MOOC Notes
Content
WEEK 1 – principles of learning
Types of misconceptions
Proposition level-only use 10% of brain, something heard but easy to dispel.
Flawed mental models-circulatory system is a single loop. Students must
accommodate the function of the lung. The challenge is to make student reason on
their flawed mental model until they find a contradiction. Then they will be able to
accommodate a new idea. Somewhat hard to dispel.
Ontological misconceptions-electricity as fluid?
Embedded beliefs-earth is 6000 years old, tied to other beliefs. Very hard to dispel.
Activating prior knowledge
Peer instruction. If most students answer correctly, prior knowledge sufficient.
Discuss briefly. If most answer incorrectly, not enough prior knowledge. Discuss
further. IF split, there is useful prior knowledge (this is the best type of question).
Have students discuss in pairs and revote, then whole class discussion. Actually it
activates a time for telling as well.
Surfacing prior knowledge-brain storm solutions, minute papers about a new topic,
doodles of their mental models. Explicit-past topics are relevant for new ideas. Show
demo first, make predictions then discuss explanations (time for telling).
Adaptive expert
Routine expert – can quickly solve problems efficiently
Adaptive expert – can solve non-trivial problems, transfer knowledge
Knowledge organizations
Experts have rich, meaningful knowledge structures with many interconnected
nodes
Seeing the big picture
Develop concept maps, counted average number of connections for primary
conceptsthe more connections, the higher the exam score (Ashley cetnar).
Signposts – make connection between prior concepts and present concepts. When
students take notes and are provided with a graphic organizer, they remembered
what they learned at higher rates.
Open ended questions – allows for connection between different topics, multiple
solution strategies.
Practice, feedback, and mastery
Students focus on final answer, unconscious expert
Structuring practice, improving feedback
Test corrections – motivate students to learn from mistakes, summative
assessments turn into formative assessments
Feedback from peers – PI, challenge cycles-challenge problem, generate ideas, get
other perspectives, research and revise, testing, go public. Peer assessment
All skate metaphor – all students get practice and feedback. No time?! Trust
students to understand the easier stuff outside of class. Limited amount of class
time together.
Motivation
Aware that you are trying to elicit their misconceptions, they have lived on earth for
20 years and they think they know physics.
Some students have managed to memorize through their other classes, hard to get
their head around that!
Students are already discussing class topics before class. Active learning can
motivate some students.
Motivating students to learn: what motivates students to learn?
Grades grad school achievement praise curiosity jobs parents fear of failure learning
itself money teachers social issues role models.
Intrinsic motivations-internal motivations, stronger but harder to shape
Extrinsic motivations-external motivations such as grades, money, getting in grad
school, weaker but easier for instructors to change
Puzzles – application of extrinsic motivation (payment) can inhibit existing intrinsic
motivations (fun to solve puzzles). Ryan and deci 2000.
Strategic learning – extrinsic motivation engage in strategic learning. Learn just
enough to get a good grade.
Deep learning – learning for mastery, conceptual understanding, prepared to do
something with it. Intrinsic learners. How to motivate students to engage in deep
learning?
“Show them the beauty and elegance of mathematics…” lol
Classroom climate
Chilly climate-affects student learning, critical thinking, persistence, preparation for
a career
Climate engenders emotions that impact learning, regulates the circulation and
construction of knowledge, impacts meta curricular and citizenship skills, channel
energy away from learning or toward it, communicates expectations placed upon
students, communicates power dynamics
Climate is a continuum
Explicitly marginalizing, implicitly marginalizing, implicitly centralizing, explicitly
centralizing. Implicitly centralizing puts the burden on the student. May be best to
be explicitly centralizing. DeSurra and Church (1994) students perceive classroom
climate differently (marginalizing) from instructor (centralizing). Climate is the
perception of students.
Tone of syllabus – rewarding or punishing syllabus (Ishiyama and Hartlaub 2002)
when both syllabi given to students, differences in approachability of instructor, and
desire to take the course, first year students most affected by wording.
Stereotype threat-simply activating a stereotype for a minority group before a test
produces a decrement in performance. Mental processes about the stereotype
interferes with performance.
Microinequities (hall and sandler 1982, 1993). Male students get more eye contact,
called on more, get more praise more follow up question, has names used more,
given credit for their contributions.
Done by both male and female and instructors.
How to be vigilant in avoid inequities?
Seymour and Hewitt 1997 students leave stem partly because of faculty
unavailability. Students who were critically thinking about leaving, had interaction
with a faculty member and they stayed.
When students perceive instructors as being interesting in their academic problems,
approachable, treat students as persons, care about concerns of minority groups,
positively impacts self reported critical thinking, analysis, problem solving skills,
retention, number of students who go on to graduate school
Instructors can improve in these area: examine assumptions, learn and use
students’ names, model inclusive language, use multiple and diverse examples,
establish ground rules for interaction, strive to be fair, be mindful of low ability cues,
don’t ask people to speak for an entire group, be careful about microinequities
Point out
WEEK 2 learning objectives and assessment
Module 3 Learning objectives
Backward design – start with learning objectives, develop assessment tool, then
create learning activities.
The frustrated student: instructor clearly defines what is expected, prepares
students for the types of questions on exams. Communicate expectations,
homework sets students up for exams.
Writing clear learning objectives can communicate expectations for yourself and
students!
What are learning objectives? Operational , what students should be able to do after
instruction, measureable, reflects what you value in student learning.
Why do we need learning objectives? Aren’t they in the syllabus? Syllabus includes
topics/material covered and time spent. Learning objectives are outcome and
student oriented identifies what students will be able to do as a result of learning
defines what students are expected to learn. Teaching goals are not learning goals.
Solves problem of: helps in planning of course and what instructors focus on, how
do instructors narrow their focus, tells students what is expected of them, what
students should focus on, why are students doing this, how do departments build
student expertise across courses? Exams might be easier to write, communicates
expectations to students. How is it helpful? Students see coherency, students use
them as review, sense of fairness to exams, preparation for class and targeted
efficient use of time, faculty communication,
How do learning goals guide instruction?
Where do you want to go? Where are you? How to get there?
Backwards design : define learning goals, decide on assessment, design instruction
help students achieve goals. Alignment between instruction, assessments, and
learning goals.
Mismatch between what we are teaching and what students are learning because
we don’t know students’ prior knowledge.
Learning goals: broad, course level. Learning objective: specific per topic.
What is a course level learning goal: students do at the end of the course? Learned
something about the discipline as a whole.
What does it mean to know something?
What would be difficult to unpack learning goals? As an expert, it is difficult to
articulate the steps. Expert blindness. Strategies from list of topics to creating
concrete learning objectives? Write down all of the concepts and ideas you want
students to learn about that topic. Teaching about the topic in different
representations.
Strategies to figure out learning objectives:
Find someone else’s objectives
Look at end of chapter summaries
Look at education research
Work backwards from an exam question
Talk to colleagues
Mapping the terrain: what should students know, and how deeply?
Different types of learning:
1. cognitive abilities: facts, info, details, concepts, classifications, reasoning
principles
2. Procedures and skills: techniques, methods, problem solving
3. Metacognitive: self awareness about what helps you learn studying and learning
strategies
4. Attitudes and beliefs: appreciate enjoy and value science.
Basic recall=>application (bloom’s taxonomy)
Remember (recall basic facts and concepts), understand (can the student explain
ideas and concepts), apply (can the student use information in new situations,
integrating new skills?), analyze (can the student draw connections between ideas,
or interpret ideas, making predictions, interpreting, differentiate, organize, compare
and contrast), evaluate (can the student justify a stand or decision, appraise, argue,
defend, judge), create (can the student produce new or original work? Design,
assemble, construct, formulate). Levels build on each other. Flip the pyramid?
Don’t necessarily need to master the skills on the bottom to use the skills on the
top.
Bloom’s taxonomy not topic specific. Higher level skills in physics might look very
different than higher level skills in biology.
Making objectives useful
Hard to pick objectives with respect to the big picture and operationalize them. Only
content based objectives forgetting skill based objectives. Objectives make sense to
students?
1. Goal expressed in terms of what the students will achieve or be able to do
2. The goal is well-defined? How would you measure achievement?
3. Do chosen verbs have a clear meaning?
4. is terminology familiar/common? If not, is the terminology itself a goal?
