Bridging Critical Points: discontinuities in high school and university physics education

Noah FinkelsteinDepartment of Physics, UCB 390, University of Colorado, Boulder 80309

The paper examines data collected from teaching an introductory college physics classoffered at a public high school. Assessment of student achievement demonstrates that students are able to perform at a college level. Nonetheless this achievement is notrecognized by the institutions supporting this experimental course. Analysis of detailed daily notes begins to answer why and how students are marginalized in this educationalsystem. Particularly, three themes of structural, normative and epistemological discontinuity detail why these students or institutions fail.

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