Five Easy Lessons: Strategies for Successful Physics Teaching 1st Edition

This is a fantastic little book.The author here has done the physics community a great service: the book is cheap enough that one can just buy it without thinking twice, and then even get a copy for colleagues to borrow. This book is not of the 'here's the new best method, and you can implement it by using my $350+ textbook & workbook solution'. Rather, this book nicely (and very readably) summarizes current research on teaching physics in less than 100 pages. Better presentation, & more useful, than Redish, Mazur, etc etc - not that they don't have useful material, but they cost 3-4X as much, have less to offer per page, and tend to push a specific system that requires use of their other (expensive) materials.The much larger benefit of the book, though, is the subsequent ~200 pages of suggestions for teaching specific topics - waves, geometrical optics, etc. Each standard intro physics topic gets a couple of pages detailing typical difficulties students have with the material (often subtle - and fascinating - issues involving how they interpret the usual examples, e.g. ray diagrams) and ways to effectively shift the examples or material to address those issues. These sections are interesting to read, short, and have examples that are easy to integrate into tomorrow's lecture.Much more useful than typical teaching books - get it & you'll see. It is succinct, actually fun to read, and can readily be used to improve a lecture you are preparing *right now*... but is also helpful for more lengthy shifts in one's approach (e.g. changes in course notes to address points of typical student confusion). Can't recommend it too highly.

This book is a little outdated (there has been a lot more research done in physics education) but it is still worth the purchase and read! I definitely recommend this book to a physics teacher of any year!

I've been aware for a long time that students resist learning physics because they have a hard time letting go of what they think they already know. I've had some limited success overcoming the students' preconceptions but it is a constant challenge. This book translates existing research on effective physics teaching into a practical approach. I found it fascinating and can't wait to start putting it to work. It is, for the most part, clear and convincing. I do wish the author gave more thorough examples and explanations of the different types of diagrams he assigns to students. Nevertheless, even though the book is really written for college professors, I found it very adaptable to my class for ninth graders.

Amazing book and a must-read for any physics teacher, or for any science teacher. The main focus is on the students' preconceptions before they walk into your class. Every person has their own version of the laws of physics in their head, from watching stuff fall off the high chair when they were babies through falling off their bicycle. If the teacher does not face the mistaken preconceptions head-on, the students will never learn.

A little gem yet to be discovered by more audience!I used this book on my spare time to tutor a high school kid who went on to Cornell. The author is right on in addressing why people get frustrated while solving physics problems : It is because the way physics works is often different from the way we intuitively perceive the real world! I sensed the author's passion in teaching physics and compassion for those struggling in learning physics.I wish more people, especially young ones, can get exposed to this great piece and get thrilled to find the joy of learning physics. By the way, I'm not even a physics major!

I am a physics teacher with 11 years of teaching physics behind me including all levels of high school and introductory college physics. This book summarizes the lessons learned about learning physics and wraps it up in a neat little package for you. Included are sample test items and suggestions for teaching.I wish I had found this book sooner--it would have saved me lots of time on the internet! :-)

I have just completed a Graduate Diploma in Teaching for high school Physics and would have loved to have had this book earlier in the year.However it will still be a very helpful text, small enough to always have on hand, to draw on to better understand where students are coming from and what their conceptual blocks might be.Overall, an insightful treatise on the subject of teaching Physics!

It's time to get educated in order to educate!

Me parece una buena herramienta para el docente de física.

読みやすく、分かりやすいです。大学で読む英文を読めるくらいでしたら、かんたんに理解できると思います。買ってよかったです！高校で物理を担当しているので、授業に活用してます。

A fantastic, thorough text. I would heartily recommend to all physics teachers experienced or otherwise. The quality of the paper is the only reason this is rated 4/5 rather than 5/5. The paper is so thin that the text on the other side is actually readable so the reading experience is hampered significantly.

I purchase this book at the recommendation of another high school physics teacher. It doesn't look like the most exciting book at first glance but I had read it front to back within a couple days.The strategies presented in this book are simple and applicable to not only a university level course, but also the high school level (which is where I use it). It has enabled me to take my lessons from ho hum to engaging in very little time.Using the suggestions in this book I have not only improved my students learning but I have gotten excited about my course again. You don't need any crazy lab equipment or expensive items to utilize the ideas in this book and everything suggested is based on sound pedagogy and valid educational research.A must have for any physics teacher.

Received the book today, and while the content itself looks to be as expected, I am very disappointed to see the book is printed on NEWSPRINT (fishwrap). I guess I shouldn't be surprised, given that the publisher is Pearson, but I bought the book based on the recommendations of others. But really, can't they think of how people often use these kinds of books? Quite often hilighters and pens are involved, and those don't work well at all with fishwrap. And yes, I'm taking TWO stars off for the paper quality.