What this paper is all about
I will attempt to provide answers to the question of how one can facilitate the acquisition of deep conceptual understanding of physical concepts and make learning more meaningful to students. I will do this by using the results of several physics education researches as anchored on some important difficulties physics educators have in teaching physics.
The problems in physics teaching
Over the years, physics education has been beset with a multitude of problems. The most compelling is how to teach physics to the students so that they will understand it, and appreciate it. An offshoot of this difficulty is the problem of retaining in the program those students who have initially decided to major in physics. Seymour and
Hewitt’s (1997) study on why undergraduates leave the sciences revealed that students switch not because they lack the mental ability. The three main concerns for shifting are the lack or loss of interest, belief that a non-SME offers a better education, and poor teaching of SME faculty.
Looking at these reasons, we realize that the situation is not at all hopeless. I believe that we could do something to address these issues. The scenario would have been pathetic if the primary reason for the switch is the students’ lack of mental ability. As I see it, the issue of lack/loss of interest and the belief that SME offers a better education is brought about or aggravated by the issue of poor teaching of SME faculty. If we can address the issue of poor teaching we will essentially be addressing the two other issues. If we can better teach physics then this can be a source of motivation for students to stay in physics.
Another major problem in physics education is that students do not appear to gain as much knowledge out of their physics courses as desired. The most probable reason for this is the over-dependence of physics instructors on using the “traditional lecture”. Lectures in physics can be an incredibly passive experience for students, particularly dangerous for those who believe that if they can follow the professor, they’ve mastered the material (Tobias, 1990).
In this paper I will be presenting ways in which we can improve large lecture classes in order to make learning more meaningful for students. The motivation for this is my belief that lecture halls will still continue to pervade physics departments. Reducing
the number of student- teacher ratio is a far-fetched reality.
Ms. Kinney showed me the physics in everything from toys to poetry. We discussed Walt Whitman's "When I heard the Learn'd Astronomer" and Robert Frost's "Birches" along with Newton's Laws and Einstein's Theory of Relativity. She had an amazing ability to teach the most complicated concepts in physics without letting us lose sight of the simple wonder of it all. She made physics come alive for me.Ms. Kinney's class was one of the most rigorous and demanding courses that I have faced, but she gave me so much more than she asked of me. She taught me to love learning and physics, and to appreciate the magic and excitement of discovering and mastering new knowledge. Many students got so caught in the difficulty and high expectations of her class that they did not realize the opportunity we were being given.With Ms.
Loh explains that not every college professor is properly taught how to give a lecture, making it difficult for students to get the correct education from a professor who isn’t trained to explain the material. Various colleges and universities are starting to stray away from the traditional lecture and begin a more hands on approach to teaching a college course, while professors are looking to get rid of the college lecture completely. A research study showed classes that had an interactive approach as opposed to the traditional style resulted in better academic grades and a “36 percent drop in class failures.” Many educators prefer
...heory, reverse learning theory, and activation synthesis model, others focus on the mental exercise and simulations that dreams bring to us in the evolutionary theory of sleep. While many of the theories agree that dreams are a representation of ideas and thoughts from the unconscious mind, no single theory has been formed as the single primary authority on the matter of dreams despite more support for some of the theories. The fact of the matter is that despite the rampant research and discourse on the concept behind dreaming, these theories are merely speculations. But these speculations feed the curiosity on dreams and will hopefully lead to the expansion of dream analysis to not only better develop the current understanding of dreams, but also to help people around the world by possibly expanding dream analysis to become an early identifier of mental illness.
Lillian, M. et al. (2006). Improving the preparation of K-12 teachers through physics education research. American Journal of Physics 74(9): 763-767.
The average person spends over one-third of their life sleeping, and over this period of time he or she can have over 1,825 dreams (Wicklinski). By definition, dreams are mental images, thoughts, or emotions that are experienced while sleeping. In the beginning, dreams were thought to be messages sent from the gods or spirit world. Researchers now have many theories explaining why people dream. Many of these theories explain that dreams can resemble an individual’s sensory experiences or even secret wishes. All people dream, but only 42% of people can recall their dreams from the night before (“Dreams”). The study of dreams is a topic that is constantly being debated by researchers for many reasons. Dreaming is important because it can impact people’s health, provide insight into what they are feeling, and reveal information about their behavior.