5. do objectives align with your course scale goals?
6. is the objective at the appropriate level? Should be a mixture of higher and lower
order objectives. Students can get lost if all objectives are high level objectives.
Higher level objectives can be supported by lower level objectives.
7. do your goals cover a range of different types of knowledge?
8. is the objective relevant and useful to students?
The broader context: institutional considerations.
Engineering accreditation (ABET)
Show goals to colleagues, multiple faculty teaching the class, all students should
get a similar learning experience. Start with big course level goals, perhaps faculty
agree on 75% of the objectives. Learning objective is shared but taught differently
Important to talk to colleagues when the course is:
1. core to the major.
2. Prerequisite to other course
3. Part of a sequence.
4. has goals related to certification
Final thoughts, tips, and tricks:
1. important to write learning goals and objectives
learning objective: what a student should be able to do, measureable, and what you
value in the domain
“car analogy”
learning goals vs. learning objective
When do you write your goals? Too close to instruction may be too late, needs to be
advanced, figuring it out along the way? Unit by unit learning objectives? Do it
before you teach. One you have materials you won’t want to go back and redo the
course.
Give it a try, even if you have to revise later.
If you’ve already taught the course, work backwards from the exams.
2. important to have learning goals that are clearly defined and appropriate.
3. important to have learning objectives that are useful, realistic and attainable.
4. be choosy. Keep your syllabus focused.
5. use objectives to design assessments and instruction using backwards design.
Alignment
When do you refer to your objectives: while lesson planning, designing homework
and exams.
6. keep the broader context of you institution in mind (ABET, prerequisites,
colleagues ideas)
Module 4 assessment of learning
Introduction to assessment and feedback
Object
action>measure>measurement>communicate>feedback>formulate>plan>revise
(peers, mentors, mentees involved all along the way)
Two feedback cycles
1. student feedback cycle (improve learning process)
2. instructor feedback cycle (improve instruction)
Assessment spectrum-who is information for? (hw set and oral presentation fall in
the middle, peer feedback falls on student side, end of semester research based
surveys falls on instructor side)
Formative: information that students and/or instructors can use to improve at
shorter timescales (clickers minute papers)
Summative: information that assesses whether students and/or instructors have
succeeded in meeting a goal (Final exams, RB survey)
Types of summative assessments:
Multiple choice good for comprehension, analysis
Open ended good for evaluation, creation
Creation of videos
Oral presentations
Posters
Traditional assessment and mc questions
Larger percentage of lower order questions on typical traditional exams, higher
order questions very small percentage (0-20 percent)
Scan bloom’s taxonomy verbs, transfer (application) or analyze data, multiple T/F
format Question stem and must choose T/F for each answer option (like Singh’s
concept tests with I, II, III)
Comparing MC question to open ended questions: students got answer wrong on MC
question, but when asked to explain their reasoning in open ended format, the selfexplaining sometimes helped them get the question right (Sabella)!
Open ended problems-focus on the student
Open ended-multiple solution paths, more qualitative, reflect on their learning
(metacognitive)
1. students can get a sense of multiple ways to solve problems
2. what do they need to get used to in stem courses, math and science should only
take a couple minutes, can start to understand what is important to solve stem
problems, developing persistence skills
PAR (peer assisted reflection) problem – special open ended, conceptually rich and
difficult and involves self reflection, give written feedback and discuss feedback and
revise their assignment. Over 98% revise their work. Needs framing. Calculus
sections who used PAR had a 13% higher passage rate. Second semester, 23%
higher passage rate.
No incentive to go back and look over homework. Compare their hw to posted
solution and explain why they were incorrect.
Most students think that working on a problem for more than 20 mins says that the
problem is impossible
Adapting traditional textbook problems: give a real world context (or ask students
for real world context) explain their reasoning, try to solve it using a different
technique, ask them to engagein problem solving skills as checking. “take the idea
further.” Use the tools they learned in one task in a new problem that they are
interested in. homework as developing a set of tools to help students do “cool”
things in the future.
Open ended problems – focus on the instructor
Gives a window into student reasoning. When to let students struggle with the
wrong idea? Simply correcting students’ ideas doesn’t mean students will correctly
apply the concept in a new situation.
Practical tips: small set of talk moves? “say more.” “who thinks they understand
what so and so just say in their own words?” hold back first impulse to make an
evaluative statement. Ask for more explanation, be patient.
Try not to ask too many leading questions, allow them to think about and confront
their misconceptions.
Working with the wealth of student ideas:
Have a few ideas brought out and look at pros and cons (can’t talk about all student
ideas). You will see a pattern in student responses, common misconceptions.
Student-instructor trust-students must feel comfortable sharing answers (need
rapport) and see it’s a place to test out ideas. Working against students’
experiences in other classes which are not “inquiry based.”
When to give the answer/when to let students struggle? Requires practice over
time. the “art” of teaching comes into play here.
Growth Mindset and its role in practice and feedback
Fixed mindset-intelligence is fixed, certain amount of brains
Growth mindset-qualities as things that can be developed
7th grade-students in the growth mindset intervention improved classroom
motivation, students in control group displayed decline in grades and vv in
experimental group.
Fixed minset praise: you’re so brilliant you got an A without studying (if I can’t get
an A without studying, then I’m not brilliant.”
Growth mindset praise: “I like the way you tried all kinds of strategies, you found
the one that worked.” Praising hard work and skill development
1. how we frame learning and assessment (struggle as a learning opportunity)
2. normalizing struggle (we’ve all gone through this) you don’t know the content…
YET, catching up is possible.
Consider student background and how our course structure can support students
coming in from different paths
Frame assessment and learning as skill development
Normalize struggle.
Student with growth mindset was a big factor in majoring in CS.
Faculty mindset-not everybody can do CS, a particular mental outlook, reinforces
the innate ability message, you don’t belong here, you don’t have it!
Research based surveys: conceptual surveys
MODULE 5 COOPERATIVE LEARNING
Intro to cooperative learning-goals
1.
2.
3.
4.
Group work can be a learning experience-uncovering information
Describe the principles of effective cooperative learning activities
Provide examples of effective cooperative learning activities
Develop cooperative learning assignment for your class
Cooperative learning – build community within classroom, use strengths of peers,
think pair share.
What is cooperative learning? The instructional use of small groups so that students
work together to maximize their own and each other’s learning.
Cooperative learning principles:
1. does activity promote positive interdependence “sink or swim” mentality, f
people don’t contribute expertise and strengths, the group will sink.
2. Individual and group accountability
3. Face to face interactions, best ways to critique and make progress on a
project
4. Teamwork skills
5. Group processing and facilitation – do they know how to critique each other’s
work
What are the weaknesses of lecture? students are passive participants, may not
understand the context of the information, students may not be applying or using
the information (practicing). Cooperative learning gives opportunities for practice
Ideally, we want:
1.
2.
3.
4.
activity (engagement)
reflection (material in relevant context, has meaning)
collaboration (peer learning)
passion (raising student interest)
why use it?
1. Emulates work environment of professionals, STEM professionals work in
teams!
2. Enhances communication skills
3. Improves efficiency, effectiveness, and success of team work-all members
benefit.
4. Can deal with/solve complex problems, performance>sum of individual parts.
Ways to implement cooperative learning? Depending on your teaching and learning
objectives, various group types
1. Informal groups-need advanced planning, good for large classes, be explicit
(what is the goal for the activity, what do you want students to do, how much
time do they have?), use “turn to your neighbor” to complete these activities,
e.g., minute papers. Can be used at any time, can be short term, can be used
to break up a long class period. Gives students an opportunity to process
material they have listened to, especially in large lectures, “book ends”
procedures.
“book ends” – 10-12 mins lecturing, 3-4 discussion, 10-12 mins lecture, 3-4
mins, minute paper, 10-12 min lecture, 5 min summary. Class summary
questions: “most important points? Questions or muddiest point?
(anonymous). If you ask for input, you should respond.
2. Formal groups-more closely emulate working teams (e.g., stakeholders,
academic controversies).
What do instructors do? Specify objectives, make decisions, explain task,
build in positive interdependence and individual and group accountability,
monitor and intervene to teach skills, evaluate students’ achievement and
group productivity, accomplishments.
