Introducing students to the culture of physics: Explicating elements of the hidden curriculum

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written by Edward F. Redish

When we teach physics to prospective scientists and engineers we are teaching more than the "facts" of physics – more, even, than the methods and concepts of physics. We are introducing them to a complex culture - a mode of thinking and the cultural code of behavior of a community of practicing scientists. This culture has components that are often part of our hidden curriculum: epistemology - how we decide that we know something; ontology - how we parse the observable world into categories, objects, and concepts; and discourse - how we hold a conversation in order to generate new knowledge and understanding. Underlying all of this is intuition – a culturally created sense of meaning. To explicitly identify teach our hidden curriculum we must pay attention to students' intuition and perception of physics, not just to their reasoning.

Physics Education Research Conference 2010
Part of the PER Conference Invited Paper series
Portland, Oregon: July 21-22, 2010
Volume 1289, Pages 49-52

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Published: August 24, 2010

Subjects	Levels	Resource Types
Education Foundations - Cognition - Learning Theory Education Practices - Pedagogy	- Lower Undergraduate - Upper Undergraduate	- Reference Material = Article = Research study

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Mirror:: https://doi.org/10.1063/1.3515245
Access Rights:: Limited free access and
Available for purchase
Restriction:: © 2010 American Institute of Physics
A preprint of the work is available. A hard copy of the PERC 2010 proceedings is available for purchase from the AIP.
DOI:: 10.1063/1.3515245
NSF Numbers:: 0524987; 0919816
PACSs:: 01.40.Fk; 01.40.Ha; 01.40.Di; 01.85.+f
Keywords:: PERC 2010, cognitive modeling, hidden curriculum, intuition, socio-cultural modeling
Record Cloner:: Metadata instance created October 6, 2010 by Alea Smith
Record Updated:: January 23, 2011 by Lyle Barbato
Last Update when Cataloged:: August 24, 2010
Other Collections:: The PER-Central

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Record Link

<a href="https://www.compadre.org/portal/items/detail.cfm?ID=10382">Redish, Edward F.. "Introducing students to the culture of physics: Explicating elements of the hidden curriculum." Paper presented at the Physics Education Research Conference 2010, Portland, Oregon, July 21-22, 2010.</a>

AIP Format

E. Redish, , presented at the Physics Education Research Conference 2010, Portland, Oregon, 2010, WWW Document, (https://www.compadre.org/Repository/document/ServeFile.cfm?ID=10382&DocID=1854).

AJP/PRST-PER

E. Redish, Introducing students to the culture of physics: Explicating elements of the hidden curriculum, presented at the Physics Education Research Conference 2010, Portland, Oregon, 2010, <https://www.compadre.org/Repository/document/ServeFile.cfm?ID=10382&DocID=1854>.

APA Format

Redish, E. (2010, July 21-22). Introducing students to the culture of physics: Explicating elements of the hidden curriculum. Paper presented at Physics Education Research Conference 2010, Portland, Oregon. Retrieved May 2, 2025, from https://www.compadre.org/Repository/document/ServeFile.cfm?ID=10382&DocID=1854

Chicago Format

Redish, Edward F.. "Introducing students to the culture of physics: Explicating elements of the hidden curriculum." Paper presented at the Physics Education Research Conference 2010, Portland, Oregon, July 21-22, 2010. https://www.compadre.org/Repository/document/ServeFile.cfm?ID=10382&DocID=1854 (accessed 2 May 2025).

MLA Format

Redish, Edward F.. "Introducing students to the culture of physics: Explicating elements of the hidden curriculum." Physics Education Research Conference 2010. Portland, Oregon: 2010. 49-52 Vol. 1289 of PER Conference Invited Paper. 2 May 2025 <https://www.compadre.org/Repository/document/ServeFile.cfm?ID=10382&DocID=1854>.

BibTeX Export Format

@inproceedings{ Author = "Edward F. Redish", Title = {Introducing students to the culture of physics: Explicating elements of the hidden curriculum}, BookTitle = {Physics Education Research Conference 2010}, Pages = {49-52}, Address = {Portland, Oregon}, Series = {PER Conference Invited Paper}, Volume = {1289}, Month = {July 21-22}, Year = {2010} }

Refer Export Format

%A Edward F. Redish %T Introducing students to the culture of physics: Explicating elements of the hidden curriculum %S PER Conference Invited Paper %V 1289 %D July 21-22 2010 %P 49-52 %C Portland, Oregon %U https://www.compadre.org/Repository/document/ServeFile.cfm?ID=10382&DocID=1854 %O Physics Education Research Conference 2010 %O July 21-22 %O application/pdf

EndNote Export Format

%0 Conference Proceedings %A Redish, Edward F. %D July 21-22 2010 %T Introducing students to the culture of physics: Explicating elements of the hidden curriculum %B Physics Education Research Conference 2010 %C Portland, Oregon %V 1289 %P 49-52 %S PER Conference Invited Paper %8 July 21-22 %U https://www.compadre.org/Repository/document/ServeFile.cfm?ID=10382&DocID=1854

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