Section 1.2 Appreciating different aspects of the paradigms in physics program
Among aspects influencing the choice to come here were the reformed curriculum, emphasis on active engagement strategies, the community of faculty interested in good teaching, and the opportunity to deeply understand what paradigms in physics actually were through teaching one of the courses.
Appreciating the reformed curriculum.
One new faculty member was intrigued by the intent to design courses that juxtapose different fields of physics using a common concept but had wondered how it would all work:
It (the reformed curriculum) was a little surprising but I thought it made sense because we had had that classical curriculum for a long time but ...I knew that...many of those concepts are used in many different disciplines, different topics, and subjects, situations; ...and those concepts, we have used over and over and over again for the last hundred and fifty years so...I think it is a good idea, but at the time I was a little curious how we could manage...but I think we have a very reasonable program...
The puzzle was how this major rearrangement of the curriculum would actually achieve the “very tight schedule to learn those classical things” typical of the standard upper level courses.
Appreciating the emphasis on active engagement strategies.
Some new faculty members had had prior teaching experience. One already had a positive view of an emphasis on active learning:
There (at the prior institution) they have a lot of emphasis on active learning and the SCALE UP (Student-Centered Active Learning Environment for Undergraduate Programs, https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/SCALE-UP) environment...but in a more traditional curriculum... so the way each paradigm takes things, they like to think more vertically here, the result being it was entirely new although I was already familiar with teaching with a round table...I thought it was very useful to have that kind of set up in the class that required a lot of participation with the students...
Thus this faculty member was familiar with the interactive pedagogy as well as intrigued with the reformed curriculum.
Appreciating the community of faculty interested in good teaching.
Another new faculty member was interested in coming here specifically because of the opportunities and community around teaching provided by the paradigms program:
The paradigms attracted me; I was interested in what happened at the transition between introductory and upper level courses, what was going on there in that transition. I also was interested in interactive teaching techniques and the paradigms courses feature those; OSU is one of few places to feature active engagement strategies in upper division courses...I find the paradigm courses to be fun to teach and it was not possible to recreate the paradigms structurally at my prior institution. The paradigms structure also facilitates a community around teaching in a way that I wasn't able to replicate at my previous institution.
The richness of the teaching and learning environment created through the paradigms in physics program was the primary attraction in recruiting this faculty member, who had been already well-launched on an academic career elsewhere.
Appreciating the opportunity to teach a paradigms in physics course.
Faculty on sabbatical have many options of where to go and what to do. The sabbatical visitor choosing to come here to teach a paradigm in physics course described this decision as follows:
I was already involved in, and had been for at least a year, transformation of our courses and we certainly, during those transformations, we had looked at the paradigms materials, we had found the paradigms wiki...so we were already using stuff...I always felt like I still just didn't understand what paradigms were, like I could hear talks, I could see the materials, I just didn't really know what this actually means in the classroom, so it struck me...that if I got to teach the E&M (electricity and magnetism) one, then that would be really productive because I would finally know what the paradigms were.
This comment recognizes both the national reputation of the paradigms in physics program and the difficulty often encountered when faculty attempt to disseminate reform practices. In spite of writing papers, giving talks, offering workshops, providing online resources, and simply sharing stories, faculty may have a hard time conveying what actually is happening in a reformed classroom.