…

THE CHANGING LANDSCAPE OF TEACHING

@SPS 4500

APRIL 10TH, 2015

DR. JEFF LOATS

DEPARTMENT OF PHYSICS

WARM-UP: BORN VS. MADE

"I've had great teachers and awful teachers... the whole spectrum. The ones that are great seem to have a natural knack for it while others seem to have been born clueless about how to teach. I'm not sure there will ever be teaching methods that will make a bad teacher into a good one."

WARM-UP: BORN VS. MADE

1/4 → Agree that teaching quality is essentially innate

2/4 → Improvement is a matter of desire, effort and time spent.

WARM-UP: BORN VS. MADE

“I agree. Some people are natural teachers. While there are programs designed to teach teachers, they will only benefit from them if they already are an effective teacher or have the love of teaching.”

“Where there is a will there is a way. If somebody is willing to work hard at learning new methods and/or strategies then they can absolutely become a better teacher! If somebody does not have the desire to do so then they probably would not.”

DWECK: FIXED VS. GROWTH MINDSET5

DWECK: FIXED VS. GROWTH MINDSET6

DWECK: FIXED VS. GROWTH MINDSET7

DWECK: FIXED VS. GROWTH MINDSET8

WARM-UP: LECTURE TIME

Think about the "average" college class you have had. What fraction of class time was spent on lecture-based delivery of content?

0/4 → % - 19%

1/4 → 20% - 39%

1/4 → 40% - 59%

2/4 → 60% - 79%

0/4 → 80% - 100%

2%

10%

14%

38%

35%

(86 others)

WARM-UP: BIGGEST “TAKE AWAY”

What was the biggest "take away" idea that you got from the article?

4/4 → Active engagement is key andLecture performs poorly

2/4 → Research can give better teaching

1/4 → Students enjoy interactive methods

1/4 → Faculty have fears/reluctance

1/4 → Implied this is only for science

WARM-UP: BIGGEST “TAKE AWAY”

“The biggest take away from this article is that interactive teaching is favored among students in this science class. However, these instructors are worried about changing their teaching style to do fears the students will reject the change. ”

WARM-UP: BIGGEST “TAKE AWAY”

“Instructors whose teaching style incorporates primarily lectures may see substantially less positive student outcomes than those who incorporate research-based interactive learning. Simply put — students benefit from hands-on learning where they can put their ideas into action and evaluate the outcomes.”

THE EVIDENCE STANDARD13

Teachers can feel bombarded…

I strive to be a scholarly teacher …

• Apply the rigor we bring to the discipline of physics to the discipline of teaching.

• Choose teaching methods that are strongly informed by the best empirical evidence available.

Contrast teaching your subject with treating diabetes

PHYSICS EDUCATION REVOLUTION

Eric Mazur, Physicist at Harvard:

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“ALL SIMILARLY (IN)EFFECTIVE…”

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University of Washington

University of Colorado

University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign

Think about an the “typical” college class you’ve had. Is there a method for holding students accountable for preparing for class?

A) Stern threats and/or playful pleading.

B) A paper method (quiz, journal, others?)

C) A digital method (clickers, others?)

D) Just in Time Teaching.

E) Some other method.

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18%

49%

10%

5%

17%

From~190

others

JUST IN TIME TEACHING

Online pre-class assignments (“WarmUps”)

First half:

• Conceptual questions, answered in sentences

• Graded on thoughtful effort

Learner Teacher

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JUST IN TIME TEACHING

Online pre-class assignments (“WarmUps”)

First half:

• Conceptual questions, answered in sentences

• Graded on thoughtful effort

Second half:

• Responses are read “just in time”

• Instructor modifies the plan accordingly

• Aggregate and individual (anonymous) responses are displayed in class.

Learner Teacher

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JUST IN TIME TEACHING

A different student role:

• Actively prepare for class(not just reading/watching)

• Actively engage in class

• Compare your progress & plan accordingly

A different instructor role:

• Actively prepare for class with you(not just going over last year’s notes )

• Modify class accordingly

• Create interactive engagement opportunities

Learner Teacher

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Students have developed a robot dog and a robot cat, both of which can run at 8 mph and walk at 4 mph.

A the end of the term, there is a race!

The robot cat must run for half of its racing time, then walk.

The robot dog must run for half the race distance, then walk.

Who wins the race? Why?

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WARM-UP: ROBODOG VS. ROBOCAT

Predict which one will win the race, and explain why you think so.

~1/4 → Robocat!

~1/4 → Robodog!

~2/4 → They tie!

~0/4 → Can’t tell!

Others before you…

~12% → Good math

~4% → Bad math

~27% → Good reasoning

~35% → Bad reasoning

~19% → Invalid arguments

WARM-UP: ROBODOG VS. ROBOCAT

“Cats rule - dogs drool!”

“Robot dog. Because dogs naturally walk more thaan cats. ”

“The cat--it won the flip of the coin.”

WARM-UP: ROBODOG VS. ROBOCAT

“Wouldn't they both finish at the same time? I think the question was worded wrong...”

“It would be a tie because they both run and walk at the same rate!”

“Here's a wild guess: The cat because it is programmed to run half of the time. It may alternate running and walking. The dog is programmed to run half the distance — how will it know when it gets there?”

“I would say the dog because I don't know the racing time of the cat, so I don't know how long it would take him to complete the race. ”

WARM-UP: ROBODOG VS. ROBOCAT

“The cat. The fact the cat is programed to run for half of its racing time will probably mean that it will get past the half way point, but by the time it starts to walk, it will be much further ahead than the dog (considering it runs 8 mph). ”

For your “typical” college class, estimate the fraction of students who do their preparatory work before class?

A) 0% - 20%

B) 20% - 40%

C) 40% - 60%

D) 60% - 80%

E) 80% - 100%

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28%

33%

21%

13%

5%

~215 others

MAZUR AFTER 1 YEAR27

ELSEWHERE?28

YOUR SUMMARY

For yourself… or to share?

What one “nugget” do you most want to keep from our discussion today?

Contact Jeff: Jeff.Loats@gmail.comSlides: www.slideshare.net/JeffLoats

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JITT REFERENCES & RESOURCES30

Simkins, Scott and Maier, Mark (Eds.) (2010) Just in Time Teaching: Across the Disciplines, Across the Academy, Stylus Publishing.

Gregor M. Novak, Andrew Gavrini, Wolfgang Christian, Evelyn Patterson (1999) Just-in-Time Teaching: Blending Active Learning with Web Technology. Prentice Hall. Upper Saddle River NJ.

K. A. Marrs, and G. Novak. (2004). Just-in-Time Teaching in Biology: Creating an Active Learner Classroom Using the Internet. Cell Biology Education, v. 3, p. 49-61.

Jay R. Howard (2004). Just-in-Time Teaching in Sociology or How I Convinced My Students to Actually Read the Assignment. Teaching Sociology, Vol. 32 (No. 4 ). pp. 385-390. Published by: American Sociological AssociationStable URL: http://www.jstor.org/stable/3649666

S. Linneman, T. Plake (2006). Searching for the Difference: A Controlled Test of Just-in-Time Teaching for Large-Enrollment Introductory Geology Courses. Journal of Geoscience Education, Vol. 54 (No. 1)Stable URL:http://www.nagt.org/nagt/jge/abstracts/jan06.html#v54p18