By Michael D'Aleo and Stephen Edelglass
Download the article: Book Review: Sensible Physics Teaching
Reviewed by Douglas Sloan and Susan Howard
The publication of Sensible Physics Teaching by Michael D’Aleo and Stephen Edelglass is an important milestone for English speaking Waldorf class teachers. For the first time an elementary school curriculum in physics is available to them that is developed fully out of a Goethean-phenomenological approach while being presented in an accessible, dear and practical manner. The cover description is accurate:
“This book guides middle school teachers through a sense-based science pedagogy with a carefully developed sequence of experiments, described in detail and easy to follow. The emphasis is on the students’ experience: By observing this intriguing sequence of phenomena and deriving scientific concepts from them, students build an authentic relationship to and interest in-the world.”
Sensible Physics Teaching has been tested in classrooms at several Waldorf schools. The approach was the subject of a very successful workshop last summer. The book includes an insightful and useful introduction to the principles of phenomena-based science methodology and to its use in the classroom. The book also contains a list of apparatus, supplies and sources that will be helpful to teachers who are planning their lessons. In addition, the Association of Waldorf Schools of North America has produced three kits of equipment, one for each of the grade years covered by the book. In this way the teacher can obtain the scientific equipment needed for a given year with only one purchase. However, other hardware and household supplies will be needed.
The authors of the book are both experienced Waldorf science teachers. Dr. Edelglass has been teaching physics in the Green Meadow Waldorf high school, Chestnut Ridge, NY, for many years. He also teaches at Sunbridge College. Stephen Edelglass is a co-author of The Marriage of Sense and Thought: Imaginative Participation in Science. Michael D’Aleo teaches physics at the Spring Hill Waldorf high school in Saratoga Springs, NY. In addition, he has been a class teacher of several middle school classes.