3. Base groups-long term, stable membership to accomplish a large, complex
task. 3-5 members, usually last a semester, are heterogeneous, meet
periodically to work on tasks, review, share resources (e.g., references data),
provide support for one another. Need to scaffold students throughout the
project
How to use cooperative learning successfully?
Signs of a non-cooperative group – lack of group maturity (instructors haven’t talked
about how to work in a group), free riding (need positive interdependence,
individual accountability), motivation loss (staying in touch, checking on progress),
lack of heterogeneous skills/abilities
Signs of a good cooperative group – positive interdependence, individual and group
accountability, ace to face interactions, small group and interpersonal skills, group
processing and facilitation.
Teach students to work in cooperative groups:
1. Positive team member traits (respective positive communications, listen)
2. Team building and management skills (be organized, stay on task, take notes,
member responsibilities)
3. Be inquiry based (critique information, clarify statements, assess the
implication of recommended actions)
4. Practice conflict resolution skills
5. Practice presentation skills
MODULE 6 PEER INSTRUCTION
Introduction to eric mazur: the “illusion” of good teaching. But students did not
learn the basic principles of the course! The curse of knowledge. Emphasis on
transfer, but the “assimilation and accommodation” is left to the student outside the
classroom.
Asks concept question, students work alone for a time (about 30 seconds,
depending on the question), instructor says how many have it right and discuss with
a neighbor, then they redo the question individually.
Practicalities of implementation- it is pedagogy not technology that matter. Need
the three steps to mean peer instruction
How questioning works? – provide time for students to think (1-2 mins), then they
commit to answer, write down a free response answer. Discuss with a person who
has a different answer, and try to convince them. Revote and the wrap up by asking
students to explain why they chose the particular answer. Students must commit to
an answer individualize, externalize their answer, become emotionally invested in
the learning process (is this answer correct?!)
Motivating students – use assessment as a motivating factor. On te midterm, use
questions which look like questions like the ones used in class. Also framing the
benefits, significantly larger learning gains and better thinking skills (conceptual)
Participation points: advises against giving points for correct answer, do not bribe
with participation points… (eh)
Best questions: questions that come in the students’ minds. Tying the out of class to
the in class component. Keep track of common mistakes students make. Look for
questions that are already made (don’t reinvent the wheel!)
Not too hard or too easy – if more than 70% of students get correct answer, don’t
have to justify their answer and will be off task. If most get it right, they do not talk
to each other. If it is too hard and only 25% of people get it right, but many people
talking to each other who have the wrong answer and gains will not be large, abort
the question and let’s have an easier question. 30-70% correct is where discussion
leads to largest gains.
Adopting peer instruction – top down, how do people learn in the field and then can
develop good questions, twitter?
Overcoming barriers – cost of clickers, apprehension of technology, the biggest
barrier - you can’t use multiple choice questions in my class! Think of the questions
of the beginning of conversations you want students to have, a platform for how an
expert would think in this domain.
MODULE 7 LECTURING
Failure rates – 34% in lecture vs 22% in active
Exam scores: active learning about 6 points higher.
For transmitting info, lectures are about as effective as other methods. Lecture are
not as effective as discussion for promoting thought. Lectures are not effective at
changing attitudes and inspiring interest. Lectures aren’t that effective for teaching
skills!
Why so many lectures?
1.
2.
3.
4.
5.
6.
We teach how we’ve been taught.
Not lecturing can feel like a loss of control.
Preparing a lecture is easier.
Theres so much to cover!
Classrooms are built for lectures.
“Lectures worked for us”
Why program conferences contain lectures? Motivation (want to get something out
of lecture, make connections) prior knowledge (bringing the prerequisites to make
sense of a conference lecture). in the college classroom, students are not
necessarily motivated and do not have the right prior knowledge. Attention span
factor! In the classroom, students’ attention span is about 10-20 mins before they
check out.
Roles for lectures:
1. Creating a time for telling: good to lecture after students have done a peer
instruction question. A time for telling! Lecture after the peer instruction
sequence is a time for telling is good because students are motivated to learn
it when they see they were wrong or others were wrong, and they have the
prior knowledge by discussing with a partner. A small lecture afterward fits
within the attention span of students. Resequence activities, starting with
examples, working on it, getting stuck, and then getting to the theorem.
Problem based learning good for creating times for telling.
2. model expert thinking: occasionally need to see experts in action, MUST
make explicit the things we are doing internally. Students may not realize this
is what we’re doing – we’re modeling a problem solving process, and students
MUST have the opportunity for practice.
3. Storytelling: help see the relevance, personal stories, case studies,
motivation?
4. A first step: introduction to a sequence of learning activities. Flipped
classroom. Must think very carefully about the scaffolding.
Lectures and visual thinking – death by powerpoint (so much text on slide, do you
read slide or listen to person talking – cognitive overload!) “the slideument”
1. Assertion – evidence slides (statement of assortment, and a diagram/picture
of evidence)
2. data visualization - if too complex, students may need handouts.
3. The big picture, Prezi (allows for zoom out, students may see connection).
4. Images metaphor (two rivers converging signifies dual coding of verbal and
visual)
Introduction to screencasts- combination of computer screen, action of
clicking/writing, and voice over. Screen casts should involve:
1. Direct instruction on basic concepts/computations
2. Model expert problem solving (thinking out loud as they solve the problem)
3. Permanent (?) corpus of free learning resources (can use for review in future
classes)
Screen cast design principles
1.
2.
3.
4.
Keep
Keep
Keep
Keep
it
it
it
it
simple
short
real (modeling)
good (professional quality, don’t “wing” it as we record)
WEEK 4 labs and learning through writing
Module 8 inquiry based labs
Example of inquiry based lab: astronomy
Backward scaffolding-give a lot of scaffolding at the beginning, then gradually
lessen
How is lab structured: given topic, question, procedure, gradually you are given
more and more personal decision-making
How does instructor provide autonomy: gradually backed away to have personal
freedom, but always there for help and guidance
Benefits of student presentations?: many people must present and communicate
information
How does it fit into bigger picture? Skills to plan and achieve answers, confidence to
ask questions and be OK if the answer is unexpected
Inquiry based lab in bio: how to research?
Longer labs, more collaboration, more control over the questions
Inquiry based approach to lab instruction: students engage in many of the same
activities and thinking processes as scientists
What do scientists do? Ask questions, propose hypotheses and models, design,
carry out, and analyze studies to evaluate hypotheses, communicate results, revise
results in response to critiques.
6 elements of inquiry
1. Observing and question
2. Designing experiments
3. Collecting data
4. Analyzing data
5. Repeating
6. Reporting and responding to peer review.
In traditional labs, students collect and analyze data. In the basic inquiry labs (which
exist in a continuum), adds the element of designing experiments.
When students design an experiment: evaluate, analyze, apply, understand and
remember
When students also define their own research question: they also create an
interesting question. When students report their results, they have to evaluate what
it is they need to tell the audience, and synthesize their results into something their
audience will understand!
Is it important that the questions are novel? As scientists, we search for novel
questions. But in inquiry based labs, the questions are sometimes novel, and
sometimes not. What is key is that students do not know the answer. In the
continuum, traditional labs are never novel questions, whereas undergraduate
research novelty is essential.
What benefits have been demonstrated for inquiry based lab pedagogy?
Lead to cognitive gains (increased content understanding and transferable skills)
More positive attitudes/greater motivation for learning science
Are there limitations?
It’s vital to include scaffolding and opportunities for practice to help students
develop needed thinking processes.
How to provide support: provide a lot of support right away, and gradually take
away supports within the labs. Help to point research question in the right direction,
allow for feedback from peers and instructors before proceeding further.
What are key elements to include?
Instructor guide to help students develop inquiry skills (define research
problem, formulate hypotheses, planning an experiment)
Opportunity for peer to peer interactions and teaching
Opportunity for students’ summative presentation of work (oral or written)
What challenges can you expect?
Messy data
Unexpected results
Questions that are too broad
..chaos
Assessment options for inquiry based labs
Backwards design : what do you want your students to learn, how will you know if
they learn it, what are you going to do help them learn it? (objectives, assessments,
activities).
How to determine answers, how to verify results, how to communicate results.
Process is highly scaffolded, teaching them to do each step before integrating the
steps. Assessment is closely tied to learning activities with ongoing opportunities for
formative assessment as they move through the lab. Self assessment tool helps
students become more metacognitive.
