NECESSARY IMPROVEMENTS
Robert Milikan once stated that “…it cannot be too strongly emphasized that it is grasp of principles, not skill in
manipulation, which should be the primary objective of General Physics courses.” Changes that need to be made in
physics education should be done with this goal in mind.
Two major changes need to be made in the way class time is spent. First, lectures should be less one sided, allowing
interaction both among students and between the professor and the students. If the professor spends time answering
the students’ questions and posing questions to them, it is more likely that the professor will become aware of areas
that the students find challenging. Having students work together in class to solve problems with the new material
can also be beneficial, for they will realize immediately if they do not understand it. Secondly, the information that
is taught needs more structure, starting with the basic foundation and working up to the details. Even the most
carefully explained details will be useless to the student who does not see the big picture. Therefore, for each topic
that is taught, the conceptual foundation needs to be laid before the students are taught how to deal with it
mathematically. Teaching students by giving them an equation does not help much. For example, Newton’s second
law is commonly taught as “force equals mass times acceleration.” That just gives the students an equation.
Perhaps a better way to explain this law would be something along the lines of “the acceleration of an object due to
an external force acting on it is proportional to its mass.” This description is wordier and may seem more
complicated, but it has a better chance of helping the students visualize the physical situation and understand where
it comes into play. When students are taught the mathematical representations of a concept, the connection between
the formula and idea needs to be stressed. Students also need to see the connections between the topics they are
taught. Therefore, the conceptual foundation which students should be given needs to be broad enough to
encompass many concepts.
A second set of changes needs to occur in the students’ homework. The plug and chug method is not sufficient in
reinforcing concepts covered in class. It only teaches students to manipulate equations, which essentially is math.
Therefore, the students need to see situations on their homework where formulas are useless. They will only know
if their conceptual knowledge is present and correct if it is tested. Along the lines of homework, professors need to
develop methods of grading the students’ homework problems immediately. Students need to be made aware of
mistakes when the assignment is still fresh in their minds. Students usually have some interest in learning the
material while working on the assignments. However, they will never learn unless they know what they do not
know. These changes in homework may work well but would be difficult for a professor to make on his own. It is
here that some form of technology can to be introduced to the system to make the assignments more efficient and
beneficial.
CAPA: FINDING A SOLUTION WITH TECHNOLOGY
A computer assisted personalized approach (CAPA) for assignments is a technological tool used at Michigan State
University to accomplish some of the goals mentioned above. CAPA was developed in 1993 by a team of
professors as a system for creating individualized assignments. These professors had five principle goals for the
program.
(1) to provide timely feedback on problem solving
Figure 1 Two students’ versions of the same problem
(2) to minimize judging and ranking of students during the learning process
(3) to reward diligent work and encourage students to work together
(4) to reduce the impersonal nature of a large college class
(5) produce a system without tedious grading for large classes
The assignments created on CAPA can be completed by the students entirely through the computer system.
Students can enter their answers to the problems either with a web browser or in a telnet session. As soon as a
student enters an answer, the system tells them whether it is right or wrong. Students are given a multiple number of
tries to get a problem right, as specified by the professor. Students getting a correct answer on the first try receive
no more credit than students getting the correct answer on the last possible try do.