ABSTRACT
This chapter describes signature pedagogies in the first-year undergraduate physics course. It defines and compares traditional and signature pedagogies in physics. Physics departments have two main responsibilities: to train physicists and to teach students with an aptitude for engineering, medicine, and other science-related fields. The preparation of a physicist can be divided into three stages: undergraduate school (4–5 years), graduate school culminating in a doctorate degree (5–8 years), and postdoctoral work—comparable to a medical residency (1–3 years). Lectures and confirmation labs constitute the traditional, or default, pedagogies in introductory physics. One effective way to get students to “think and act like a physicist” is the Modeling Method of Physics Instruction. The broad conclusion of SoTL studies in physics is that students in courses that use signature pedagogies outperform those in traditional courses. SoTL studies suggest that when “who we are” as a discipline shows up in the classroom, the results for student learning are positive.
