Physics education is extremely baroque. There is a set way of teaching which has been done for the past 50 years and nothing is going to change it unfortunately.
Everyone learns from the same exact textbooks. My professors were using the same exact edition of Kleppner and Kolenkow (Into Classical Mechanics) textbook I used. It's even a point of pride for them. The canonical set of books are:
K&R -> Intro Mechanics
Taylor -> Advanced Mechanics
Griffiths -> E&M and Quantum
Sakurai -> Quantum
Boas -> Mathematical methods
(I'm prolly missing a few)
Every physics student in the US is familiar with these books.
Part of the reason for the intransigence is that it weeds out the weaklings. They make Physics very difficult and impenetrable in part so that 1/2 the class drops out and goes to do Bio or CS(which are taught sooo much better) and you're left with the most hard working masochistic students of whom the top 10% will become grad students and slave away for minimum pay for 7 years.
I mean.. they're not actively planning this in an evil-planning-room, but that's the end results and the physics establishment is happy and no one is pushing for new methods of teaching.
Everyone learns from the same exact textbooks. My professors were using the same exact edition of Kleppner and Kolenkow (Into Classical Mechanics) textbook I used. It's even a point of pride for them. The canonical set of books are:
K&R -> Intro Mechanics
Taylor -> Advanced Mechanics
Griffiths -> E&M and Quantum
Sakurai -> Quantum
Boas -> Mathematical methods
(I'm prolly missing a few)
Every physics student in the US is familiar with these books.
Part of the reason for the intransigence is that it weeds out the weaklings. They make Physics very difficult and impenetrable in part so that 1/2 the class drops out and goes to do Bio or CS(which are taught sooo much better) and you're left with the most hard working masochistic students of whom the top 10% will become grad students and slave away for minimum pay for 7 years.
I mean.. they're not actively planning this in an evil-planning-room, but that's the end results and the physics establishment is happy and no one is pushing for new methods of teaching.