Objective: students are able to apply principles of experimental design to answer
questions. Possible assessment tool (if not graded) Experimental design ability test
(EDAT).
Goal: student demonstrates increase in scientific literacy Test of scientific literacy
skills (TOSLS).
Goal: student demonstrates improved attitudes about learning science Colorado
learning attitudes about science survey (CLASS)
Module 9 writing to learn
What is writing to learn? Part of the learning process, not solely for the purpose of
communicating information, a way of reflecting and understanding.
Traditional writing assignment: usually a homework, typically finished when turned
in, evaluated by instructor, may or may not have the opportunity to edit the
document, determines and documents what the students knows, asks the student
to be very sure about responses, unless a perfect score, student is penalized.
Writing to learn assignment: assigned in the classroom, completed in class, short
impromptu, “pop ups,” part of a larger process of thinking, learning, and
understanding; may or may not be turned into instructor, ungraded, think and
discover (engagement is goal, errors are okay) purpose is to explore questions and
play with ideas.
Writing to learn: specifics.
Example writing to learn assignments: journaling, free writing, self reflection, self
evaluation, self assessment, generic and focused summaries, learning log, project
notebook, peer response.
What is low stakes writing? Smaller assignments, more often, turn students into
active learning, helps students find their own language, no need to tangle with
elaborate prose, allows instructor to check understanding, allows students to give
full attention to their thoughts (rather than lecture). E.g., minute writes, micro
themes, quote responses, mid lecture feedback, guided journals or learning logs,
question/comment box, lab notebooks
Why writing to learn? Creates a safe place for self reflection, allows students to
think through ideas, focus interaction with material, asks students to
summarize/synthesize/respond to class material
Two reminders to instructors: you are not teaching a writing class, you are looking
for evidence of understanding.
Writing to learn: consider the power
Writing to learn pushes the boundaries of several notions…teacher as examiner,
short answer essay and term paper, writing as a process, lecture/exam pedagogy.
Module 10 problem based learning
What is problem based learning? Teaching approach that challenges students to
learn concepts/principles by applying them to real life problems
Student centered, before lecture, it creates context and relevance, link prior
knowledge and see how concepts apply to professional problems.
Analyze data, synthesize info, evaluate that data, apply info to solve problems.
Clearly define problem, assess knowns/unknowns, brainstorm solutions pros/cons,
craft and justify resolutions. “how to be a wildlife biologist.”
Why use problem based learning? introducing problems through the use of decision
cases and constructive controversies.
Emulates the environment of working professionals (tell this to students).
Enhances abilities to gather and analyze data to support discussion points
Builds critical thinking skills, e.g., integrating concepts
Practice defending positions, do students understand concepts well enough
to teach and convince others?
Higher achievement and retention of material
Stimulate student involvement with active learning especially for 8 am
classes!
What do employers want?
Life long learners, analysis and synthesis skills, critical thinking, problem
solving, communication skills, interest, quality, education, work ethic,
competencies, personality match, listening skills
Before develop decision cases and structured controversies,
What are your teaching and learning objectives for the class?
Are constructive controversies or decision cases the best means to meet
those objectives
setting up with backward design:
the PBL process (problem based learning):
problem identification-what shows up on your desk
what will you need to know-identify goals and objectives
collect necessary information
learn the information
apply the info to the problem or take management action
evaluation-what was learned?
Generally students are taught via subject based learning:
Told what they need to learn
Taught material (why do I need to now this?)
Students learn info
Provide students with examples of how to use info
Two approaches:
A controversy: general controversy description given to all stakeholders, detailed
specific info available from respective stakeholders, stakeholder collect, analyze
data, make requests from others, must share info, develop position within
stakeholder groups, multidisciplinary groups (roleplaying, working together)
A decision case-entire case presented to all student, present interpretive question to
class to solicit discussion about issues that need to be discussed, learned, instructor
provides additional info to student groups to conduct research, case revisited to
evaluate the problem with class.
Planning for “controversy” in your class
Give context of problem. Start with general info about issues. Be explicit about goal:
come up with best management practices…
This is not a debate.
Instructor gives background and assign individuals to stakeholder group.
Students-read descriptions for respective stakeholder group, prepare comments,
who are they, issues they have, possible solutions? Questions for other
stakeholders?
Form multidisciplinary teams – each stakeholder has an equal amount of time to
disucss their info/issues/questions
A representative from each multidisciplinary group reports on their best
policies/solutions
Controversy length can be altered depending upon the teaching and learning
objectives
Scaling back a constructive controversy: use active lecturing and effective lecturing.
Organizing, 10-12 min lecture (teaching and learning goals, background info for
case or controversy), 3-4 min discuss with partner (single stakeholder group), 10-12
min lecture (additional info needed, emphasize best solutions approach, make task
explicit), 3-4 min discuss with partner (multidisciplinary group, recommend best
solution and justification), 10-12 min lecture (facilitate reporting out from groups), 5
min summary (critique student responses, what is really happening, big picture)
WEEK 5 – diversity and motivation
Persistence in STEM fields, part 1
Why do so many math and science majors leave STEM fields? 40% would leave
before they graduate.
Disproportionate number of women and minority students leave – pipeline. What
happened? Seymour and Hewitt (Talking about leaving)
4 issues that mattered least
1. Proficiency of instructor to speak English
2. Class size
3. Poor teaching by TAS
4. Quality of lab or instructional facilities
5 factors that mattered most
1. Loss of interest in science in general
2. Non-STEM fields were more interesting to them.
3. Poor instruction by faculty affected their interest in science(even those who
stayed said this was a major factor in their persistence)
4. Curriculum overload moving too quickly
5. Rejection of STEM careers/lifestyles
National data still indicate that students are still switching from STEM! ½ undergrad
students in STEM leave by the time they graduate. Only 2/10 BA, BAs go to students
in STEM fields.
It wasn’t ability that stopped them, it was that they were pushed out by other
factors such as fitting in.
Motivation and learning
Intrinsic motivations (internal motivations, love of learning, curiosity)-more
powerful, cannot control them as professors
Extrinsic motivations (grades, parents, job)-less powerful, but somewhat easier to
control as professors
Strategic learning (Bain, 2004) – do just enough to get good grades, but no more.
They’ll do what they need to, but may not learn deeply.
Deep learning (Bain, 2004) – interested in learning and transfer, to use in future
courses and careers, but really hard.
Competence (Ryan and Deci, 2000) – we are motivated when we are engaging in
tasks which are hard, but not too hard.
Autonomy – when we have certain degree of autonomy, more motivated to engage
in the activity. We want choice, free will
Purpose – why are we doing what we’re doing, what is the goal?
Community (Binkler and nissenbaum 2006) – contributors to Wikipedia, for no
financial award? People are motivated by being part of a community and
contributing and sharing with that community. Classrooms are not necessarily
learning communities, but they can be. Students may not like math, but they might
like the learning process if it involves other students.
Strategies to inhibit strategic learning –
Lower the stakes – giving multiple opportunities to show what they know, not having
one giant exam at the end, multiple smaller tests along the way, final assignment is
a paper or poster, opportunity to revise and resubmit, build some slack (can drop
lowest score). BUT we can’t remove the stakes entirely. Not grading on the curve
(Sets up a competitive environment, raises the stakes).
Leverage intrinsic motivators – challenge students but not so much they give up,
giving students a choice in how they earn participation points or the format of
assignments, helping students see the connections between their personal
professional and vocational interests and the course itself, having authentic
audience (explain complex topics to a lay audience, service learning project for
community organizations, having external client for a product in engineering).
Create learning community by giving opportunities to students to learn from each
other.
E.g., Social bookmarking – posting links to articles about cryptography within a
specific context that the students were interested in. (tapped into autonomy and
purpose motivators and also created learning community feel)
MCATS as motivation for introductory physics premed students
Two low stakes assessments are part of participation grade – 1. online warm up
questions, what do you find difficult/hard. They get credit for effort. 2. Clicker
questions.
Premed students are grad motivated. Students don’t know how to learn physics, a
few points on the line to get them to try that helps them learn how to learn physics
Clicker questions set up the expectations
Twitter for birds
Persistence in STEM fields part 2
Contributors to motivation
1. Important to have role models, who look like them, relatable, enthusiastic
2. Quality of instructional experience. Students should feel as though they can
engage, addressing real world learning, collaborative learning.
