Part VI 2016–2017: Changing Instruction
¶The faculty had unanimously approved the proposed changes in the Paradigms in Physics courses in June, 2016. These changes included eliminating the modern physics course, the second quarter of the electronics course, one of the paradigms in physics courses and the mathematics methods and classical mechanics capstone courses, reconfiguring the junior-year paradigms in physics courses from 9 three-week courses into 6 five-week courses, realigning the computational courses with the revised junior-level paradigms in physics courses, embedding mathematics instruction within all of the junior-level paradigms courses, and developing two new sophomore courses to bridge between the introductory physics courses and the paradigms in physics courses. Still needing discussion and possible revision were the remaining senior level capstone courses as well as possible development of an advanced laboratory course and specialty courses.
This part of the study documented implementing and institutionalizing the re-envisioned Paradigms in Physics curriculum. The guiding questions included:
- How did the faculty change instruction based upon the proposals approved with an unanimous faculty vote?
In particular:
- How did the faculty redesign the upper-division courses?
- What happened when “just-in-time mathematics” was integrated into all of the junior-year Paradigms in Physics courses?
- What happened when a new course, Physics of Contemporary Challenges, was designed and taught?
- What happened when another new course, Techniques of Theoretical Mechanics, was designed and taught?
Data sources for this part of the qualitative study included documents prepared for faculty meetings, audio recordings of upper division curriculum committee meetings, course catalog descriptions, observations of some of the revised courses, and multiple audio-recorded interviews with four faculty involved in implementing the new plan. The lead author selected excerpts from the interviews to illustrate the insights of these instructors with respect to the issues stated above.