Challenges facing high school physics students An annotated synopsis of peer reviewed literature addressing curriculum relevance and gender Chris Gosling The Gow School Post Office Box 85 2491 Emery Road South Wales NY 14139 E mail cwg5 cornell edu High school students have traditionally been taught physics by way of lectures non participative 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 Introduction Adolescents 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 formalism 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 H ussler and Lehrke as cited by Hoffman 2002 and also by Stadler Duit and Benke 2000 Unfortunately Hoffman H ussler and Lehrke as cited by H ussler Hoffman 2002 found that these aspects of physics are seldom addressed by traditional curricula Rather when contextual references are J Phys Tchr Educ Online 2 2 November 2004 made in the physics classroom they often focus on topics which are biased toward males such as sports cars and military due to the historical prevalence of males in physics 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 Review Students 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 as cited 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 Page 3 2004 Illinois State University Physics Dept 2000 The behavior of male physics students affects the learning process of females Jones Wheatley 1990 as does the behavior 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 interest females are also of interest to their male peers Hoffman H ussler and Lehrke as cited by Hoffman 2002 Curricula can therefore be differently constructed so as to meet females needs while remaining appropriate for male students Physics curricula that challenge students while offering choices have been found to increase student motivation and encourage responsibility Pintrich 2003 Cooperative or collaborative classrooms have the ability to engage students and decrease the frequency of adverse gender interactions if an atmosphere of respect is maintained Pollina 1995 Cooperative classrooms encourage active learning wherein engaged students construct their own meaning of concepts at hand Knight 2004 MacIsaac Falconer 2002 A summary of this review can be found in Appendix A Applications The findings from this literature can
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