3. Assessment – important that there is feedback on assessments rather than
grading on a curve. Seeing that many people got C’s, not just you
4. Curriculum – lends relevance
5. Creating environments in department, classroom, and in student groups that
are inclusive and offer variety of perspectives
6. Student investment, students feel as though they have some ownership and
control over what they do and demonstrate what they know
7. Message from instructor and department – that success for all students is a
priority.
8. Increase representation of women and minorities. Reach out to them,
encourage participation, resources available to them, and they have
somewhere to turn when they need help.
WEEK 5 LESSON PLANNING
Dramatization of physics TAs’ first day of class
Have students introduce themselves and say their major, build community, gives
everyone a voice
Stereotype threat – people from communities who know that they’re stereotyped as
not being good in math and science, and performance on a pretest is diagnostic of
ability.
Growth mindset – pretest can be used to determine how to address difficulties and
an opportunity to learn as opposed to whether you’re in the right box. Share your
own failures/experiences/successes
Sonning – both women and men hold low expectations of women or judge other
women unfairly. Just because you’re a member of a minority group, doesn’t exclude
you from being sensitive to inclusiveness
If you make a mistake, apologize.
Students’ accents – encourage them to speak more, conversation circles, ask their
name and make sure they are pronouncing it correctly, apologize for taking so long
to understand the accent, think pair share (allows for practice), ask them to write
down the question (written better than spoken language), acknowledge that the
question is a good question.
Do not single out students.
Spotlighting – students from underrepresented groups are both hypervisible and
invisible.
Do not lump everyone together, say “some of you might…” or “most of you
probably haven’t….” acknowledge room for variation
Interview with STEM faculty and students discussing the social belonging
Use gender as a lens of social analysis. Feminist works toward social change.social
justice.
Types of misconceptions
Proposition level-only use 10% of brain, something heard but easy to dispel.
Flawed mental models-circulatory system is a single loop. Students must
accommodate the function of the lung. The challenge is to make student reason on
their flawed mental model until they find a contradiction. Then they will be able to
accommodate a new idea. Somewhat hard to dispel.
Ontological misconceptions-electricity as fluid?
Embedded beliefs-earth is 6000 years old, tied to other beliefs. Very hard to dispel.
Activating prior knowledge
Peer instruction. If most students answer correctly, prior knowledge sufficient.
Discuss briefly. If most answer incorrectly, not enough prior knowledge. Discuss
further. IF split, there is useful prior knowledge (this is the best type of question).
Have students discuss in pairs and revote, then whole class discussion. Actually it
activates a time for telling as well.
Surfacing prior knowledge-brain storm solutions, minute papers about a new topic,
doodles of their mental models. Explicit-past topics are relevant for new ideas. Show
demo first, make predictions then discuss explanations (time for telling).
Adaptive expert
Routine expert – can quickly solve problems efficiently
Adaptive expert – can solve non-trivial problems, transfer knowledge
Knowledge organizations
Experts have rich, meaningful knowledge structures with many interconnected
nodes
Seeing the big picture
Develop concept maps, counted average number of connections for primary
conceptsthe more connections, the higher the exam score (Ashley cetnar).
Signposts – make connection between prior concepts and present concepts. When
students take notes and are provided with a graphic organizer, they remembered
what they learned at higher rates.
Open ended questions – allows for connection between different topics, multiple
solution strategies.
Practice, feedback, and mastery
Students focus on final answer, unconscious expert
Structuring practice, improving feedback
Test corrections – motivate students to learn from mistakes, summative
assessments turn into formative assessments
Feedback from peers – PI, challenge cycles-challenge problem, generate ideas, get
other perspectives, research and revise, testing, go public. Peer assessment
All skate metaphor – all students get practice and feedback. No time?! Trust
students to understand the easier stuff outside of class. Limited amount of class
time together.
Motivation
Aware that you are trying to elicit their misconceptions, they have lived on earth for
20 years and they think they know physics.
Some students have managed to memorize through their other classes, hard to get
their head around that!
Students are already discussing class topics before class. Active learning can
motivate some students.
Motivating students to learn: what motivates students to learn?
Grades grad school achievement praise curiosity jobs parents fear of failure learning
itself money teachers social issues role models.
Intrinsic motivations-internal motivations, stronger but harder to shape
Extrinsic motivations-external motivations such as grades, money, getting in grad
school, weaker but easier for instructors to change
Puzzles – application of extrinsic motivation (payment) can inhibit existing intrinsic
motivations (fun to solve puzzles). Ryan and deci 2000.
Strategic learning – extrinsic motivation engage in strategic learning. Learn just
enough to get a good grade.
Deep learning – learning for mastery, conceptual understanding, prepared to do
something with it. Intrinsic learners. How to motivate students to engage in deep
learning?
“Show them the beauty and elegance of mathematics…” lol
Classroom climate
Chilly climate-affects student learning, critical thinking, persistence, preparation for
a career
Climate engenders emotions that impact learning, regulates the circulation and
construction of knowledge, impacts meta curricular and citizenship skills, channel
energy away from learning or toward it, communicates expectations placed upon
students, communicates power dynamics
Climate is a continuum
Explicitly marginalizing, implicitly marginalizing, implicitly centralizing, explicitly
centralizing. Implicitly centralizing puts the burden on the student. May be best to
be explicitly centralizing. DeSurra and Church (1994) students perceive classroom
climate differently (marginalizing) from instructor (centralizing). Climate is the
perception of students.
Tone of syllabus – rewarding or punishing syllabus (Ishiyama and Hartlaub 2002)
when both syllabi given to students, differences in approachability of instructor, and
desire to take the course, first year students most affected by wording.
Stereotype threat-simply activating a stereotype for a minority group before a test
produces a decrement in performance. Mental processes about the stereotype
interferes with performance.
Microinequities (hall and sandler 1982, 1993). Male students get more eye contact,
called on more, get more praise more follow up question, has names used more,
given credit for their contributions.
Done by both male and female and instructors.
How to be vigilant in avoid inequities?
Seymour and Hewitt 1997 students leave stem partly because of faculty
unavailability. Students who were critically thinking about leaving, had interaction
with a faculty member and they stayed.
When students perceive instructors as being interesting in their academic problems,
approachable, treat students as persons, care about concerns of minority groups,
positively impacts self reported critical thinking, analysis, problem solving skills,
retention, number of students who go on to graduate school
Instructors can improve in these area: examine assumptions, learn and use
students’ names, model inclusive language, use multiple and diverse examples,
establish ground rules for interaction, strive to be fair, be mindful of low ability cues,
don’t ask people to speak for an entire group, be careful about microinequities
Point out
WEEK 2 learning objectives and assessment
Module 3 Learning objectives
Backward design – start with learning objectives, develop assessment tool, then
create learning activities.
The frustrated student: instructor clearly defines what is expected, prepares
students for the types of questions on exams. Communicate expectations,
homework sets students up for exams.
Writing clear learning objectives can communicate expectations for yourself and
students!
What are learning objectives? Operational , what students should be able to do after
instruction, measureable, reflects what you value in student learning.
Why do we need learning objectives? Aren’t they in the syllabus? Syllabus includes
topics/material covered and time spent. Learning objectives are outcome and
student oriented identifies what students will be able to do as a result of learning
defines what students are expected to learn. Teaching goals are not learning goals.
Solves problem of: helps in planning of course and what instructors focus on, how
do instructors narrow their focus, tells students what is expected of them, what
students should focus on, why are students doing this, how do departments build
student expertise across courses? Exams might be easier to write, communicates
expectations to students. How is it helpful? Students see coherency, students use
them as review, sense of fairness to exams, preparation for class and targeted
efficient use of time, faculty communication,
How do learning goals guide instruction?
Where do you want to go? Where are you? How to get there?
Backwards design : define learning goals, decide on assessment, design instruction
help students achieve goals. Alignment between instruction, assessments, and
learning goals.
Mismatch between what we are teaching and what students are learning because
we don’t know students’ prior knowledge.
Learning goals: broad, course level. Learning objective: specific per topic.
What is a course level learning goal: students do at the end of the course? Learned
something about the discipline as a whole.
What does it mean to know something?
What would be difficult to unpack learning goals? As an expert, it is difficult to
articulate the steps. Expert blindness. Strategies from list of topics to creating
concrete learning objectives? Write down all of the concepts and ideas you want
students to learn about that topic. Teaching about the topic in different
representations.
