These references were sent to me by Dr. Stan Nicholson, Director of UCSB's Instructional Consultation Office (http://www.id.ucsb.edu/ic/). Richard Hake posted the following on several list servs. A list of references follows. His contact information:

Richard Hake, Emeritus Professor of Physics, Indiana University

24245 Hatteras Richard Street, Woodland Hills, CA 91367

<rrhake@earthlink.net>

<http://www.physics.indiana.edu/~hake>

Arons's "Liberal Education" article is ref. 1, and his subsequent book is ref. 2. Among other things the book contains [page numbers in the first version of his book(2a) are followed by square bracketed page numbers in the second version(2b)]

a. Pages 288-312 [344-374], "Achieving Wider Scientific Literacy,"

Chapter 12, based on a paper(3) originally published in Daedalus, and

containing Arons's twelve "Marks of Scientific Literacy." Arons's

important 12 "Marks" are also online in ref. 4, pages 5-7.

b. Pages 313-327 [375-392], "Critical Thinking," Chapter 13, based on ref. 1.

c. Pages 328-335 [393-404], a bibliography containing 19 [21]

references to Arons's publications on critical thinking, physics

teaching, the history of science, and the history of attempted

educational reforms.

I agree with Ken Bane that people from various disciplines might

benefit from study of Arnold Arons's papers on critical thinking. In

addition, people in science education still have a LOT to learn from

Arons. Arnold, a source of guidance and inspiration to many of us in

physics education,(5-7) recently passed away, and will be sorely

missed. One of his important messages(8) (seldom heeded) was that

teachers should "shut up and listen to their students."

Among other memorable Arons aphorisms (all in ref. 9) are:

A. "The relativistic model of instruction is based on the premise

that, if one starts with an E - N - O - R - M - O - U - S breadth of

subject matter but passes it by the student at sufficiently high

velocity, the Lorentz contraction will shorten it to the point at

which it drops into the hole which is the student mind." [For a

cartoon version see ref. 10.]

B. "But . . .(in addition to fruitful curriculum developments). . .

we have also engaged in a large number of what I will describe as

complex projects. Mathematicians among us will recognize complex

projects as the set for which costs are real and results imaginary."

Another aphorism is often credited to Arons but is due to Lee Shulman:

C. "At a meeting last summer, Lee Shulman of Stanford University put

this idea. . . (the proliferation of complex projects in education) .

. . in another form. He said that there is going to be a lot of

reinvention of the wheel. 'It is bad enough to reinvent the wheel,'

he said. 'What really hurts is when they reinvent the 'flat tire.' "

REFERENCES

1. A.B. Arons, " 'Critical Thinking' and the Baccalaureate

Curriculum," Liberal Education, Vol. 71, #2 (Association of American

Colleges, 1985).

2. A. B. Arons, (a) "A Guide To Introductory Physics Teaching"

(Wiley, 1990); reprinted with minor updates in (b) "Teaching

Introductory Physics" (Wiley, 1997) [also contains "Homework and Test

Questions for Introductory Physics Teaching" (Wiley, 1994) along with

a new monograph "Introduction to Classical Conservation Laws"].

3. A. B. Arons, "Achieving Wider Scientific Literacy," Daedalus, Spring 1983.

4. R.R. Hake, "The General Population's Ignorance of Science Related

Societal Issues: A Challenge for the University," AAPT Announcer

30(2), 105 (2000); on the web as ref. 11 at

<http://www.physics.indiana.edu/~hake/>

[GuelphSocietyG.pdf, 8/22/00, 2100K] (62 References). It is argued

(with tongue only partially in cheek) that the failure of

universities THROUGHOUT THE UNIVERSE to properly educate pre-college

teachers is responsible for our failure to observe any signs of

extraterrestrial intelligence.

5. B. Donnally, "Arnold Arons: Oersted Medalist for 1972," Am. J.

Phys., June 1973, page 768.

6. J. Minstrell, "Talks with great teachers: Arnold Arons," Physics

Teacher, November 1981.

7. R.R. Hake, "My Conversion To The Arons-Advocated Method Of Science

Education,"Teaching Education" 3(2), 109-111 (1991); on the web at

<http://www.physics.indiana.edu/~hake> as [MyConversion.pdf,

5/18/00, 12K].

8. A.B. Arons, "Addendum to 'Toward Wider Public Understanding of

Science," Am. J. Phys. 42, 157-158 (1974): "I am deeply convinced

that a statistically significant improvement would occur if more of

us learned to listen to our students . . . . By listening to what

they say in answer to carefully phrased, leading questions, we can

begin to understand what does and does not happen in their minds,

anticipate the hurdles they encounter, and provide the kind of help

needed to master a concept or line of reasoning without simply

"telling them the answer.". . . .Nothing is more ineffectually

arrogant than the widely found teacher attitude that 'all you have to

do is say it my way, and no one within hearing can fail to understand

it.'. . . . Were more of us willing to relearn our physics by the

dialog and listening process I have described, we would see a

discontinuous upward shift in the quality of physics teaching. I am

satisfied that this is fully within the competence of our colleagues;

the question is one of humility and desire."

9. A.B. Arons, "Conceptual Difficulties in Science," in

"Undergraduate Education in Chemistry and Physics: Proceedings of the

Chicago Conferences on Liberal Education," No. 1, edited by R.R. Rice

(Univ. of Chicago, 1986), p. 23-32.

10. R.R. Hake, "What Can We Learn from the Physics Education Reform

Effort?", ASME Mechanical Engineering Education Conference: "Drivers

and Strategies of Major Program Change," Fort Lauderdale, Florida,

March 26-29, 2000; on the web at

<http://www.physics.indiana.edu/~hake> as a pdf document at

[ASME.pdf, 3/27/00, 436K], and as PowerPoint plus video at

<http://hitchcock.dlt.asu.edu/media2/cresmet/hake/>. (One needs to

download the free "RealPlayer.")