Redish, Conf Proc: World View on Physics Educ in 2005 (2005)

Changing Student Ways of Knowing: What should our students learn in physics class?

E. F. Redish, to be published in Proceedings of the Conference, World View on Physics Education in 2005: Focusing on Change, Delhi (Aug 21-26, 2005).

Abstract:  Over the past twenty-five years, educational research on introductory university physics classes has demonstrated that student learning is often significantly less than we hope and expect. Specific conceptual difficulties have been identified in a wide variety of topics. Research-based curricula designed to improve student conceptual learning can yield substantial gains over traditional instruction. I review some of the results of this research and development and describe a project at the University of Maryland that explores the next step: understanding the deeper and less explicit elements of science learning that I refer to as “the hidden curriculum.” The results of this project indicate that it is possible to provide explicit instruction to change students’ ways of knowing even in a large lecture environment.