5 minute read
Jumbo Magazine - Fall 2023
FROM CLASSROOM TO CONVERSATION
Physics Lecturer Vesal Dini’s approach to teaching physics at Tufts involves both simplifying and complicating our understanding of the physical world. By refining our everyday thinking, he aims to help students in finding comfortability in confusion. As one of the larger introductory science classes at Tufts, select undergraduates are chosen to serve as learning assistants (LAs) to create a more intimate learning community for students and accompany them through the process of learning physics. I had the opportunity to sit down with Vesal and one of his LAs, Zoe Coyle ’25, to discuss the intricacies of teaching, thinking about, and practicing physics.
First things first, how does an undergraduate student get to become an LA?
Zoe Coyle: I took Physics 1 and 2 back-to-back in my first semesters here and it was such a great lecture environment. The way the lecture was structured into small groups with LAs coming around facilitating the conversation around physics was really exciting for me, and I appreciated how the classroom was much more focused around discussion than any other science or math class I had taken before. After taking the classes, I received an email from Vesal about becoming an LA and I jumped on that!
Vesal Dini: Every year there are about 220 students that take both Physics 1 and 2. There are a percentage of students that basically thrive in the atmosphere and I typically figure out who those people are through personal interactions both inside and outside of the classroom. Zoe was among the students who really took to the model and engaged in the practices of physics, and that’s exactly what I’m looking for in LAs. I’m always thinking about ways to activate my students’ intrinsic motivations to try and understand the world around them, and Zoe did exactly that. I asked Zoe to be one of my LAs, and thankfully, she agreed.
What is something that you’ve learned from this LA classroom model?
VD: Zoe, myself, and all of the other learning assistants come together after class and debrief about how the class went. There, they share specific things that they experienced and interactions that they had in class. Those opportunities to hear about how they thought the lecture went are often very eye-opening for me. I really appreciate hearing about difficulties, breakthroughs, and concepts that people are struggling with so that I can adjust how I teach and think about the course in a way that is true to where the students are.
It also helps mitigate what afflicts lots of other STEM courses, which is expert bias—this idea that an expert learns things and forgets how hard it was to initially learn those things. It’s really helpful for me to be reminded that it takes quite a bit of time to process and think about the content that we are trying to understand as a class.
ZC: It’s been really interesting getting a window into all that goes behind our 75-minute class and to see how much the time, effort, and careful thought support all of the components of the class. As an LA it is such a fun challenge to interact with groups and get across the same underlying values that are being communicated by Vesal. Also, the LAs among ourselves are such an awesome community, which is really an extension of the community of the class and small group setting. I’ve really enjoyed that aspect too.
What role would you say exploration plays in thinking about and learning physics?
ZC: Often when I say that I am interested in physics and English, people warn me that they are such different things, but I see them both as very creative concepts. With English we talk about storytelling and viewpoints, and with physics you have a very similar practice where you can look at a concept or question from tons of different angles. As you gain more tools in physics, you learn more approaches to explore a given question. Finding the “answer” in physics is not a linear process, and often not actually the goal. It’s a lot of exploration of possibilities and you may reach an answer that perhaps you weren’t setting out to find.
VD: Exploration is a central goal of the course— the whole point of the course is to explore ideas. The goal is the pursuit of coherent understanding, meaning the questions I ask in class are meant to be jumping off points of exploration. Some of them have answers to them, but really getting to that answer is not the point. The point is to do exactly what Zoe suggests, which is to explore many different possibilities. By doing that, by exploring that space, you are increasing your understanding of the world in a way that’s much more expansive than just seeking out the right answer.
Any final insights for students?
VD: Particularly in the physics department, there is a clear recognition that physics happens in collaborations and in groups—it’s more exciting that way and it’s more fun that way. When people come to Tufts, I hope they recognize community is a central feature of the experience and they sometimes have to take the initiative to form those groups themselves, and they form really easily and readily here. There’s a lot of support here at Tufts, professors, graduate students, TAs, and LAs, to help people grow in their ability to collaborate and in their understanding of ideas.