Strategies to figure out learning objectives:
Find someone else’s objectives
Look at end of chapter summaries
Look at education research
Work backwards from an exam question
Talk to colleagues
Mapping the terrain: what should students know, and how deeply?
Different types of learning:
1. cognitive abilities: facts, info, details, concepts, classifications, reasoning
principles
2. Procedures and skills: techniques, methods, problem solving
3. Metacognitive: self awareness about what helps you learn studying and learning
strategies
4. Attitudes and beliefs: appreciate enjoy and value science.
Basic recall=>application (bloom’s taxonomy)
Remember (recall basic facts and concepts), understand (can the student explain
ideas and concepts), apply (can the student use information in new situations,
integrating new skills?), analyze (can the student draw connections between ideas,
or interpret ideas, making predictions, interpreting, differentiate, organize, compare
and contrast), evaluate (can the student justify a stand or decision, appraise, argue,
defend, judge), create (can the student produce new or original work? Design,
assemble, construct, formulate). Levels build on each other. Flip the pyramid?
Don’t necessarily need to master the skills on the bottom to use the skills on the
top.
Bloom’s taxonomy not topic specific. Higher level skills in physics might look very
different than higher level skills in biology.
Making objectives useful
Hard to pick objectives with respect to the big picture and operationalize them. Only
content based objectives forgetting skill based objectives. Objectives make sense to
students?
1. Goal expressed in terms of what the students will achieve or be able to do
2. The goal is well-defined? How would you measure achievement?
3. Do chosen verbs have a clear meaning?
4. is terminology familiar/common? If not, is the terminology itself a goal?
5. do objectives align with your course scale goals?
6. is the objective at the appropriate level? Should be a mixture of higher and lower
order objectives. Students can get lost if all objectives are high level objectives.
Higher level objectives can be supported by lower level objectives.
7. do your goals cover a range of different types of knowledge?
8. is the objective relevant and useful to students?
The broader context: institutional considerations.
Engineering accreditation (ABET)
Show goals to colleagues, multiple faculty teaching the class, all students should
get a similar learning experience. Start with big course level goals, perhaps faculty
agree on 75% of the objectives. Learning objective is shared but taught differently
Important to talk to colleagues when the course is:
1. core to the major.
2. Prerequisite to other course
3. Part of a sequence.
4. has goals related to certification
Final thoughts, tips, and tricks:
1. important to write learning goals and objectives
learning objective: what a student should be able to do, measureable, and what you
value in the domain
“car analogy”
learning goals vs. learning objective
When do you write your goals? Too close to instruction may be too late, needs to be
advanced, figuring it out along the way? Unit by unit learning objectives? Do it
before you teach. One you have materials you won’t want to go back and redo the
course.
Give it a try, even if you have to revise later.
If you’ve already taught the course, work backwards from the exams.
2. important to have learning goals that are clearly defined and appropriate.
3. important to have learning objectives that are useful, realistic and attainable.
4. be choosy. Keep your syllabus focused.
5. use objectives to design assessments and instruction using backwards design.
Alignment
When do you refer to your objectives: while lesson planning, designing homework
and exams.
6. keep the broader context of you institution in mind (ABET, prerequisites,
colleagues ideas)
Module 4 assessment of learning
Introduction to assessment and feedback
Object
action>measure>measurement>communicate>feedback>formulate>plan>revise
(peers, mentors, mentees involved all along the way)
Two feedback cycles
1. student feedback cycle (improve learning process)
2. instructor feedback cycle (improve instruction)
Assessment spectrum-who is information for? (hw set and oral presentation fall in
the middle, peer feedback falls on student side, end of semester research based
surveys falls on instructor side)
Formative: information that students and/or instructors can use to improve at
shorter timescales (clickers minute papers)
Summative: information that assesses whether students and/or instructors have
succeeded in meeting a goal (Final exams, RB survey)
Types of summative assessments:
Multiple choice good for comprehension, analysis
Open ended good for evaluation, creation
Creation of videos
Oral presentations
Posters
Traditional assessment and mc questions
Larger percentage of lower order questions on typical traditional exams, higher
order questions very small percentage (0-20 percent)
Scan bloom’s taxonomy verbs, transfer (application) or analyze data, multiple T/F
format Question stem and must choose T/F for each answer option (like Singh’s
concept tests with I, II, III)
Comparing MC question to open ended questions: students got answer wrong on MC
question, but when asked to explain their reasoning in open ended format, the selfexplaining sometimes helped them get the question right (Sabella)!
Open ended problems-focus on the student
Open ended-multiple solution paths, more qualitative, reflect on their learning
(metacognitive)
1. students can get a sense of multiple ways to solve problems
2. what do they need to get used to in stem courses, math and science should only
take a couple minutes, can start to understand what is important to solve stem
problems, developing persistence skills
PAR (peer assisted reflection) problem – special open ended, conceptually rich and
difficult and involves self reflection, give written feedback and discuss feedback and
revise their assignment. Over 98% revise their work. Needs framing. Calculus
sections who used PAR had a 13% higher passage rate. Second semester, 23%
higher passage rate.
No incentive to go back and look over homework. Compare their hw to posted
solution and explain why they were incorrect.
Most students think that working on a problem for more than 20 mins says that the
problem is impossible
Adapting traditional textbook problems: give a real world context (or ask students
for real world context) explain their reasoning, try to solve it using a different
technique, ask them to engagein problem solving skills as checking. “take the idea
further.” Use the tools they learned in one task in a new problem that they are
interested in. homework as developing a set of tools to help students do “cool”
things in the future.
Open ended problems – focus on the instructor
Gives a window into student reasoning. When to let students struggle with the
wrong idea? Simply correcting students’ ideas doesn’t mean students will correctly
apply the concept in a new situation.
Practical tips: small set of talk moves? “say more.” “who thinks they understand
what so and so just say in their own words?” hold back first impulse to make an
evaluative statement. Ask for more explanation, be patient.
Try not to ask too many leading questions, allow them to think about and confront
their misconceptions.
Working with the wealth of student ideas:
Have a few ideas brought out and look at pros and cons (can’t talk about all student
ideas). You will see a pattern in student responses, common misconceptions.
Student-instructor trust-students must feel comfortable sharing answers (need
rapport) and see it’s a place to test out ideas. Working against students’
experiences in other classes which are not “inquiry based.”
When to give the answer/when to let students struggle? Requires practice over
time. the “art” of teaching comes into play here.
Growth Mindset and its role in practice and feedback
Fixed mindset-intelligence is fixed, certain amount of brains
Growth mindset-qualities as things that can be developed
7th grade-students in the growth mindset intervention improved classroom
motivation, students in control group displayed decline in grades and vv in
experimental group.
Fixed minset praise: you’re so brilliant you got an A without studying (if I can’t get
an A without studying, then I’m not brilliant.”
Growth mindset praise: “I like the way you tried all kinds of strategies, you found
the one that worked.” Praising hard work and skill development
1. how we frame learning and assessment (struggle as a learning opportunity)
2. normalizing struggle (we’ve all gone through this) you don’t know the content…
YET, catching up is possible.
Consider student background and how our course structure can support students
coming in from different paths
Frame assessment and learning as skill development
Normalize struggle.
Student with growth mindset was a big factor in majoring in CS.
Faculty mindset-not everybody can do CS, a particular mental outlook, reinforces
the innate ability message, you don’t belong here, you don’t have it!
Research based surveys: conceptual surveys
MODULE 5 COOPERATIVE LEARNING
Intro to cooperative learning-goals
1.
2.
3.
4.
Group work can be a learning experience-uncovering information
Describe the principles of effective cooperative learning activities
Provide examples of effective cooperative learning activities
Develop cooperative learning assignment for your class
Cooperative learning – build community within classroom, use strengths of peers,
think pair share.
What is cooperative learning? The instructional use of small groups so that students
work together to maximize their own and each other’s learning.
Cooperative learning principles:
1. does activity promote positive interdependence “sink or swim” mentality, f
people don’t contribute expertise and strengths, the group will sink.
2. Individual and group accountability
3. Face to face interactions, best ways to critique and make progress on a
project
4. Teamwork skills
5. Group processing and facilitation – do they know how to critique each other’s
work
What are the weaknesses of lecture? students are passive participants, may not
understand the context of the information, students may not be applying or using
the information (practicing). Cooperative learning gives opportunities for practice
Ideally, we want:
1.
