Teaching Physics vs. Teaching Vet Med - Aren't There Parallels?
I was once told by an Associate Dean for Academic Affairs that their school had looked at the grades of single pre-vet course series correlated best with grades of a student during the first 3 years of vet school. That course series was Physics. The instruction of students in conceptual and practical areas occurs in all areas of science. This article in the Chronicle of Higher Education describes Physics Professor Eric Mazur's recognition as he taught at Harvard that the traditional classroom lecture without interaction and without a focus on practical problem-solving, "had to go." Practical issues aside (this article addresses resistance from faculty in other scientific disciplines), what really is the difference between teaching students for longterm understanding of physics and teaching understanding of physiology, pharmacology, etc?