A brief history of physics education in the United States

Abstract

In order to provide insight into current physics teaching practices and recommended reforms, we outline the history of physics education in the United States-and the accompanying pedagogical issues and debates-over the period 1860-2014. We identify key events, personalities, and issues for each of ten separate time periods, comparing and contrasting the outlooks and viewpoints of the different eras. This discussion should help physics educators to (1) become aware of previous research in physics education and of the major efforts to transform physics instruction that have taken place in the U.S., (2) place the national reform movements of today, as well as current physics education research, in the context of past efforts, and (3) evaluate the effectiveness of various education transformation efforts of the past, so as better to determine what reform methods might have the greatest chances of success in the future. V

Value added or misattributed? A multi-institution study on the educational benefit of labs for reinforcing physics content

“…Although this result may seem surprising, given the prevalence of such instructional labs with these goals, there is some theoretical rationale. First, goals to reinforce content often come hand-in-hand with increased structure, as it becomes important for students to observe a particular "correct" result [2]. When one examines the cognitive activities in which students are engaged while completing such lab course activities [12,34], they are dominated by following instructions to collect specified data using unfamiliar equipment, and following specified procedures to analyze the data and write up reports in a specified format.…”

“…In the late nineteenth and early twentieth century, physics experiments were used as opportunities for students to discover physical phenomena inductively [1,2]. As curricular requirements became more rigid (to meet college entrance requirements, for example) and enrollment numbers increased, discovery lab activities inevitably evolved to become more structured, leading to well defined experiment protocols [2], derogatorily referred to as "cookbook." These overly structured labs have been criticized for stifling students' use of cognitive and metacognitive skills [4,12,13], impeding students' epistemologies regarding the nature of experimentation and scientific measurement [14][15][16], and being generally "uninspiring" [17].…”

“…From a focus on explaining everyday physical phenomena, developing the experimental skills of a physicist, or understanding conceptual physics ideas, hands-on activities have frequently been at the core of a physics education [2]. In the late nineteenth and early twentieth century, physics experiments were used as opportunities for students to discover physical phenomena inductively [1,2].…”

“…From a focus on explaining everyday physical phenomena, developing the experimental skills of a physicist, or understanding conceptual physics ideas, hands-on activities have frequently been at the core of a physics education [2]. In the late nineteenth and early twentieth century, physics experiments were used as opportunities for students to discover physical phenomena inductively [1,2]. As curricular requirements became more rigid (to meet college entrance requirements, for example) and enrollment numbers increased, discovery lab activities inevitably evolved to become more structured, leading to well defined experiment protocols [2], derogatorily referred to as "cookbook."…”

“…Instructional labs have long been considered a mainstay of secondary and postsecondary science courses [1,2]. In addition to other potential goals, labs are assumed to enhance the learning of course content beyond what is provided by the lectures, recitation sections, and homework [3][4][5].…”