2.
3.
4.
activity (engagement)
reflection (material in relevant context, has meaning)
collaboration (peer learning)
passion (raising student interest)
why use it?
1. Emulates work environment of professionals, STEM professionals work in
teams!
2. Enhances communication skills
3. Improves efficiency, effectiveness, and success of team work-all members
benefit.
4. Can deal with/solve complex problems, performance>sum of individual parts.
Ways to implement cooperative learning? Depending on your teaching and learning
objectives, various group types
1. Informal groups-need advanced planning, good for large classes, be explicit
(what is the goal for the activity, what do you want students to do, how much
time do they have?), use “turn to your neighbor” to complete these activities,
e.g., minute papers. Can be used at any time, can be short term, can be used
to break up a long class period. Gives students an opportunity to process
material they have listened to, especially in large lectures, “book ends”
procedures.
“book ends” – 10-12 mins lecturing, 3-4 discussion, 10-12 mins lecture, 3-4
mins, minute paper, 10-12 min lecture, 5 min summary. Class summary
questions: “most important points? Questions or muddiest point?
(anonymous). If you ask for input, you should respond.
2. Formal groups-more closely emulate working teams (e.g., stakeholders,
academic controversies).
What do instructors do? Specify objectives, make decisions, explain task,
build in positive interdependence and individual and group accountability,
monitor and intervene to teach skills, evaluate students’ achievement and
group productivity, accomplishments.
3. Base groups-long term, stable membership to accomplish a large, complex
task. 3-5 members, usually last a semester, are heterogeneous, meet
periodically to work on tasks, review, share resources (e.g., references data),
provide support for one another. Need to scaffold students throughout the
project
How to use cooperative learning successfully?
Signs of a non-cooperative group – lack of group maturity (instructors haven’t talked
about how to work in a group), free riding (need positive interdependence,
individual accountability), motivation loss (staying in touch, checking on progress),
lack of heterogeneous skills/abilities
Signs of a good cooperative group – positive interdependence, individual and group
accountability, ace to face interactions, small group and interpersonal skills, group
processing and facilitation.
Teach students to work in cooperative groups:
1. Positive team member traits (respective positive communications, listen)
2. Team building and management skills (be organized, stay on task, take notes,
member responsibilities)
3. Be inquiry based (critique information, clarify statements, assess the
implication of recommended actions)
4. Practice conflict resolution skills
5. Practice presentation skills
MODULE 6 PEER INSTRUCTION
Introduction to eric mazur: the “illusion” of good teaching. But students did not
learn the basic principles of the course! The curse of knowledge. Emphasis on
transfer, but the “assimilation and accommodation” is left to the student outside the
classroom.
Asks concept question, students work alone for a time (about 30 seconds,
depending on the question), instructor says how many have it right and discuss with
a neighbor, then they redo the question individually.
Practicalities of implementation- it is pedagogy not technology that matter. Need
the three steps to mean peer instruction
How questioning works? – provide time for students to think (1-2 mins), then they
commit to answer, write down a free response answer. Discuss with a person who
has a different answer, and try to convince them. Revote and the wrap up by asking
students to explain why they chose the particular answer. Students must commit to
an answer individualize, externalize their answer, become emotionally invested in
the learning process (is this answer correct?!)
Motivating students – use assessment as a motivating factor. On te midterm, use
questions which look like questions like the ones used in class. Also framing the
benefits, significantly larger learning gains and better thinking skills (conceptual)
Participation points: advises against giving points for correct answer, do not bribe
with participation points… (eh)
Best questions: questions that come in the students’ minds. Tying the out of class to
the in class component. Keep track of common mistakes students make. Look for
questions that are already made (don’t reinvent the wheel!)
Not too hard or too easy – if more than 70% of students get correct answer, don’t
have to justify their answer and will be off task. If most get it right, they do not talk
to each other. If it is too hard and only 25% of people get it right, but many people
talking to each other who have the wrong answer and gains will not be large, abort
the question and let’s have an easier question. 30-70% correct is where discussion
leads to largest gains.
Adopting peer instruction – top down, how do people learn in the field and then can
develop good questions, twitter?
Overcoming barriers – cost of clickers, apprehension of technology, the biggest
barrier - you can’t use multiple choice questions in my class! Think of the questions
of the beginning of conversations you want students to have, a platform for how an
expert would think in this domain.
MODULE 7 LECTURING
Failure rates – 34% in lecture vs 22% in active
Exam scores: active learning about 6 points higher.
For transmitting info, lectures are about as effective as other methods. Lecture are
not as effective as discussion for promoting thought. Lectures are not effective at
changing attitudes and inspiring interest. Lectures aren’t that effective for teaching
skills!
Why so many lectures?
1.
2.
3.
4.
5.
6.
We teach how we’ve been taught.
Not lecturing can feel like a loss of control.
Preparing a lecture is easier.
Theres so much to cover!
Classrooms are built for lectures.
“Lectures worked for us”
Why program conferences contain lectures? Motivation (want to get something out
of lecture, make connections) prior knowledge (bringing the prerequisites to make
sense of a conference lecture). in the college classroom, students are not
necessarily motivated and do not have the right prior knowledge. Attention span
factor! In the classroom, students’ attention span is about 10-20 mins before they
check out.
Roles for lectures:
1. Creating a time for telling: good to lecture after students have done a peer
instruction question. A time for telling! Lecture after the peer instruction
sequence is a time for telling is good because students are motivated to learn
it when they see they were wrong or others were wrong, and they have the
prior knowledge by discussing with a partner. A small lecture afterward fits
within the attention span of students. Resequence activities, starting with
examples, working on it, getting stuck, and then getting to the theorem.
Problem based learning good for creating times for telling.
2. model expert thinking: occasionally need to see experts in action, MUST
make explicit the things we are doing internally. Students may not realize this
is what we’re doing – we’re modeling a problem solving process, and students
MUST have the opportunity for practice.
3. Storytelling: help see the relevance, personal stories, case studies,
motivation?
4. A first step: introduction to a sequence of learning activities. Flipped
classroom. Must think very carefully about the scaffolding.
Lectures and visual thinking – death by powerpoint (so much text on slide, do you
read slide or listen to person talking – cognitive overload!) “the slideument”
1. Assertion – evidence slides (statement of assortment, and a diagram/picture
of evidence)
2. data visualization - if too complex, students may need handouts.
3. The big picture, Prezi (allows for zoom out, students may see connection).
4. Images metaphor (two rivers converging signifies dual coding of verbal and
visual)
Introduction to screencasts- combination of computer screen, action of
clicking/writing, and voice over. Screen casts should involve:
1. Direct instruction on basic concepts/computations
2. Model expert problem solving (thinking out loud as they solve the problem)
3. Permanent (?) corpus of free learning resources (can use for review in future
classes)
Screen cast design principles
1.
2.
3.
4.
Keep
Keep
Keep
Keep
it
it
it
it
simple
short
real (modeling)
good (professional quality, don’t “wing” it as we record)
WEEK 4 labs and learning through writing
Module 8 inquiry based labs
Example of inquiry based lab: astronomy
Backward scaffolding-give a lot of scaffolding at the beginning, then gradually
lessen
How is lab structured: given topic, question, procedure, gradually you are given
more and more personal decision-making
How does instructor provide autonomy: gradually backed away to have personal
freedom, but always there for help and guidance
Benefits of student presentations?: many people must present and communicate
information
How does it fit into bigger picture? Skills to plan and achieve answers, confidence to
ask questions and be OK if the answer is unexpected
Inquiry based lab in bio: how to research?
Longer labs, more collaboration, more control over the questions
Inquiry based approach to lab instruction: students engage in many of the same
activities and thinking processes as scientists
What do scientists do? Ask questions, propose hypotheses and models, design,
carry out, and analyze studies to evaluate hypotheses, communicate results, revise
results in response to critiques.
6 elements of inquiry
1. Observing and question
2. Designing experiments
3. Collecting data
4. Analyzing data
5. Repeating
6. Reporting and responding to peer review.
In traditional labs, students collect and analyze data. In the basic inquiry labs (which
exist in a continuum), adds the element of designing experiments.
