Exemplary science teaching to me evokes in its students an interest in the topic that goes beyond the classroom. For example, I never would have imagined prior to my high school physics courses that the subject was something I would gain such an interest in as to go on to desire teaching it myself. Yet through the access to the subject provided by my teacher, I was allowed the opportunity to gain an interest and appreciation for the subject. You’ll know it through the questions they ask, the attention they give, and the all around words they share. It is unrealistic to expect that all students will explode in interest to the extent that some may, but all students should feel like they have a comfortable portal into that subject should they choose to dive in.
To me a teacher knows they have succeeded in being exemplary when none of their students feel as if the subject is an inaccessible field to them, that it is above them in any way.
This whole angle is important to me with my subject of physics as there is a widespread belief in physics as the “smart” science that not everyone can get into, which is a cruel method of educational gatekeeping. Struggling with physics and finding it difficult is a natural part of the physics process and to act as if any barriers are a sign that it is not something one is cut out for severely limits the growth of the field and how it is understood. I am sure many individuals who had the potential to be great physicists were held back from this future. My goal is to minimize this outcome to the extent that I can with my role as a teacher.
I plan to accomplish this objective through two methods within my classroom. The first of these methods is in the structure of my lesson plans. I will plan to take advantage of the comparatively little amount of subject matter required to be covered compared to the amount of time available in a high school year, alongside taking a page out of my own high school physics teacher’s book. I will provide a direct presentation of the content one day (with an emphasis on being open to questions and refreshers, and a willingness to go over into other days if needed), followed by many days where the students have access to several problems they can freely tackle in and out of the classroom as well as receiving my assistance and demonstrations of problems that are acting as barriers for any students. This will of course be supplemented by lab work that encourages the students to have to come to their own understanding of physics terms on their own terms. For example, when covering the aspects of motion, I would have a presentation, possibly taking another lesson from my previous teacher by writing the presentation as I taught it. This presentation would cover the terms of vectors, scalars, and the terms of position, velocity, acceleration, speed, etc. These terms would be fully explained to be comprehensible. The whole time students would be free to ask for the meaning or an explanation for any terms used they may not be familiar with used in the presentation. They will be given a packet of many problems and told they won’t have to complete every problem, but will be graded on whether they attempted to tackle them.
The second of these methods is in the environment of my classroom. As mentioned most days will be spent in a very open class and while most of this time will be committed to problems, lab supplies will be left out during class and accessible to students. For the concepts of forces, they would have access to experimenting with and measuring forces of gravity, tension, and pushing/pulling forces. I would have to control chaos that may arise to some extent, potentially by limiting how many students can be utilizing lab supplies at a time. However, that control is based on the needs of the students at hand and is something that must be adjusted accordingly in the actual setting. Also exemplary teaching isn’t always free of chaos, many times teaching leans into a realm of uncertainty and chaos as a way for greater understanding and interest to form.
For a blog site more focused on Physics Education see this resource that includes posts about effective labs https://kellyoshea.blog/category/teaching/
As someone who is scared of physics due to the math involved, how would you help students who are not comfortable in math and help them see physics more approachable?
I like the idea of giving the students the freedom to explore what they know and to try and get them thinking outside of the box.
I am going to take a page out of your research. Do you think labs would be that exemplary part of teaching or just another hurdle to jump through?
I think labs are neither inherently exemplary nor a hurdle, but another aspect of teaching. To me, an exemplary lab does well to spark interest and allow students to connect greater with the subject, but a lab can fail in this by being just as cook book as a lecture.
With your presentation and packet approach, how would you get students to regard it with critical thinking and not just busy work?
By making no part of the packet specifically mandatory, but instead grading based off work on it, students will not be forced to engage with it on a further level than they want to on their own time. Instead, they have the option of working on it in the provided class time where they can work with other students and their teacher, in this case me, to work through the things they do not understand. Each problem will also cover a new aspect of the subject instead of repeating the same problem with new numbers.