Conference on the Introductory Physics Course on the occasion of the retirement of Robert Resnick

Abstract

It is the custom in many American universities for university professors to adopt a course book which closely follows the physics undergraduate course which they are teaching. For many, that course book has been Halliday and Resnick. Wherever in the world university physics is taught then the names of Halliday and Resnick are known. The ferment of activity in the post-Sputnik era of curriculum development led Halliday and Resnick to produce a preliminary version of their book, Physics, in 1958. Since then there have been four editions of Physics and four editions of Fundamentals of Physics, the last in 1992 and 1993 respectively (all published by John Wiley). In 1993 a conference was held at Rensselaer Polytechnic Institute on 'The Introductory Physics Course' to honour Resnick on his retirement. This book is the proceedings of the conference. This was no nostalgic looking back at physics educational publishing. The 13 invited speakers and 25 poster presenters have produced between them a superb contribution to the debate on 'where does university physics teaching go from here?'. I began by dipping into some of the articles but soon found myself reading the book from cover to cover. It is a fascinating read with messages for course designers everywhere. The overriding message appeared to be that `all is not well with Physics Education at the moment and here is what we are trying to do about it'. In the lifetime of Resnick's books the numbers of students pursuing physics courses worldwide have increased. No longer are students destined to become clones of their teachers; many students do not wish to continue with physics beyond the end of their course. The preparation of students in school for study at university is changing; more is now known about how students learn and the difficulties they have in understanding physics concepts. There is more known about how little students really learn and how lecturers put them off physics. Students want contemporary physics (physics in use today) and yet they don't understand the basic concepts such as Newton's Laws. There is also a great disparity between research physics and taught physics. It is estimated that 95% of all physics texts is universal and 95% is pre-1935. It is difficult to choose to comment on any article but I will dip into some of them. Resnick's own contribution covered the development of Physics from its origins as a course for engineers at the University of Pittsburgh. The religious fervour at that time (late 1950s) to do something about science teaching led to Halliday and himself being given a contract without a word of the manuscript being seen. The book was fully trialled for three years before it was published. When it was, not one review commissioned by the publishers was favourable, which is a warning to us all! The arguments of depth and breadth continued then as now. It was realized then that textbooks can't do everything and that more attention should be paid to how we teach who does the teaching to whom and not just what we teach. It was suggested that the focus should always be on the students, their work habits, prior knowledge and cultural expectations. It was also recognized that the pressures of teaching and research on lecturers have also increased too. Arons warns us that there is too much writing for peers and not enough writing for students and that research on how students learn is now respectable. Many articles refer to the use of the microcomputer in learning, both in laboratories and in classes, the role of the lecturer becoming that of mentor with all the time constraints that this implies. A plea was made that lecturers and teaching assistants should have the opportunity to learn in the way that they are expected to teach. The humorous poster article on Halliday and Resnick's ' Physics Through the Years' took a light-hearted look at the diagrams, comparing the pictures with the increasing age and stature of the author. An international flavour in the debate came from China and Germany, both countries working in a changing educational environment. The 357 representatives from high schools, colleges and universities in six countries appear to have produced an up-to-the-minute debate which is tinged with optimism for the future. If you are thinking of changing your university course then this book is a mine of information and references to help you on your way.