[net-gold] Re: The Karlsruhe Physics Course and The German Physical Society
- From: "David P. Dillard" <jwne@xxxxxxxxxx>
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- Date: Mon, 26 May 2014 00:44:41 -0400 (EDT)
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Date: Sun, 25 May 2014 19:58:29 -0700
From: "Richard Hake rrhake@xxxxxxxxxxxxx [Net-Gold]"
<Net-Gold@xxxxxxxxxxxxxxx>
To: AERA-L@xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx, Net-Gold@xxxxxxxxxxxxxxx
Subject: [Net-Gold] Re: The Karlsruhe Physics Course and The German
Physical Society
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abstract reads:
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ABSTRACT: Corrado Agnes, in his PhysLrnR post "The Karlsruhe Physics
Course and The German Physical Society" <http://bit.ly/S6AKbt>, wrote
(paraphrasing): "Bad News for Physics Education Research and Teaching. I
want to inform you of an amazing and almost unbelievable attack made by
the German Physical Society (GPS) against a group of teachers and
researchers in physics education, whose only guilt is to teach physics
according to the approach of the Karlsruhe Physics Course (KPC). . . . .
The basic ideas of the course were explained in 'An up-to-date approach to
physics' [Schmid (1984)] <http://bit.ly/1w5fGSG> and 'The Karlsruhe
Physics Course' [Herrmann (2000)] at
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<http://bit.ly/RpLeSz>."
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Herrmann pointed out that KPC mechanics is based on the interpretation of
forces as momentum currents as made by Max Planck (1908)
<http://bit.ly/1ihA2yy> and diSessa (1980) <http://bit.ly/1oj8MqY>. KPC
documents are at KPC (2014)
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<http://bit.ly/1kfI5AA>.
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Corrado Agnes (2014) in his PhysLnrR post "The Karlsruhe Physics Course
and The German Physical Society," wrote [bracketed by lines "AAAA . . . .
"; slightly edited; my inserts at ". . . . .[[insert]]. . . ."]:
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AAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAA
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I want to inform all of you and particularly the ones who are travelling
to Europe this summer of an amazing and almost unbelievable attack made by
the German Physical Society (GPS) against a group of teachers and
researchers in physics education, whose only guilt is to teach physics
according to the approach of the Karlsruhe Physics Course (KPC). . . . .
.[[according to Agnes & Rosenberg (2014) "There are some interesting
overlaps between Modeling Instruction, based on Hestenes' work, and the
Karlsruhe Physics Course (KPC)"]]. . . . .
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The KPC was developed more than 30 years ago. The basic ideas of the
course had been published in the American Journal of Physics [Schmid
(1984)], the European Journal of Physics [Herrmann (2000)] and other
scientific reviews. The original course is in German, and the
corresponding text books have since been used in a certain, slightly
increasing number of German schools. There are also translations into
other languages, such as English, Italian, and Chinese, and accompanying
didactic materials, together with documents about the KPC at the website
[KPC (2014)]. . . . . . . .
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One year ago the GPS became aware of the course. In their opinion the KPC
represents a danger to the teaching of physics at schools and
Universities. Therefore, the GPS has taken unusual measures to ban the use
of the KPC text books and to counter any spread of KPC ideas. . . . . . .
. . .
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In the meantime, the allegations against the KPC have been rebutted by
many physicists from University and industry, as well as by high school
physics teachers. . . . . .[[see e.g., "On a Report by the German Physical
Society Concerning the Karlsruhe Physics Course" (Strunk & Rincke, 2013)
and "Reply to the GPS report about the Karlsruhe Physics Course"
(Herrmann, 2013)]]. . . . . . In particular a group of more than 20
theoretical physicists signed a declaration critical of the conduct and
the conclusions of the GPS. Moreover the associations of teachers in
Germany and other European Countries dissociated themselves, more or less
openly, from the position of the GPS. . . . . . . .
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I'll go to the GIREP Conference in Palermo. . . . . .[[
<http://bit.ly/Rqa2tM>]]. . . . ., where other KPC teachers and
researchers will be present, and where a Workshop on this subject has been
accepted. All the colleagues of PERTG. . . . . .
[[<http://bit.ly/GBy0Mx>]] . . . . are warmly invited to participate and
to further discuss the future of Physics Education, hoping there'll be
one!
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AAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAA
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Bernard Cleyet (2014) responded (slightly edited): "There's a rather
damning letter by J. Strnad (2000) on the KPC." According to the Wikipedia
entry on Janez Strnad <http://bit.ly/1taNNnR>, Strnad is the author of
over 1000 articles. [Cleyet gives a URL <http://bit.ly/Rqi2en> for
Strnad's letter, but Cleyet's URL is for the UC Santa Cruz library
holdings for "use only by UCSC faculty, staff, and students."
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Richard Hake, Emeritus Professor of Physics, Indiana University; Honorary
Member, Curmudgeon Lodge of Deventer, The Netherlands; President, PEdants
for Definitive Academic References which Recognize the Invention of the
Internet (PEDARRII); LINKS TO: Academia <http://bit.ly/a8ixxm>; Articles
<http://bit.ly/a6M5y0>; Blog <http://bit.ly/9yGsXh>; Facebook
<http://on.fb.me/XI7EKm>; GooglePlus <http://bit.ly/KwZ6mE>; Google
Scholar <http://bit.ly/Wz2FP3>; Linked In <http://linkd.in/14uycpW>;
Research Gate <http://bit.ly/1fJiSwB>; Socratic Dialogue Inducing (SDI)
Labs <http://bit.ly/9nGd3M>; Twitter <http://bit.ly/juvd52>.
