Re: College nowadays - What "should" students know?

[Fran Poodry <FPoodry@AOL.COM>]

In a message dated 9/29/99 5:00:50 AM, LISTSERV@LISTS.NAU.EDU writes:

> I have become increasingly troubled that "good" high school physics
> classes are increasingly becoming mirrors of college classes. Only if
> we
> high school teachers run through Serway and Faughn, Giancoli, Cutnell and
> Johnson, etc are we deemed to be doing our jobs. And if we can get through
> Resnick and Halliday in one year on our students first exposure to physics
> we are truly excellent.

Huh???

It has been a few years since I last wrote to this list, so I apologize if I
am repeating old stuff or stepping on toes, here.  But what "information"
tells us that "good" HS classes "mirror" college classes?  WHO SAYS we are
only doing our jobs if we cover all of Cutnell and Johnson (or whichever) in
a year?

Nobody judges me on whether I get through a textbook.  I judge myself on how
well my kids do on the FCI at the end of the year, but I'm the only one who
cares about that.
(I was pleased to achieve nearly 50% average, with one kid missing only 2
questions on the whole thing!)  My administration observes me teach, and they
have a whole three pages of checklist, without once mentioning whether I
"cover the book."

Besides, I thought college professors wanted critical thinkers in their intro
physics classes, not kids who had covered the book in HS.  And as long as the
kids take their state test in 11th grade and I teach 12th, I don't even have
to "cover" ALL the "standards".

So, what is a "good" HS physics class?  I teach using modeling, and I think
it is a decent class.  We do a couple of fun projects (I think school should
have SOME fun in it, but I may be a radical), but we also analyze a LOT of
data.  We ask hard questions like "Why did you do it (the experiment, the
problem, etc) that way?" and "What if you changed (some variable or
condition), what do you think would happen then?."  Book?  I admit I kindof
forgot to use it last year.  I'm not used to having a decent one, so I'm not
in the habit of assigning reading or problems from it.  I'm SURE we didn't do
all the topics in it.  So am I a "bad" teacher?  Where are these criteria
coming from?

Fran Poodry
Haddonfield Memorial High School
Haddonfield, NJ