Discussion Questions: Teaching About Centripetal and Centrifugal Forces

You may find it useful to watch this video with a group of your colleagues and then discuss it together.

• What do you think of Griffin's teaching style? Remember that this is only a short excerpt from a longer, more complete lesson. As with all classroom lessons, this teacher had to make choices about what he was teaching. How might you apply different goals or approaches to this activity?
• Citing evidence from the video, describe how the teacher utilizes the following pedagogical content knowledge skills:
  1. An understanding of what makes specific concepts easy or difficult for learners
  2. An awareness that some concepts are more fundamental than others
  3. A knowledge of ways to represent and formulate subject matter to make it accessible to learners
• Do you think pedagogical content knowledge is important for effective teaching? Why or why not?
• Suppose you entered into a discussion with someone outside the education community who thinks that teachers only need to have strong knowledge of science content to be qualified and effective.
  1. What information would you provide to convince that person that knowledge of pedagogy is equally important to understanding the science content?
  2. What ideas might the other person base their assessment on? Explain whether those ideas have any merit.