Watson Says Physics Students Alter Beliefs After High School

High school physics students undergo "staggering" changes in their attitudes toward "the universe" within four years after graduation, a professor of Education said yesterday.

Fletcher G. Watson, Shattuck Professor of Education, said that physics students find the universe "more understandable but much less orderly" at ages 20-22 than they did while in high school.

Watson presented his findings at a convention of the National Association for Research in Science Teaching in Detroit. Detroit.

High school students find physics itself both more orderly and more understandable after four years of college, with the gain in understanding significantly greater among females, Watson said. However, males show a much greater increase in understanding of the universe, he said.

Watson drew his findings from a survey of 1600 people who were high school seniors taking physics in 1968. These students filled out identical attitudinal questionnaires while taking physics in 1972.

Harvard Project Physics

Watson helped in the sixties to develop Harvard Project Physics, an innovative physics curriculum which is designed for students of all levels of interests and ability. Watson conducted the survey in order to determine those who took Project Physics and those who took other high school physics courses.

High school physics students experience the same changes in attitudes within four years of graduation regardless of their curricula, Watson concluded. "These enormous changes in attitudes are tremendously significant, but I have to confess that I don't know what caused them," he said.

Watson told the Science Teaching Association that much more research is needed in this area.

Watson's survey included only physics students. "For all I know, all high school students experience these same attitude changes," he said.