Just to add to one of Kim's points:

>So I think in whatever we do it is a good idea to show people
>a better way rather than trying to cram something down their
>throat.

Jack and I have been talking and thinking a lot about trying to view science education as a process of "attitude change" or "belief change" rather than as just a transfer of information. It really alters your perspective and approach to teaching a course, if you view it this way. It focuses your attention on what students already believe about about the world, and on how to guide them through a thinking process that allows them to discover new things and change some of their beliefs. In contrast, the "information transmission" mode tends to encourage you to focus on covering material, without much awareness of whether the students are finding connections they can make to it.

There's a video called "A Private Universe" (put out by the Astronomical Society of the Pacific) that uses interviews with students to highlight the need to recognize the preconceptions they have, and the need to show them a questioning process that allows them to adjust those preconceptions.

Todd