Physics 641: Physics Pedagogy
An On-line Course for Teachers of Physics

Week 4: Five Easy Lessons

Assignment 1

You will be assigned one of the five lessons listed on page 5 of Randall Knight's Five Easy Lessons: Strategies for Successful Physics Teaching to discuss in a paper of no less than 1000 words. These five lessons (which we will call tenets), as defined by Knight, are:

• Tenet One - Keep students actively engaged and provide rapid feedback.
• Tenet Two - Focus on phenomena rather than abstractions.
• Tenet Three - Deal explicitly with students' alternative conceptions.
• Tenet Four - Teach and use explicit problem-solving skills and strategies.
• Tenet Five - Write homework and exam problems that go beyond symbol manipulation to engage students in the qualitative and conceptual analysis of physical phenomena.

You might, for example, discuss how you could utilize one of these tenets in your classroom. Or discuss the challenges or limitations that you might experience in implementing this tenet. Be specific with your examples. Upload your paper into Open Portfolio as HW6. The paper is due Monday, February 20, 2006, 5 am.

Assignment 2

You will then be assigned to read and critque the papers of three other students. This is done in the Feedback area of Open Portfolio. A copy of the three critiques should be submitted as HW7 in your own assignment area. Each critque should be no less 150 words each. The deadline for submitting feedback is Saturday, February 25, 2006, 5 am.