Physics Professor Delo Mook is hiring his former students to help rewrite his introductory textbook and redesign his entry level courses in an ambitious attempt to help struggling students understand physics.
Mook, who is on a one-year sabbatical until the 1995 Fall term, thought up the plan during the past year.
The idea developed when he asked a few students to write essays on concepts that were difficult for them to grasp. The essays were handed out in his class last fall and proved to be a big success.
Then Mook began hiring students who were doing poorly in his Physics 13 and 14 courses to help rewrite the course materials.
"Some students come into my office with pages and pages of calculations. Spending 20 to 30 hours a week is normal, but there are some who spend too much time with the course material and still do poorly," Mook said. "It is these students who I want."
Five of Mook's former students began revising material this term. The group has already proposed several changes.
The revised materials will be offered for the first time in Physics 13 during Fall term 1995.
Mook said he is inspired by the Japanese philosophy of "total quality management."
"The idea is that to improve a product, listen to the customers. The most valuable customers are the complainers," he said with a smile.
Mook said that the academic profession holds a backwards philosophy when compared to other professions.
"If you go in for a gallbladder and the patient dies, you blame the surgeon, not the patient," he said.
"In education, when the student puts in more effort than they need to, we blame the student. This is my fault, not theirs."
Mook is well known for his excitement and enthusiasm in the classroom. He uses several teaching methods that include video taping lectures, computer graphic simulations and computer assignments.
"He's a lot of fun and he really likes what he's doing," said Cailin Nelson '97, a former student of Mook's. "There's always a dramatic component to the class."
"If there are a hundred students in the class, there are a hundred different ways to learn. The idea is to develop a smorgasbord of information," Mook said.
"If people don't get it, they're hired. They then put their method on the smorgasbord for the next student to learn. The problem is that no one learns in exactly the same way," he said.
While the physics department supports Mook and his ideas, some of his colleagues hold a different opinion on student effort and outcome.
Mook "says that if you get into Dartmouth, you should do well. That may be overstating the case," said Physics Department Chair Michael Sturge. "But Professor Mook certainly has the right attitude for teachers to take, and he is a tremendous asset to the physics department."
Physics Professor James Labelle said, "Next year, while Professor Mook is on sabbatical, Professor [Geoffrey] Nunes and myself will be teaching the courses Professor Mook normally teaches, and we plan to adopt many elements of his teaching method, which reflects our positive assessment of Professor Mook's methods."
