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Curriculum
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Literature (Rosser, 1991; Laws, et al., 1999; Whitten and
Burciaga, 2000) suggests that
interactive teaching and innovative curricula may be more
attractive to women and students of color.
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Many innovative curricula are designed to attract a broader
range of students to introductory physics (PKal, 1991; Rigden,
et al., 1993)
- We
observed mostly traditional teaching and curricula at both
successful and typical schools.
Yeah, but how many times can you sit there and solve problems like
‘how fast is the block sliding down the incline?’ (laughter) . . .
If you took physics in high school it was a lot of the same stuff.
(Male student)
- The
traditional introductory course does not receive high student
reviews. (And remember that these are the students who
persisted in the physics major—we did not interview students who
had switched majors away from physics.)
In a lot of experiments it’s just turning a dial or something like
that. I wanted more hands on.. . . .Most of the labs are already
set up. The only lab I really liked was the radio because you had
to do it on your own. He gave you the key and you had to go to your
room and figure it out.
(Male
student)
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Independent, project-oriented labs are more popular with
students than “cookbook” labs, even if the projects take more
time.
[The physics course for education majors] was a lot more examples
and demos and real life situations—a lot less math. Things that
anyone would be interested in knowing, like Bernoulli’s principle is
when the shower curtain comes in on you and sticks to you. . . .
General stuff that makes physics fun, especially for people who
don’t like math.
(Female student)
- We
found that some students are recruited into the physics major by
innovative non-major courses like astronomy, or the course for
education majors. Perhaps faculty are more willing to be
creative in courses where “covering the content” is less of an
issue.
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Younger faculty, and women faculty tended to be among the more
innovative of faculty we observed. (Often the women were among
the younger faculty.
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