3 ms·

> math is a different subject than most, math is a skill Interesting framing. It prompted me to wonder, what aspects of science education are taught as a skill

> math is a different subject than most, math is a skill Interesting framing. It prompted me to wonder, what aspects of science education are taught as a skill, are what aren't but could/should be? Scientific argumentation/dialog (part of science literacy) seems occasionally taught as a skill. Perhaps roleplay, reflective practice, and drill, are then underutilized? An order-of-magnitude sense of size is regrettably very not taught as a skill. So despite being taught primary through undergraduate, and being part of most every science and engineering curricula, it's very little used by other content, and even graduate student grasp is often weak. Teaching a sense of size as a skill, as a framework for organizing one's knowledge of the physical world, might be an interesting opportunity. Much of intro physics seems taught as plug-and-chug skills. So being a "skill" seems at least somewhat orthogonal to transferability, utility, etc. Is applying physics to your everyday life ever taught as a skill? Or an experimentalist mindset?

abdullahkhalids 2y ago
> Is applying physics to your everyday life ever taught as a skill? Or an experimentalist mindset? I was a physics prof for a while. The answer is Yes and No. Good teachers and good programs try to do this. The No emerges from the fact that education is a social process between humans. "mindset" is how you think. You can't force someone to change the way they think unless they want to. You can tell them how to think, you can provide conditions in the class or lab to encourage this, but at the end of the day, for adults at least there are limits to how much you can push them [1]. Some/most but not all students will agree to change their mindset, but usually only if they like or respect the teacher or subject enough. If a student is taking 5 courses in a semester, they likely won't have the mental bandwidth to change how they think as pushed by each of those 5 courses/teachers. As a prof, you have to respect these human limitations. You can't just design a course where you expect it is the only thing the students are doing, and that they already love/respect you enough. PhD students, on the other hand, are rightfully pushed quite hard by their supervisor to think correctly. The social dynamics are quite different there. [1] School children, especially young ones, for better or worse, are pushed much more by their school teachers because their minds are more malleable.

abdullahkhalids 2y ago

> Is applying physics to your everyday life ever taught as a skill? Or an experimentalist mindset? I was a physics prof for a while. The answer is Yes and No. Good teachers and good programs try to do this. The No emerges from the fact that education is a social process between humans. "mindset" is how you think. You can't force someone to change the way they think unless they want to. You can tell them how to think, you can provide conditions in the class or lab to encourage this, but at the end of the day, for adults at least there are limits to how much you can push them [1]. Some/most but not all students will agree to change their mindset, but usually only if they like or respect the teacher or subject enough. If a student is taking 5 courses in a semester, they likely won't have the mental bandwidth to change how they think as pushed by each of those 5 courses/teachers. As a prof, you have to respect these human limitations. You can't just design a course where you expect it is the only thing the students are doing, and that they already love/respect you enough. PhD students, on the other hand, are rightfully pushed quite hard by their supervisor to think correctly. The social dynamics are quite different there. [1] School children, especially young ones, for better or worse, are pushed much more by their school teachers because their minds are more malleable.