Understanding or Memorization: Are we Teaching the Right Thing?

Signs that introductory physics courses can lead to frustration (both for students and faculty) abound. A major problem is that traditional lectures in introductory science frequently fail to stimulate students to further study. Many, if not most, students concentrate on problem-solving without paying sufficient attention to the underlying concepts. Physics is then reduced to a set of recipes, or 'problem-solving strategies' as they are called in textbooks. The remaining, purely mechanical material is uninteresting and the apparent lack of any underlying consistency or logic leads to frustration.