaging and lucid we might try to make them) to passive listeners yields pathetically thin results in learning and understanding except in the very small percentage of students who are specially gifted in the field. (1997, p. vii)Knight notes that the standard laboratory experiences wherein students “verify” theories or “discover” principles of physics produce little or no measurable benefit (2004, p. 20). Both lectures and standard laboratories have been shown to be flawed by current physics education research (PER) and science education research (SER). The story is often worse for females, whose interests were found to lie more in the natural and social applications of physics by Hoffman, Häussler, and Lehrke (as cited by Hoffman, 2002) and also by Stadler, Duit, and BenkeAddressing Academic Challenges printed 9:07 PM 1/13/19 Page 4(2000). Unfortunately, Hoffman, Häussler, and Lehrke (as cited by Häussler & Hoffman, 2002) found that these aspects of physics are seldom addressed by traditional curricula. Rather, when contextual references are made in the physics classroom they often focus on topics which are biased toward males such as sports, cars and militaria due to the historical prevalence of males inphysics. Over the past twenty-five years the field of Physics Education Research (PER) has come into its own and can readily supply a multitude of ways to combat the deficiencies of lectures and standard laboratories (Knight, 2004). Specific measures can be implemented to improve the appeal of physics to female students while retaining its lure for males. Hence, we will review applicable literature and draw from personal experience to suggest specific teaching techniques that can be used to lessen the above pedagogical challenges facing physics students of both genders. This literature is featured in the bibliography and in separate online bibliographies.Literature ReviewStudents’ attitudes toward science grow increasingly negative as they progress through school (Simpson & Oliver as cited by Kahle & Meece, 1994; Weinburgh, 2000) and even during college (Redish, Steinberg, & Saul, 1998). Though overall enrollment in high school physics has risen over the past decade (Neuschatz & McFarling, 1999), students’ conceptual understanding of basic kinematics measured after traditional instruction, though marginally improved, remains deficient (Hake, 1998; Sokoloff & Thornton, 1997). Van Heuvelen (as cited in Knight, 2004) refers to the expository methods utilized in traditional physics instruction as, “…very ineffective--the transmission is efficient but the reception is almost negligible.”The situation is exacerbated for adolescent females who have more negative attitudes toward science and are less confident in their science abilities than males (Simpson and Oliver asAddressing Academic Challenges printed 9:07 PM 1/13/19 Page 5cited by Kahle & Meece, 1994; Weinburgh, 1995). Though now females’ enrollment in physics nearly equals that of males (Neuschatz & McFarling,1999), girls and women do not achieve at the same level as their male peers (Bacharach, Baumeister, & Furr, 2003; Labudde, Herzog, Neuenschwander, Violi, & Gerber, 2000). The behavior of male physics students affects the learning process of females (Jones & Wheatley, 1990),
View Full Document
Unlocking...