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REFERENCES [URLs shortened by <http://bit.ly/> and accessed on 24
May2014.]
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Agnes, C. 2014. "The Karlsruhe Physics Course and The German Physical
Society," online on the ClOSED! PhysLrnR archives at
<http://bit.ly/S6AKbt>. Post of 20 May 2014 17:09:29-0400 to PhysLrnR. To
access the archives of PhysLnR one needs to subscribe :-(, but that takes
only a few minutes by clicking on <http://bit.ly/nG318r> and then clicking
on "Join or Leave PHYSLRNR-LIST." If you're busy, then subscribe using
the "NOMAIL" option under "Miscellaneous." Then, as a subscriber, you may
access the archives and/or post messages at any time, while receiving NO
MAIL from the list!
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Agnes, C. & J. Rosenberg. 2014. "Physics Seminar: The Karlsruhe Physics
Course & Modeling, 01 April 2014," STEMteachersNYC (an affiliate of the
American Modeling Teachers Association); online at
<http://bit.ly/1taABPU>. It's stated that: "There are some interesting
overlaps between Modeling Instruction, based on Hestenes' work, and the
Karlsruhe Physics Course (KPK), a German high school curriculum based on a
coherent approach to physics. The ideas behind KPK were originally
conceived for university, then developed and tried with younger and
younger students, down through elementary school."
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diSessa, A.A. 1980. "Momentum flow as an alternative perspective in
elementary mechanics." Am. J. Phys. 48(5): 365-369; online to subscribers
at <http://bit.ly/1oj8MqY>.
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Herrmann, F. 1979. "Mechanik - Abrieiner Neudarstellung. Konzepte eines
zeitgemen." Phy- sikunterrichts vol 3 (Hannover: Hermann Schroedel Verlag)
pp 80-87.
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Herrmann, F. 2000. "The Karlsruhe Physics Course," Eur. J. Phys. 21,
49-58 ; online as a 115 kB pdf at <http://bit.ly/RpLeSz>. Herrmann wrote
"The amount of the physical knowledge is increasing steadily, whereas the
teaching time remains essentially unchanged. This fact obviously requires
a continuous effort of adjustment and reprocessing of our knowledge. In
this article we shall report about such an effort: about a physics course
which has been developed over the past 20 years at the Didactics
Department of the University of Karlsruhe. Although the most elaborate
version of the course is for the lower secondary school . . . . . the
project was not just to write a new school book. The objective was to
develop a new way of teaching physics, independent of the target group of
learners. The course is now known under the name 'Karlsruhe Physics
Course.' . . . . . . . . . . The Karlsruhe Physics Course contains
numerous deviations from traditional physics courses. However, there is no
innovation which does not have its roots in some previous work, sometimes
in ideas of renowned scientists which have fallen into oblivion. We shall
cite such sources in the following sections where it is suitable. There
are a few sources, however, which we would like to accentuate and we shall
mention them in advance. . . . . .. The mechanics which is based on the
interpretation of forces as momentum currents, has a tradition, which is,
compared to the respectable age of classical mechanics, relatively young:
The proposal to interpret a force as a momentum flow was made for the
first time in 1908 by Max Planck (1908). This date is not accidental. With
the publication of the theory of relativity three years before, it became
clear that energy and momentum should be understood as basic quantities
and not as derived from supposedly more fundamental quantities like mass,
velocity, and force. However, the considerable age and dignity of
classical mechanics has thwarted that this up-to-date and simpler
interpretation of forces gained admission into the elementary text books.
As far as we know, the first efforts in this respect are due to Di Sessa
(1980) and to ourselves (Herrmann 1979). See the anti-KPC response by
Janez Strnad (2000).
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Herrmann, F. 2013. "Reply to the DPG report about the Karlsruhe Physics
Course," online as a 336 kB pdf at <http://bit.ly/1tDATkm>.
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KPC. 2014. Karlsruhe Physics Course, Publications in English; online at
<http://bit.ly/1kfI5AA>.
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Planck, M. 1908. "Bemerkungen zum Prinzip der Aktion und Reaktion in der
allgemeinen Dynamik," Phys. Z. 9: 828-830; an English translation is
online at <http://bit.ly/1ihA2yy>.
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Schmid, G.B. 1984. "An up-to-date approach to physics," Am. J. Phys. 52
(9): 794 - 799; online as a 614 kB pdf at <http://bit.ly/1w5fGSG>.
Strnad, J. 2000. "On the Karlsruhe physics course," Eur. J. Phys. 21:
L33-L36; online to subscribers at <http://bit.ly/TKVo2g>. This anti-KPC
letter was evidently in response to Herrmann (2000).
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Strunk, C. & K. Rincke. 2013. "On a Report by the German Physical Society
Concerning the Karlsruhe Physics Course," online as a 795 kB pdf at
<http://bit.ly/1kCNEIZ>.
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