A framework for humanised ph ysics teaching

During the 1970s, concern that there was something wrong with physics teaching seemed to grow. Physics teaching appeared to lack the vital element (figure 1). It was increasingly recognised (or should I say recalled?) that the function of physics education was threefold; to educate in physics, through physics and about physics (Dobson 1985). The first of these is what traditionally consumes the teacher’s energies. The others are largely ignored. Now, in the 1980s, this concern still seems to have had little impact on the way in which physics is taught (Newton 1986a). Courses have been developed, for example SISCON (Williams 1975) and Science in Society (Lewis 1978), but there has been no widespread diffusion of their ethos into the main body of physics teaching. The reasons for this are probably many and complex. One, however, must be the way the aims of humanised science teaching are expressed in abstract and uncoordinated terms (Newton 1986b). We are urged to make our courses ‘outward looking’, to provide a ‘full vision’, to develop a propensity in our students to ‘act ethically’ and to see social relevance in all that they do. The gap between such heady objectives and our present position is wide and there is little clearly aim-related teaching material to help us to cross it. In this article I offer a framework which can be used to design and help to evaluate such material. This framework is then interpreted in terms of and illustrated by reference to physics education.