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RT-01
Students making sense for themselves—a different paradigm in the classroom 

Dewey Dykstra (ddykstra@boisestate.edu) , Boise State University 

Abstract: What if instead of teaching physics content we engaged students in making sense of the phenomena for themselves?  The existing paradigm seems to hold that students cannot know unless we “tell” them and that only a few students are really capable of knowing physics.  It aims to some how transmit or inculcate the students with an official canon.  What if we abandon that aim?  What might be the outcome?  There is evidence that some very good things would be the outcome.  This roundtable discussion is intended to discuss a possible project to explore the pursuit of a different paradigm for classrooms from which students come having developed more powerful understandings of the phenomena, the skills at developing such understandings and the recognition that they can do so.  Would such students show evidence of the capacity to transfer what they have worked out for themselves to new settings?

 

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RT-02

Student Understanding in Upper-Division Physics 

Ingrid Novodvorsky (novod@email.arizona.edu) , Dept. of Physics, Univ. of Arizona

Abstract: At the University of Arizona, we are beginning a long-term research project designed to determine how undergraduate physics majors conceptualize physics content as they progress through a degree program. We hypothesize that the success of this conceptualization is based on students' ability to transfer their learning from introductory courses to upper-division courses, in which they are expected to combine sophisticated mathematical techniques with underlying conceptual understanding. While the stronger students may be able to accomplish this combination, that skill is not automatic for all students, as many struggle just to keep up with the mathematical techniques, and others do not have a solid conceptual understanding of the underlying physics. We are in the early stages of conducting this research and invite other researchers to this roundtable to join the discussion and provide constructive commentary.