J. Phys. Tchr. Educ. Online 2(2), November 2004 Page 3 © 2004 Illinois State University Physics Dept.IntroductionAdolescents traditionally begin their formal study of physicalscience in middle school. They most often progress in thesequence of biology, chemistry, and eventually a senior electiveif they continue their study of science (Lederman, 1998). Of theseelectives, physics is widely considered to be the mostacademically demanding. Even after instruction students oftenbelieve that physics is tremendously difficult andincomprehensible to a majority of the general population (Knight,2004). The roots of this situation lie not only in the subject’sdemanding subject matter as a reputed “hard science,” but alsobecause of the abstract nature of physics as it is traditionallypresented (via mathematical formalism).Many former physics students remember physics as their“worst subject” (Knight, 2004), and nearly always thesememories include images of a lecturer and associated experimentsin a laboratory. Concerning the former image, Arons eloquentlywrites,…research is showing that didactic exposition of abstractideas and lines of reasoning (however engaging andlucid we might try to make them) to passive listenersyields pathetically thin results in learning andunderstanding except in the very small percentage ofstudents who are specially gifted in the field. (1997, p.vii)Knight notes that the standard laboratory experiences whereinstudents “verify” theories or “discover” principles of physicsproduce little or no measurable benefit (2004, p. 20). Both lecturesand standard laboratories have been shown to be flawed by currentphysics education research (PER) and science education research(SER). The story is often worse for females, whose interests werefound to lie more in the natural and social applications of physicsby Hoffman, Häussler, and Lehrke (as cited by Hoffman, 2002)and also by Stadler, Duit, and Benke (2000). Unfortunately,Hoffman, Häussler, and Lehrke (as cited by Häussler & Hoffman,2002) found that these aspects of physics are seldom addressedby traditional curricula. Rather, when contextual references areChris GoslingThe Gow School, Post Office Box 85, 2491 Emery Road, South Wales, NY 14139. E-mail: [email protected] school students have traditionally been taught physics by way of lectures, non-participative demonstrations, andcookbook laboratories. Not surprisingly, students leave the physics classroom with vague understandings of physics as ascience and way of understanding our world. This problem is exasperated for female students, whose interests and cultureare not addressed by typical examples and applications of physics. Challenges facing adolescent physics students can beaddressed by cooperative learning in a supportive classroom culture and curricula tailored to meet the interests of allphysics students in a concrete manner. Students’ learning experiences can be drastically improved so they leave highschool with a solid conceptual understanding of physics and its impact on their lives. In this manuscript, I present anddiscuss the classroom application of an extensive literature base addressing these above issues for use by working physicsteachers and scholars of classroom physics teaching.Challenges facing high school physics students: An annotated synopsis of peer-reviewedliterature addressing curriculum relevance and gendermade in the physics classroom they often focus on topics whichare biased toward males such as sports, cars and military due tothe historical prevalence of males in physics.Over the past twenty-five years the field of Physics EducationResearch (PER) has come into its own and can readily supply amultitude of ways to combat the deficiencies of lectures andstandard laboratories (Knight, 2004). Specific measures can beimplemented to improve the appeal of physics to female studentswhile retaining its lure for males. Hence, we will reviewapplicable literature and draw from personal experience to suggestspecific teaching techniques that can be used to lessen the abovepedagogical challenges facing physics students of both genders.This literature is featured in the bibliography and in separateonline bibliographies.Literature ReviewStudents’ attitudes toward science grow increasingly negativeas they progress through school (Simpson & Oliver as cited byKahle & Meece, 1994; Weinburgh, 2000) and even during college(Redish, Steinberg, & Saul, 1998). Though overall enrollment inhigh school physics has risen over the past decade (Neuschatz &McFarling, 1999), students’ conceptual understanding of basickinematics measured after traditional instruction, thoughmarginally improved, remains deficient (Hake, 1998; Sokoloff& Thornton, 1997). Van Heuvelen (as cited in Knight, 2004) refersto the expository methods utilized in traditional physicsinstruction as, “…very ineffective—the transmission is efficientbut the reception is almost negligible.”The situation is exacerbated for adolescent females who havemore negative attitudes toward science and are less confident intheir science abilities than males (Simpson and Oliver as citedby Kahle & Meece, 1994; Weinburgh, 1995). Though nowfemales’ enrollment in physics nearly equals that of males(Neuschatz & McFarling, 1999), girls and women do not achieveat the same level as their male peers (Bacharach, Baumeister, &Furr, 2003; Labudde, Herzog, Neuenschwander, Violi, & Gerber,J. Phys. Tchr. Educ. Online 2(2), November 2004 Page 4 © 2004 Illinois State University Physics Dept.2000). The behavior of male physics students affects the learningprocess of females (Jones & Wheatley, 1990), as does thebehavior of their teachers (Jones &Wheatley; Labudde et al.).Context has an important influence on female learning(McCullough, 2004; Pollina, 1995; Stadler, Duit, & Benke, 2000),but it has been found that topics and examples which interestfemales are also of interest to their male peers (Hoffman,Häussler, and Lehrke as cited by Hoffman, 2002). Curricula cantherefore be differently constructed so as to meet females’ needswhile remaining appropriate for male students.Physics curricula that challenge students while offeringchoices have been found to increase student motivation andencourage responsibility (Pintrich, 2003). Cooperative orcollaborative classrooms have the ability to
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