There are many facts that are unknown about dreams and their meanings. For centuries, philosophers and scientists have tried to understand the meaning of dreams. They have all been fascinated by the fact that the content of dreams may have meanings relating to one's life. Are dreams just thoughts in people's minds, or are dreams in fact representations of different areas in people's lives? Dreams represent many different areas of one's life in physical, emotional, and mental ways. Dreams can relay to people facts about their lives that they are not even aware of. There are also many ways that dreams can help cure different physical, emotional, and mental problems in one's life. This paper will discuss dreams and their meanings, and ways of interpreting a dream using such methods as hypnotherapy and psychoanalysis therapy that can help a person in physical, mental, and emotional ways. The first fact that will be discussed is what dreams are and how they work for people in allowing the person to discover more about himself. Dreams can be defined as "a conscious series of images that occur during sleep" (Collier's, vol. 8). Dreams are usually very vivid in color and imagery. They reveal to the dreamer different wishes, concerns, and worries that he or she has. Dreams usually reflect every part of who the dreamer is. The content of the person's dream is usually made up according to how old the dreamer is and how educated the he or she is (Collier's, vol. 8). Dreams are not planned out or thought up. The unconscious part of the mind brings out bits and pieces of information in the dreamer's mind and places them together. According to Encarta, dreams are almost always visual. Forty to fifty percent of dreams have some form of communication present in them and a very small percentage of dreams give the dreamer the ability to use his or her five senses (Encarta). Dreams allow one to take a closer look into his mind and himself in a quest for self-discovery. Dreams can be used to solve all different types of problems. In Sigmund Freud's book, The Interpretation of Dreams, Sigmund Freud states: "As regards the dream, all the troubles of waking life are transferred by it to the sleeping state […]" (Freud 113). They relay things about a person that the person may not be able to see.
Although scientists still argue about why are we dreaming and what are dreams made of, modern science found out that dreams are endless, random stories. In the early century, where the History of dreaming starts, dreams were seen as a message from the gods. The brain plays and replays experiences during the night. Studies found out that there is also a gender difference in dreaming. Dreaming occurs during REM sleep when the brain defragments memories and daily life experiences and turns them into random neverending stories.
Kirkpatrick, Larry, and Gerald F. Wheeler. Physics: A World View. 4th ed. Orlando: Harcourt College Publishers, 2001.
Despite the large amount of time we spend asleep, surprisingly little is actually known about sleeping and dreaming. Much has been imagined, however. Over history, sleep has been conceived as the space of the soul, as a state of absence akin to death, as a virtual or alternate reality, and more recently, as a form of (sub)consciousness in which memories are built and erased. The significance attributed to dreams has varied widely as well. The Ancient Greeks had surprise dream encounters with their gods. Native Americans turned to their dreams for guidance in life. Shamans dreamed in order to gather information from the spirits.
I chose this book to explore whether our dreams do mean anything, and whether it does symbolise and influence our past and future. The points that I will be talking about The Interpretation of Dreams in my review is the theories of manifest and latent dream content, dreams as wish fulfilments, and the significance of childhood experiences.
All over the world different people, scientists, and civilizations have different dream theories. For instance, the Senoi tribe in Malaysia has a fascinating tradition of dream telling. Every morning the people of the tribe begin their day by discussing and interpreting their dreams with each other. The children, as they grow older, actually learn to control their dreams by simply wishing bad dreams into positive ones. It is observed that, by paying tribute their dreams, the people of the Senoi tribe learn to have faith in themselves. Also, they have very few, if any, mental problems “could working constructively with dreams be part of the answer” to mental issues? (Peirce)
Since the beginning of time, dreams have been a source of mysterious wonder amongst people. Everyone dreams, and those who claim they do not, do dream, however, they are unable to recall their dreams. Prior to psychological research, dreams were interpreted and explained as an unconscious desire, predictions, or subliminal messages. These outdated beliefs existed throughout time until new psychological research came into being. The new psychological research by Sigmund Freud and Carl Jung gave rise to new dream theories that helped gain a greater understanding on dream interpretations.
I have ensured that I meet my students’ science needs by assuring that the material needed to be cover in the class was covered. Furthermost, the students are able to learn from exploring, which is different from teaching the students how to and giving them the information needed. The students were still able to learn the material needed to be covered by discovering the content.
Furthermore, my Physics class that introduced classical mechanics has prepared me for my major in science in mathematics. This class helped me because the professor focused on the general solution to a problem by using a
In my physics lab, I perform many experiments intended to compliment the lecture material. Doing these experiments not only improves my general understanding of the lab material and how physics equations apply to the real world, but also teaches me many things about experimental procedure and data collection. Overall, it is a very enriching experience.