The objectives of the project are to (1) assess the effectiveness of the pedagogical content and instructional methods of the new University physics sequence under development at the University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign (UIUC), (2) to standardize it and supporting materials in modular components, and (3) to produce and disseminate the model curriculum modules to other large research universities interested in undertaking physics educational reform. The project directly addresses widely documented problems in contemporary physics education, such as its perceived failure to impart conceptual understanding vs. rote learning and formulae crunching and its lack of support for diverse learning styles. The project also recognizes the special needs of large research universities in delivering undergraduate physics service courses--the need to provide effective instruction to hundreds of students per semester, the need to promote collaborative learning and teamwork and communication skills, the need to motivate research faculty to employ new instructional methods and to train graduate teaching assistants to be effective teachers, and the need to make successful learning independent of the efforts of one inspired .teacher by standardizing effective pedagogy. Activities to be undertaken to accomplish the objectives include (1) professional assessment of the curricular content of the newly revised UIUC University physics sequence, (2) production of modular course components, such as lectures, homework sets, laboratories, examinations, and teaching assistant training materials, with appropriate documentation, and (3) dissemination of the project materials to peer institutions wishing to undertake their own University physics course revision.
