Nonlinear Psychometric Thresholds for Physics and Mathematics

sylvan8798
Mon, 02 Jan 2012 00:35:15 +0000

starbright:

Sylvan, your background sounds very similar to mine. But you ended up teaching physics, right? How did you get your background to where you ended up? Maybe there in lies important ideas that need to be adapted.

That’s all rather convoluted and tied in some ways to facing down that challenge (climbing Mount Everest, I call it).

The primary thing I see as far as students who are not doing well in college level calculus and physics is poor algebra skills. Mistakes in basic algebraic manipulation, cancelitis {eg. x/(x+2)=>1/2}, and inability to set up word problems. (Of course, this is likely reflected in their lower SAT scores.)

As for whether it is the fault of the Oregon professors, it is not the job of the calculus or physics professor to teach algebra. It is assumed that students have that skill coming in. Better screening and remediation would help, although students have ways of slipping past the screening and then still doing poorly in classes, so I don’t know how to go about improving on that.