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  Session: Histories Useful for Teaching Physics
  Paper Type: Invited
  Title: Does Social Constructivism Translate from History to Education?
  Meeting: 2014 Summer Meeting: Minneapolis, Minnesota
  Location: N/A
  Date:
  Time: 1:30PM
  Author: Shawn Reeves, EnergyTeachers.org
607-216-7289, shawn@energyteachers.org
  Co-Author(s): None
  Abstract: What is it that physicists do? How do they make decisions? How do they find success? Historians help answer these questions; so, historians should be able help us answer these questions with students. But teachers and students also struggle with the same problems that vex historians, those concerning agency, priority, motivation, and interactions. Knowledge doesn't exist outside of us, nor does it reside solely in individuals, but it messily travels in society. We are better teachers when we coach students through the classroom and through society with tools that let students consider themselves a part of physics and physics a part of their society. We will discuss how the historiography of energy physics in 19th century Britain went constructivist, and whether that inspires us.
  Footnotes: None
  Presentation: Reeves-Social-Constructivism-History-to-Education-Reeves-2014.pdf

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