Walter Lewin on teaching physics:
What counts, I found, is not what you cover but what you uncover. Covering subjects in a class can be a boring exercise, and students feel it. Uncovering the laws of physics and making them see through the equations, on the other hand, demonstrates the process of discovery, with all its newness and excitement, and students love being part of it.
{ 5 comments… read them below or add one }
Evan Berkowitz 02.27.12 at 22:22
There is a[n apocryphal?] story that Victor Weisskopf said something along the lines of “Lecturing is like an exotic dancer: it’s not what’s covered, but what’s uncovered that matters.” Weisskopf and Lewin would have known one another well, too…
MBP 02.28.12 at 11:13
Yes, but how do you do the uncovering? Not in lecture:
http://fnoschese.wordpress.com/2011/02/21/pt-pseudoteaching-mit-physics/
John Venier 02.28.12 at 12:16
That cover photo just screams, “Soon to be a major motion picture starring Robin Williams.”
Jason Adams 02.28.12 at 12:17
So both Lewin and Weisskopf said basically the same thing? Did one credit the other? If not, I’m imagining some scenario in which they both got really drunk, went to a strip club, and spent the next 10 years arguing over who came up with it that night.
Siddharth 03.01.12 at 06:58
Gary Zukav, in “Dancing Wu Li Masters” says something extremely close to this.
Thanks for introducing this book.