David J Terrell

The latest issue of Scientific American http://www.scientificamerican.com/magazine/sa/2014/05-01/ continues with the conversation about the ultimate reality of our universe. The issue has a thorough and easy to read article about how supersymmetry is not yet proven and how the lack of experimental data in support of supersymmetry is in a way creating this crisis in physics as supersymmetry has been used to explain some of the paradoxes in the “standard model” of the sub-atomic world.

As the mathematics involved in these concepts is leading us to a more philosophical approach to understanding reality at this hyper-small time-space it is important to sit back and review some of the basic philosophical concepts that we are using as a matter of fact, as taken for granted. I am thinking again about the space-time concept where we are always drawn to think in a multidimensional space and a unidimensional time. I have been thinking for some time now that this way of thinking is one possible origin of mistake. At least I would argue that we have a bi-dimensional time. A time in a sort of complex plane where if orthogonal the two dimensions of time could be represented by a “real” and an “imaginary” component, as any complex number is.

Did Minkowski suggested something like this but then change his mind to the well know Minkowski space? You can read more about Minkowski space here What Minkowski suggested was that the time dimension was the imaginary axis of space-time but he only considered the imaginary component and not the real component as with time being a “complex” identity. One could argue that the imaginary part is complex when the real part is zero, but I don’t think Minkowski was thinking about it in this way, my feeling is that he was thinking about a unidirectional-single-dimensional time.    

In many ways education is undergoing a deep revolution, not only the subject matter being taught today is changing keeping some basic principles, but the methodology, didactic, of teaching is changing dramatically. I can think of many reasons for this situation but one that is very important is “student attitude”. You’ll find this blog to be very insightful about why students attitude is what it is!

Why Don’t Students Like School?.

Learning with Mr Clarke – Circa 1985.

Now of course you can’t make any public comment about how your students are performing. I’m wondering how could be done today?

This is the Home of Heutagogy Community of Practice. Have a look

There has been a lot written about course evaluations by students. You can read an interesting article here, and here. So I will like to only give my 2 cents on the matter.

The main problem I see relates to the disconnect of what the expectations are for the student and about the student. On the one hand students are not expecting what they are getting due to a lack of understanding (I mean in general) of what is required in their field of study. There lies the problem with what is expected of the student. My experience teaching chemistry to non-chemistry majors (mainly pre-med) tells me that they do not come to class prepared for a subject that not only requires deep level of analytical thinking but an understanding that problems in nature are broad based and in a context that is open and diverse. For example the need for mathematical solutions to chemical equations. They may have a intuitive sense of what is going on with the chemical compounds as they undergo a chemical transformation but are not able to quantify the process. Now, that is a huge problem when dealing with stoichiometry that is all about quantification!

The solution? I would not say that there is simple solution, but I believe that technology can be part of the solution. Virtual classes, and online tutoring may help students broaden their view of the matter. The possibility of doing online synchronous and asynchronous tutoring with immediate response to input from the student is an invaluable tool. As we can see in courses especially designed to be offered online like the Coursera, edX, and Khan Academy. I think that teaching professors in traditional colleges can use these tools to supplement the material regularly covered in class during lecture time.