2. PHYSICISTS ABOUT PHYSICS EDUCATION By Dr. Genrikh Golin ( Touro College, New York )

3. Physics teachers and educators are seeking to improve the system of physics education.

4. The heritage of the great physicists of the past and the present can prove to be very valuable. Outstanding physicists were excellent teachers they introduced progressive ideas in different areas in physics education including; othe content of school and college curriculums; othe correlation between theory and experiment in the physics courses; othe study of the basic scientific concepts, laws and theories; ocreativity of students and its development; othe usage of history and philosophy of physics in teaching; othe role of mathematics in physics.

5. We familiarize the students- future teachers with the pedagogical ideas of famous physicists such as: A.Ampere, N.Bohr, L.De Broglie,A. Einstein, M.Faraday, W.Heisenberg, P.Kapitza, L. Landau, M.Laue, J. Maxwell, M.Planck, I.Rabi and others. A.Ampere, N.Bohr, L.De Broglie,A. Einstein, M.Faraday, W.Heisenberg, P.Kapitza, L. Landau, M.Laue, J. Maxwell, M.Planck, I.Rabi and others.

6. We familiarize the students- future teachers with the pedagogical ideas of famous physicists –These scientists made outstanding contribution to the development of science –They fostered the development of first class researchers.

7. Several quotations from pedagogical writings of physicists MAX PLANCK MAX PLANCK ALBERT EINSTEIN ALBERT EINSTEIN ISRAEL ISAAC RABI ISRAEL ISAAC RABI

8. Max Planck –It is not too important what we teach in school. It is more important how we teach. One mathematical expression that is fully understood by a student has more value than ten formulas that simply memorized. Even though students may know how to apply the formula, they may not have understood the meaning of the formula… –(Continued)

9. Max Planck The function of the school is not to give the knowledge in a special area, but to develop intellectual skills. Some educators may not agree. Of course, knowledge without skills is not as valuable as any theory has meaning only due to its application. However, theory may never be switched by the specific skill because this skill will be useless in front of a new and unusual facts. Therefore, the first condition for a good future career is a valid elementary education. We, teachers should not be concerned about the study of huge facts. Rather, we should be more concerned about their interpretation. If we miss out on elementary education, it will be difficult to receive further knowledge in the future because colleges have other goals... The function of the school is not to give the knowledge in a special area, but to develop intellectual skills. Some educators may not agree. Of course, knowledge without skills is not as valuable as any theory has meaning only due to its application. However, theory may never be switched by the specific skill because this skill will be useless in front of a new and unusual facts. Therefore, the first condition for a good future career is a valid elementary education. We, teachers should not be concerned about the study of huge facts. Rather, we should be more concerned about their interpretation. If we miss out on elementary education, it will be difficult to receive further knowledge in the future because colleges have other goals... –(Continued)

10. Max Planck –Today, science is rapidly growing. Every new invention makes for a media sensation. Unfortunately, some educators familiarize their students with these inventions before they receive the scientific explanation. The community supports the inclusion updated scientific knowledge into the school curriculums and programs. This practice is dangerous for students because they do not understand the meaning of the new scientific developments. Therefore, this is just a lack of depth. Max Planck, Vortrage und Erinnerungen. Stuttgart,1949, Ursprung und Auswirkung wissenschaftlichen Ideen. Vortrag, gehalten am 17 Februar 1933 in Verein Ingenieure, Berlin

11. Albert Einstein –It is not so very important for a person to learn facts. For that he does not really need college. He can learn them from books. The value of an education in a liberal arts college is not the learning of many facts, but the training of the mind to think something that cannot be learned from textbooks. 1921, on Thomas Edison’s opinion that a college education is useless. Quoted in Frank, Einstein: His Life and Times, 185

12. Albert Einstein –Most teachers waste their time by asking questions that are intended to discover what a pupil does not know, whereas the true art of questioning is to discover what the pupil does know or is capable of knowing. 1920. Quoted by Moszkowski, Conversations with Einstein, 65

13. Albert Einstein –Humiliation and mental oppression by ignorant and selfish teachers wreak havoc in the youthful mind that can never be undone and often exert a baleful influence in later life. In “Nachruf Paul Ehrenfest”. Reprinted in “Out of My Later Years”, 217

14. Albert Einstein –To me the worst thing seems to be for a school principally to work with the methods of fear, force, and artificial authority. Such treatment destroys the sound sentiments, the sincerity, and the self-confidence of the pupil. Address at a convention at the State University of New York in Albany, October 15,1936. In “School and Society” 44(1936),589

15. Albert Einstein –I am opposed to examinations- they only deter from the interest in study. No more than two exams should be given throughout a student’s college career. I would hold seminars, and if the young people are interested and listen, I would give them a diploma. Quoted by Fantova, “Conversations with Einstein,” January 20, 1955

16. Israel Isaac Rabi –Only by the fusion of science and the humanities can we hope to reach the wisdom appropriate to our day and generation. The scientists must learn to teach science in the spirit of wisdom… –(Continued)

17. Israel Isaac Rabi –Our colleagues in the nonscientific faculties must understand that if their teachings ignore the great scientific tradition and its accomplishments, they will lose meaning for this generation and be barren of fruit. Only with a unified effort of science and the humanities can we hope to succeed in discovering a community of thought, which can lead us out of the darkness, and the confusion, which oppress all mankind. “Science and the Humanities”, Loeb Lecture, Harvard University, Cambridge, Mass., 21 October, 1955.

18. Israel Isaac Rabi –Physics is now a very mature science and may be losing its attraction to young Americans of eager minds. Of this we must beware in our teaching. Understanding the eighteenth- and nineteenth- century physics can be a tremendous intellectual experience. In the twentieth century, physics begins to lose its hard, fructifying contact with the real world and human experience. The wonderful phenomena and discoveries have been made hard to reach except through an esoteric mathematical language. I feel my generation and the current generation have not devoted the time and profound effort to make… –(Continued)

19. Israel Isaac Rabi the extraordinary phenomena of relativity and quantum mechanics accessible to the intelligent, educated person. I am sure it can be done because that’s the way I understand it. This failure to make the subject accessible to the general educated person has, to my mind, resulted in driving science, particularly physics, out of the secondary schools. Unless a great effort, a really great effort, is expended in this direction, the outlook for the future is bleak… the extraordinary phenomena of relativity and quantum mechanics accessible to the intelligent, educated person. I am sure it can be done because that’s the way I understand it. This failure to make the subject accessible to the general educated person has, to my mind, resulted in driving science, particularly physics, out of the secondary schools. Unless a great effort, a really great effort, is expended in this direction, the outlook for the future is bleak… –(Continued)

20. Israel Isaac Rabi –There is a ray of hope. Just as we learned a great deal from the Russian success of Sputnik, which awoke us to many deficiencies, the industrial success of Asian world – Japan, Korea, Singapore- may spur us on to recover our depleted native intellectual slump. –We must start with our schools, the training of our teachers, and the restoration of our ideals of learning for its own sake. “Epilogue”, in “Scientist and Citizen”, Basic Books, 1987.