Reformed Physics Teaching
An Inquiry-Based, Cooperative Group Approach to Teaching Physics by Chris Meyer
Stop Teaching!
and Help Your Students Learn
Hello and welcome to my website! For four years I have been running a reformed physics classroom that is designed around cooperative group work using guided-inquiry investigations. The traditional lecture has completely disappeared! This website is desgined to help you learn about this method of teaching and to provide you with the materials that you might need to start teaching this way yourself.
Upcoming Presentations
Coming up next is my presentation Teaching Forces PERsuasively on the topic of, you guessed it, forces! Drop by on April 10 and find out how the topic of forces is treated according to the latest in physics education research. Click here for more info.
In May I am sharing the keynote address at the OAPT conference at UOIT and I will run two workshops: Teaching Forces - PER Style! and Physics: The Greatest Story That Can't be Told. Click here for more.
Updated Resources
January 27, 2013
I have updates the handbook for both the Gr. 11 and 12 courses. 11 kinematics has been streamlined. More homework has been added for 11 forces. 11 energy has been almost completely rewritten. The problem solving solution process has been integrated throughout both courses. Numerous smaller edits have been done to the 12 course. Check out the resources here for more info.
TED Talk: Learn Science by Doing
Frank Noschese is an outstanding high school teacher who advocates for active learning science instruction. Follow his blog for a wealth of teaching insight.
NPR: Physicists Seek To Lose The Lecture As Teaching Tool
January 1, 2012
The lecture is one of the oldest forms of education there is.
"Before printing someone would read the books to everybody who would copy them down," says Joe Redish, a physics professor at the University of Maryland.
But lecturing has never been an effective teaching technique and now that information is everywhere, some say it's a waste of time. Indeed, physicists have the data to prove it.
Confessions of a Converted Lecturer
Eric Mazur: "I thought I was a good teacher until I discovered my students were just memorizing information rather than learning to understand the material. Who was to blame? The students? The material? I will explain how I came to the agonizing conclusion that the culprit was neither of these. It was my teaching that caused students to fail! I will show how I have adjusted my approach to teaching and how it has improved my students' performance significantly." Eric Mazur is the Balkanski Professor of Physics and Applied Physics at Harvard University. An internationally recognized scientist and researcher, he leads a vigorous research program in optical physics and supervises one of the largest research groups in the Physics Department at Harvard University.
Creating Better Physics Learners
Training more high-school physics teachers and increasing student learning are two of the challenges facing math, science, and engineering education in the United States. Noah Finkelstein is an Associate Professor of physics at the University of Colorado at Boulder, conducting research in physics education. As director of the Physics Education Research group at Colorado, he studies conditions that support students' interest and ability in physcs. The sub-discipline of physics education research is now well established and boasts robust lines of research that range from investigations of student learning of specific topics (e.g., how students understand propagation of light) to implementing and studying the implementation of educational reforms and what makes them work or not work.