>
>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
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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.
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