Re: Jan Nespor <nespor who-is-at vt.edu>

Dewey Dykstra, Jr. (dykstrad who-is-at varney.idbsu.edu)
Thu, 24 Jul 1997 17:18:27 -0600

>I'm an anthropologist of education just beginning a study of instructional
>design and technopedagogy here at Virginia Tech.

>
>Jan Nespor
>Department of Teaching and Learning

Jan:
Welcome to the xmca list. Last year I finally read your book Knowledge in
Motion having bought it the year before that. I read it at a time when I
was extremely frustrated by the behavior of my colleagues in my department
over the hiring of a new member for the department. Your description of
the role of problem-solving and the narrowing of the focus were not only
right on, but they helped me realize how narrowing and vocational the
training is. I use the word "training" instead of "education"
intentionally. I realized that an explanation for my colleagues' behavior
was because of the narrowness of their training which they seem not to be
able to 'see' beyond.

I have gone on to expand on this notion and am developing an explanation of
science/physics education and its short-comings in terms of the actual
vocational training versus a possible education theme and am working on
generating a manuscript on the subject.

Your description of the 'life' of physics students was very familiar. I
kept saying, "Yep, that happened to me.", "We did that.", etc. It was
clear that the actual institution was not the one in which I was an
undergrad, but I did recognize the place from bits and pieces of
description of the physical location. I went to UTx Austin as a grad
student and it sounds like you did the study there.

Again, welcome and thanks for writing the book.

Dewey

+++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++
Dewey I. Dykstra, Jr. Phone: (208)385-3105
Professor of Physics Dept: (208)385-3775
Department of Physics/SN318 Fax: (208)385-4330
Boise State University dykstrad who-is-at varney.idbsu.edu
1910 University Drive Boise Highlanders
Boise, ID 83725-1570 novice piper

"Physical concepts are the free creations of the human mind and
are not, however it may seem, uniquely determined by the external
world."--A. Einstein in The Evolution of Physics with L. Infeld,
1938

"Don't mistake your watermelon for the universe." --K. Amdahl in
There Are No Electrons, 1991.
+++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++