The book “Zen and the Art of Motorcycle Maintenance” Is An Effective Way To Help University Students Learn And Apply Science and Other Forms of Knowledge In My Physics Classes and University.

I first read the book Zen and the Art of Motorcycle Maintenance = ZMM, back in ~1984. Although I was intrigued at the time, many additional years of teaching (and intensive research on teaching, learning, and creativity) passed until I really began to see ZMM's potential to help university students. I began to see how the ideas in ZMM could offer students deep revolutionary truths concerning science and might generally be highly significant in their lives!
For this reason, ZMM was used as an auxiliary text for six years in both of my physics classes. Written in a manner that is accessible and maintains interest, ZMM covers science, philosophy, scientific trouble shooting, problem solving, the process of scientific discovery, building the structure of science, and more.

For any alert literate adult (especially students), ZMM book forces the reader to think a great deal about themselves, their values, and their whole life: What are they doing in life? Why they are "at a job"? or at an "institution of higher learning"? In general, ZMM supports "the student" whether he or she is in a "Formal University Education" or in The School of "Hard Knocks"! This book shows "the student" how it is necessary to thoughtfully combine science and humanities and personal values in any endeavor.

In ZMM, we are shown how best to work with (and within) our own God given psychological and material resources. For example, the role of the “flash of insight,” analogy, and metaphor are shown to be fundamental to human thinking and learning. Author Pirsig points out how proper learning is often prevented in our present day culture, and most especially in our schools and universities. Author Robert Pirsig patiently instructs us, how to learn and improve our lives despite the deficiencies of our upbringing and society around us.

As shown the students' own writing, their reading of this book was a demonstrably successful way to improve their attitude about learning, with corresponding improvements in actual student performance. Clearly, significant university learning improvement was achieved by students' reading of ZMM.

You may read more about how ZMM was applied in my Physics Classes and read samples of these students own writing here:
How ZMM Book Was Used To Support Student learning Of Physics AND Student Writings Concerning the Book …" “Zen and the Art of Motorcycle Maintenance.” " Click Here. CAUTION: AFTER this page comes up you will find that the 3 Links Shown In RED, do not work. But, in the Menu At RIGHT, if you ClickOn “STUDENT WRITINGS CONCERNING”, the DropDown LAST 3 “WHAT I HAVE LEARNED” will be what you want.

2) Learning Synergy: ZMM Book and My Article "Memory, Perception, Problem Solving” & ***AHA Flash of Insight*** Help Students With Perceptual Blindness and Learning Blockages.

Early in the semester, my students were assigned to read this Memory, Perception, Problem Solving article. It was fun to read and helped students to understand what to do if they were having serious science learning difficulties. This article explained that they needed to keep trying despite their frustrations. With continued effort and help of their professor and fellow students, they would eventually get a "break through." With this so called AHA (Flash of Insight), pleasure and a sense of power would follow. And .... the formerly puzzling topic would now be both clear and easy to handle. You May Read This AHA Flash of Insight Article Click Here:

3) Learning Synergy: Applying the Flash of Insight (AHA) In Teaching & Tutoring.

How the teacher, in a tutoring sessions, may best help students with perceptual blindness and learning blockages. With the tutoring techniques offered, the student may achieve an AHA Flash of Insight. The Article shows how pleasure and sense of power will follow. You May Read This Tutoring Article Click Here:

4) My Discoveries About Student Blockage In The Learning of Mathematical Proportion In University Physics.

Although most student learning difficulties and blockages may be helped with the ideas and techniques discussed in the two above pages, the students’ learning (and proper understanding) of the "deep relations" in Mathematical Proportion encounters a larger than normal barrier. This article discusses how this problem was discovered and a shows novel way to make the needed break through. You May Read This Mathematical Proportion Article Click Here:

5) The Complete Table of Proportional Quantities Fall Semester Physics.

This table is part of the above article: You May View This Table Click Here.

All Articles Above Are By:
Henry S. Gurr
Professor of Physics Emeritus
University of South Carolina Aiken
471 University Parkway
Aiken SC 29801
Email: HenryG_USCA.edu

Edited by David M. 15 Sept 2012. Rev 19 Sept 2023.
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