[regular.joe]

Within the last week I heard a program on NPR with a physics prof who is working on changing the scene of lecture style teaching. He gave a test to his students, as well as to the guys who have passed physics courses with simple questions that would test whether or not the subjects being tested understood the underlying principles. Questions like, if two objects of the same size but of different weight, say 20 lbs and 10 lbs, were droped from the same height would one hit the ground first, the other hit the ground first or both at the same time. It turns out that only about 10 percent of test subjects did well on the test. Even among students who had passed a college level physics course. Students only memorize the formulas and apply them without understanding the underlying principles. The students who did well on the test to understand underlying principles would have learned the stuff on their own without going to a lecture anyway. So, the point being the lecture classes only passed on the information while a more hands on participatory approach teaches more. Of course profs polled say that their lecture classes are ok as is.