Learning to Think Like a ... (e.g. Physicist): What University Teaching is Good For

Over the years of my teaching, my major contribution is to demonstrate how to think, how to investigate a problem or issue or situation, how to be a scholar or a thoughtful person. I'm not sure I teach much in the sense of content, and the learning that occurs is usually demonstrated by projects students do (exams are useless, for my classes). I am student-centered, to use the current lingo, by my working with students on their projects, and by engaging with them, usually in class, taking their questions seriously. I understand inverting the classroom, or whatever it is called, and that is possible in the sciences too--but I did not see it. I do not do it now, although projects and consultation do some of it.

My physics teachers were not particularly good didacts. We learned from watching them think. The textbooks did the rest of the work. My best teachers in undergraduate humanities and social science classes were similar. (I went to Columbia, where general education is systematic and central.) 

In other words, "learning" is only sometimes about content. Often, it is about learning to think, one's attitude toward the world as understood by a discipline. What I learned was how to think like a physicist, how to think analytically about society and politics. I never did learn how to think critically about art, music, literature--in part because I did not take the right courses. As for literature and art, I eventually did learn to think critically, but only in an idiosyncratic way--using literature and art to understand problems in planning, decision-making, and design--but this was in my professorial career. 

I'm writing because professors have come to be seen "technologically," in terms of delivering learning. I think a great university offers much more.

Comments

Post a Comment

Popular posts from this blog

Coho: Coho salmon, Cohomology, and Cohomosexuality

 Coho:  Coho salmon, Cohomology, and Cohomosexuality During their  ocean  phase, coho salmon have silver sides and dark-blue backs. During their spawning phase, their  jaws  and  teeth  become hooked. After entering fresh water, they develop bright-red sides, bluish-green heads and backs, dark bellies and dark spots on their backs. Sexually maturing fish develop a light-pink or rose shading along the belly, and the males may show a slight arching of the back. Mature adults have a pronounced red skin color with darker backs and average 28 inches (71 cm) and 7 to 11 pounds (3.2 to 5.0 kg), occasionally reaching up to 36 pounds (16 kg). They also develop a large  kype  (hooked beak) during spawning. [2]  Mature females may be darker than males, with both showing a pronounced hook on the nose. [3] Cohomology is the other side of homology theory in mathematics. Poincare developed homology theo...
Read more

Building a Team in a Department in a University--lessons from basketball in Bill Bradley's Values of the Game

For the most part, our colleagues (professors!) may belong to a discipline and be a member of a department, but they are in effect each on their own. And this is the case for senior faculty as well as those who are just beginning. If a new faculty member is fortunate, someone in the department will take them under their wing, sponsoring and mentoring them. [This is not so much a dean providing guidance and help, as craft training that depends on the particular needs of a research area.]  I'm reading a book by Bill Bradley ( Values of the Game ), where the team is the right unit not any individual player. This begins to make sense for professors, if we think that the reputation and strength of the department is the right unit (and I suspect that for a dean or provost that may well be the case). Of course, you want the strongest players, but you want them to complement each other so that the department is not just the sum of individual strengths.  For the most part, at...
Read more

Robert Caro as a Model

In today's New York Times (9Jan20) there is an article about Robert Caro, author of monumental histories of Robert Moses and LBJ. His research and writing are monumental as well. You are unlikely to finish writing a Caro book in time for tenure review, unless it began as you dissertation. But few academic historians as as revered as is Caro. While it is foolish to expect your dissertation work to be as pathbreaking as is Caro's work, still it sets a standard for effort and writing that may well inspire you, not a bad thing. Choose your heroes with care, and surely do not restrict them to professors and the like. 
Read more