Problem-Based Approaches to Physics: Changing Perspectives in Higher Education

✍ Scribed by Derek Jeffrey Raine

• Publisher: IOP Publishing
• Year: 2020
• Tongue: English
• Leaves: 132
• Series: IOP Series in Physics Education
• Category: Library

✦ Synopsis

The role of university is changing under the pressure of external, largely economic and cultural forces. The call to increase recruitment of students to STEM subjects is predicated on their strategic importance for the economy. However, the notion of university physics as a purely vocational training is attractive neither to students nor to their teachers, and is contrary to the ethos of the discipline.

This book argues that problem-based approaches to learning offers the prospect of widening the appeal of physics to potential students and employers, while maintaining its intellectual rigour and providing increased support for employability. The text brings together innovations in university teaching based on learning theories, research and the author’s experience, to present problem-based pedagogies for physics and, by implication, other disciplines. It looks at the practicalities of various implementations of problem-based approaches, developed from the original form of PBL, and at the costs and benefits as well as some of the potential pitfalls. It is valuable reading for curriculum designers of undergraduate and postgraduate programmes and academics working in the field of physics education.

✦ Table of Contents

PRELIMS.pdf
Preface
Acknowledgements
Author biography
Derek Jeffrey Raine
CH001.pdf
Chapter 1 Teaching and learning in higher education
1.1 The changing environment
1.2 Developments and drivers
1.3 Strategically important subjects
1.4 Supply side
1.5 Innovations in pedagogy
1.6 Excellence and curriculum design
1.7 Problem-based approaches
References
CH002.pdf
Chapter 2 The curriculum and design science
2.1 How students learn
2.2 The learning cycle
2.3 Affective learning: motivation
2.4 History of problem-based approaches
2.5 Enquiry and collaboration
2.6 Research–teaching nexus
2.7 Technology
2.8 Constructive alignment: design science
2.9 Personalised curriculum
References
CH003.pdf
Chapter 3 Alignment
3.1 Outcomes
3.2 Engagement
3.3 Metacognition
3.4 Formative and summative assessment
3.5 Authentic assessment
3.6 Authenticity and employability
References
CH004.pdf
Chapter 4 Implementing problem-based approaches
4.1 What is a ‘problem’?
Example 1: a problem like Maria
Example 2: Nefertiti
4.2 The learning cycle
4.3 Scaffolding problem-based approaches
4.4 Managing problem-based approaches: shapes and sizes
4.5 Managing problem-based approaches: facilitation
4.6 Managing problem-based approaches: groups
4.7 Managing assessment and feedback
4.8 Managing change
4.9 Putting it together: an example
References
CH005.pdf
Chapter 5 Problem-based physics (and other disciplines)
5.1 Sources of problems
Example 1
Example 2
Example 3
Example 4: Peter Pan’s shadow
Example 5: quantum theory and relativity
Example 6: quantum dots
Example 7: physics challenge
Example 8: Journal of Special Topics
5.2 Laboratory PBL
A desert island problem
Wet sand revisited
5.3 Induction
UltraKleene
5.4 Other disciplines
5.5 Management
References
CH006.pdf
Chapter 6 Do problem-based approaches work?
6.1 Results from active learning
6.2 Meta-analyses of the impact of PBL
6.3 Employers’ views on graduate employability
6.4 Buy-in from staff and senior management
6.5 Problem-based approaches across cultures
6.6 The future of problem-based pedagogies
References
CH007.pdf
Chapter 7 Problem-based approaches: looking to the future
7.1 Structural change: the teaching focussed lecturer
7.2 Physics and society
7.3 What is physics?
7.4 Interdisciplinarity
7.5 Personalised curricula
7.6 Sustainability
References