Optimisation of Teaching

A good teacher tries to improve his or her teaching. But this is a tough problem, largely because there are so many aspects to optimise. Many of these have been recognised for a long time others are quite new, especially as regards the role of computers in education. In this paper we want to mention some of the factors involved in teacher optimisation and to try to offer some useful perspectives on the importance of the internet for this process. This new teaching tool deserves to be examined as a serious aid to teacher optimisation together with related applications like continuing education, distant learning, new and multiply linked media and so on.

We want to emphasise that teaching materials (including the curriculum) are not necessarily dominant in optimising the educational process. Also of enormous importance, are the teacher's beliefs and values which influence daily decision making, not least in the professional context. What and how we teach are influenced by our philosophy of education. Open discussion between teachers at different sites (which may be mediated by e-mail) could create a spread of new ideas and experiences across the country bringing about significant changes in these beliefs and attitudes and not least in the practice of teaching. An increasing flow of ideas about method and content will also result in more effective teaching. A wide range of relatively new teaching media are now being tried. There are different forms of computer mediated communication, distant learning, educational TV channels, virtual classrooms, Internet based research, virtual laboratories and others. Do we know how these can give better results? Our contribution here will doubtless provoke more questions than it will give answer.

There are many facets to this problem but we want to focus on what part the Internet can play.

By definition, the Internet provides various people at different sites with access to information and communication. This immediately points to two dimensions of education which may be enriched:

1. a social-sociological dimension (largely about communication) and
2. a professional-technical dimension (about access to information as well as communication between innovating teachers).

We would suggest that the social-sociological dimension is probably the most important for Eastern European countries. It offers the prospect of eliminating three blockages faced by teachers:

• fragmentation: which may be addressed by giving teachers the opportunity to "meet" at any distance and to link together in groups with common interests.
• insidious ideological beliefs: which may be brought into the open and challenged through debate.
• lack of teacher empowerment: which may be addressed through teachers being 'heard' by others and by individuals having the opportunity to articulate, for example, instances where the system makes untenable demands of teachers.

1. to balance 'process' based methods (for example in physics education focusing on students' intuitive understanding of phenomena) with existing approaches which focus on theory and fact learning,
2. prototype examples, applications and inspiring demonstrations to provoke and motivate students
3. differentiated course materials which move students at each level from the simple to the complex and from direct experience to an understanding of theoretical models,
4. interdisciplinary approaches which put the subject studied into a context and communicate its value,
5. to be able to provide the student with real problem solving situations through which the student will operate with the concepts he or she has been acquired.
6. to experience curiosity and a 'thirst' for knowledge so as to be an effective model to other learners,
7. to have opportunities to discover previously hidden abilities and to unlock their creative potential,
8. to have opportunities to take pride in presenting their successes - the Web may be a useful medium, here, in addition to those above,
9. to exchange ideas and knowledge based on his or her practical experience especially in trying new approaches - a means of promoting this has already been mentioned (IRC and Usenet are other examples with their own particular advantages and disadvantages),

The first five needs listed above are initially concerned with professional development through the acquisition of knowledge based on information all (?) of which can be found on the Web. In order to consolidate and apply that knowledge to optimising teaching, communication with other practitioners (need 9 in the list) is essential. The process of the teacher learning on the net may make a very valuable contribution to addressing needs 6 and 7 and may have a strong impact upon the quality and effectiveness of the teacher's interactions with students. The potential offered by being able to communicate with other specialists was exemplified very well (for Mircea Rusu) when I was recently asked (on the Internet) about problems in the field of optical guides by someone teaching that subject and who wanted to improve and diversify his teaching. I was involved in many similar exchanges during the recent Astronomy on-line event at: http://www.eso.org/astronomyonline.

Joint projects like this also give students an opportunity to apply and build on what they have learnt in courses (Cf. need 5). There are entire networks (such as *I-EARN, Campus World, Kidsphere E-mail list and Kidlink) concerned with education and in particular, collaborative research projects involving pupils and students. The Internet is also a reservoir of 'real' data. For example I am using the NASA data base with undergraduate students on my Astrophysics course. I have also found a whole host of other useful material from other sites including:
http://cdsweb.u-starsbg.fr/simbad.html;
http://adsabs.harward.edu/; and,
http://www.journals.uchiago.edu/ApJ/home.html

There is also an automatic Astronomical Observatory that can be remotely operated on the Internet!

The Computer in Physics (CIP) magazine (an American Institute of Physics Journal, http://www.aip.org/cip/ciphome.html) has had a Web site since 1993. It carries a guide to the Internet and has numerous links to other sites of interest to physics teachers. There are doubtless equally rich starting points on the net for teachers of most other disciplines.

Constantin Predescu, Pedagogy Department, 
"Babes-Bolyai" University, Cluj-Napoca
e-mail: predescu@phys.ubbcluj.ro

 Mircea V. Rusu, Atomic Physics Department,
University of bucharest, Bucharest
e-mail: mrusu@meganet.ro