90% of anything is crud, including schools and perhaps the scholarly motivation of most students, but the better schools don’t teach the better students by rote learning.
The magic words, as you point out at the bottom of your essay, are helpful for getting one’s thoughts into the right part of science. Most people would have a train of thought that is not quite as reflective as what you described, something a bit more confused like:
“Heat conduction?”
Something to do with heat spreading out from hot to cold.
This is strange. The near side should be hotter.
Well, maybe the plate’s made of some weird material or something.
The teacher is posing a trick question, by requiring thought outside physics and in the area of teacherly psychology. This is a good way of reminding the students that all areas of science are connected. But good science works by creating models which are simplifications of the world. In a physics class, the model focuses on physics and not human psychology. Too many trick questions, and students will never learn the laws of thermodynamics, as they spend their brainpower trying to outwit the teacher.
Well, maybe the plate’s made of some weird material or something.
My first response would be “metamaterials”. Then it would be an extremely excited feeling, because the teacher just Violated Thermodynamics™. Then it would be confusion, and I’d stick up my hand and say “the hot air was blown towards the far side” or something.
We don’t tend to question the premise when the Trusted Authority Figure is asking us questions, because our prior estimate of that is very unlikely. The chance of it actually being heat conduction in some way feels higher than the teacher faking the situation. The chance of me being completely wrong about Physics feels higher than the teacher lying, and “heat conduction” is my easiest way out, whilst saving face.
90% of anything is crud, including schools and perhaps the scholarly motivation of most students, but the better schools don’t teach the better students by rote learning.
The magic words, as you point out at the bottom of your essay, are helpful for getting one’s thoughts into the right part of science. Most people would have a train of thought that is not quite as reflective as what you described, something a bit more confused like:
“Heat conduction?”
Something to do with heat spreading out from hot to cold.
This is strange. The near side should be hotter.
Well, maybe the plate’s made of some weird material or something.
The teacher is posing a trick question, by requiring thought outside physics and in the area of teacherly psychology. This is a good way of reminding the students that all areas of science are connected. But good science works by creating models which are simplifications of the world. In a physics class, the model focuses on physics and not human psychology. Too many trick questions, and students will never learn the laws of thermodynamics, as they spend their brainpower trying to outwit the teacher.
My first response would be “metamaterials”. Then it would be an extremely excited feeling, because the teacher just Violated Thermodynamics™. Then it would be confusion, and I’d stick up my hand and say “the hot air was blown towards the far side” or something.
We don’t tend to question the premise when the Trusted Authority Figure is asking us questions, because our prior estimate of that is very unlikely. The chance of it actually being heat conduction in some way feels higher than the teacher faking the situation. The chance of me being completely wrong about Physics feels higher than the teacher lying, and “heat conduction” is my easiest way out, whilst saving face.