Product Review

A companion guide to using the Physics Suite, Teaching Physics is a book about learning to be a more effective physics teacher. It is meant for anyone who is interested in learning about recent developments in physics education. It is not a review of specific topics in physics with hints for how to teach them and lists of common student difficulties. Rather, it is a handbook with a variety of tools for improving both teaching and learning of physics from new kinds of homework and exam problems, to surveys for figuring out what has happened in your class, to tools for taking and analyzing data using computers and video.

Teaching Physics includes:

•  an introduction to the cognitive model of thinking and learning that underlies modern physics education research
• principles and guidelines for making use of and understanding the implications of this cognitive model for the classroom
• a discussion of formative and summative evaluation with a variety of "thinking problems" useful for homework and exams
• a discussion of assessment of the success of instruction using research-based concept and attitude surveys
• discussion of 11 research-based curricular materials for use in lecture, lab, recitation, and workshops environments
• tips and guidelines  for how to improve your instruction

In addition, the book comes with a Resource CD containing 14 conceptual and 3 attitude surveys, more than 250 thinking problems covering all areas of introductory physics, resource materials from commercial vendors on use of computerized data acquisition and video, and a variety of other useful reference materials.