When students design an experiment: evaluate, analyze, apply, understand and
remember
When students also define their own research question: they also create an
interesting question. When students report their results, they have to evaluate what
it is they need to tell the audience, and synthesize their results into something their
audience will understand!
Is it important that the questions are novel? As scientists, we search for novel
questions. But in inquiry based labs, the questions are sometimes novel, and
sometimes not. What is key is that students do not know the answer. In the
continuum, traditional labs are never novel questions, whereas undergraduate
research novelty is essential.
What benefits have been demonstrated for inquiry based lab pedagogy?
Lead to cognitive gains (increased content understanding and transferable skills)
More positive attitudes/greater motivation for learning science
Are there limitations?
It’s vital to include scaffolding and opportunities for practice to help students
develop needed thinking processes.
How to provide support: provide a lot of support right away, and gradually take
away supports within the labs. Help to point research question in the right direction,
allow for feedback from peers and instructors before proceeding further.
What are key elements to include?
Instructor guide to help students develop inquiry skills (define research
problem, formulate hypotheses, planning an experiment)
Opportunity for peer to peer interactions and teaching
Opportunity for students’ summative presentation of work (oral or written)
What challenges can you expect?
Messy data
Unexpected results
Questions that are too broad
..chaos
Assessment options for inquiry based labs
Backwards design : what do you want your students to learn, how will you know if
they learn it, what are you going to do help them learn it? (objectives, assessments,
activities).
How to determine answers, how to verify results, how to communicate results.
Process is highly scaffolded, teaching them to do each step before integrating the
steps. Assessment is closely tied to learning activities with ongoing opportunities for
formative assessment as they move through the lab. Self assessment tool helps
students become more metacognitive.
Objective: students are able to apply principles of experimental design to answer
questions. Possible assessment tool (if not graded) Experimental design ability test
(EDAT).
Goal: student demonstrates increase in scientific literacy Test of scientific literacy
skills (TOSLS).
Goal: student demonstrates improved attitudes about learning science Colorado
learning attitudes about science survey (CLASS)
Module 9 writing to learn
What is writing to learn? Part of the learning process, not solely for the purpose of
communicating information, a way of reflecting and understanding.
Traditional writing assignment: usually a homework, typically finished when turned
in, evaluated by instructor, may or may not have the opportunity to edit the
document, determines and documents what the students knows, asks the student
to be very sure about responses, unless a perfect score, student is penalized.
Writing to learn assignment: assigned in the classroom, completed in class, short
impromptu, “pop ups,” part of a larger process of thinking, learning, and
understanding; may or may not be turned into instructor, ungraded, think and
discover (engagement is goal, errors are okay) purpose is to explore questions and
play with ideas.
Writing to learn: specifics.
Example writing to learn assignments: journaling, free writing, self reflection, self
evaluation, self assessment, generic and focused summaries, learning log, project
notebook, peer response.
What is low stakes writing? Smaller assignments, more often, turn students into
active learning, helps students find their own language, no need to tangle with
elaborate prose, allows instructor to check understanding, allows students to give
full attention to their thoughts (rather than lecture). E.g., minute writes, micro
themes, quote responses, mid lecture feedback, guided journals or learning logs,
question/comment box, lab notebooks
Why writing to learn? Creates a safe place for self reflection, allows students to
think through ideas, focus interaction with material, asks students to
summarize/synthesize/respond to class material
Two reminders to instructors: you are not teaching a writing class, you are looking
for evidence of understanding.
Writing to learn: consider the power
Writing to learn pushes the boundaries of several notions…teacher as examiner,
short answer essay and term paper, writing as a process, lecture/exam pedagogy.
Module 10 problem based learning
What is problem based learning? Teaching approach that challenges students to
learn concepts/principles by applying them to real life problems
Student centered, before lecture, it creates context and relevance, link prior
knowledge and see how concepts apply to professional problems.
Analyze data, synthesize info, evaluate that data, apply info to solve problems.
Clearly define problem, assess knowns/unknowns, brainstorm solutions pros/cons,
craft and justify resolutions. “how to be a wildlife biologist.”
Why use problem based learning? introducing problems through the use of decision
cases and constructive controversies.
Emulates the environment of working professionals (tell this to students).
Enhances abilities to gather and analyze data to support discussion points
Builds critical thinking skills, e.g., integrating concepts
Practice defending positions, do students understand concepts well enough
to teach and convince others?
Higher achievement and retention of material
Stimulate student involvement with active learning especially for 8 am
classes!
What do employers want?
Life long learners, analysis and synthesis skills, critical thinking, problem
solving, communication skills, interest, quality, education, work ethic,
competencies, personality match, listening skills
Before develop decision cases and structured controversies,
What are your teaching and learning objectives for the class?
Are constructive controversies or decision cases the best means to meet
those objectives
setting up with backward design:
the PBL process (problem based learning):
problem identification-what shows up on your desk
what will you need to know-identify goals and objectives
collect necessary information
learn the information
apply the info to the problem or take management action
evaluation-what was learned?
Generally students are taught via subject based learning:
Told what they need to learn
Taught material (why do I need to now this?)
Students learn info
Provide students with examples of how to use info
Two approaches:
A controversy: general controversy description given to all stakeholders, detailed
specific info available from respective stakeholders, stakeholder collect, analyze
data, make requests from others, must share info, develop position within
stakeholder groups, multidisciplinary groups (roleplaying, working together)
A decision case-entire case presented to all student, present interpretive question to
class to solicit discussion about issues that need to be discussed, learned, instructor
provides additional info to student groups to conduct research, case revisited to
evaluate the problem with class.
Planning for “controversy” in your class
Give context of problem. Start with general info about issues. Be explicit about goal:
come up with best management practices…
This is not a debate.
Instructor gives background and assign individuals to stakeholder group.
Students-read descriptions for respective stakeholder group, prepare comments,
who are they, issues they have, possible solutions? Questions for other
stakeholders?
Form multidisciplinary teams – each stakeholder has an equal amount of time to
disucss their info/issues/questions
A representative from each multidisciplinary group reports on their best
policies/solutions
Controversy length can be altered depending upon the teaching and learning
objectives
Scaling back a constructive controversy: use active lecturing and effective lecturing.
Organizing, 10-12 min lecture (teaching and learning goals, background info for
case or controversy), 3-4 min discuss with partner (single stakeholder group), 10-12
min lecture (additional info needed, emphasize best solutions approach, make task
explicit), 3-4 min discuss with partner (multidisciplinary group, recommend best
solution and justification), 10-12 min lecture (facilitate reporting out from groups), 5
min summary (critique student responses, what is really happening, big picture)
WEEK 5 – diversity and motivation
Persistence in STEM fields, part 1
Why do so many math and science majors leave STEM fields? 40% would leave
before they graduate.
Disproportionate number of women and minority students leave – pipeline. What
happened? Seymour and Hewitt (Talking about leaving)
4 issues that mattered least
1. Proficiency of instructor to speak English
2. Class size
3. Poor teaching by TAS
4. Quality of lab or instructional facilities
5 factors that mattered most
1. Loss of interest in science in general
2. Non-STEM fields were more interesting to them.
3. Poor instruction by faculty affected their interest in science(even those who
stayed said this was a major factor in their persistence)
4. Curriculum overload moving too quickly
5. Rejection of STEM careers/lifestyles
National data still indicate that students are still switching from STEM! ½ undergrad
students in STEM leave by the time they graduate. Only 2/10 BA, BAs go to students
in STEM fields.
It wasn’t ability that stopped them, it was that they were pushed out by other
factors such as fitting in.
Motivation and learning
Intrinsic motivations (internal motivations, love of learning, curiosity)-more
powerful, cannot control them as professors
Extrinsic motivations (grades, parents, job)-less powerful, but somewhat easier to
control as professors
Strategic learning (Bain, 2004) – do just enough to get good grades, but no more.
They’ll do what they need to, but may not learn deeply.
Deep learning (Bain, 2004) – interested in learning and transfer, to use in future
courses and careers, but really hard.
Competence (Ryan and Deci, 2000) – we are motivated when we are engaging in
tasks which are hard, but not too hard.
Autonomy – when we have certain degree of autonomy, more motivated to engage
in the activity. We want choice, free will
Purpose – why are we doing what we’re doing, what is the goal?
Community (Binkler and nissenbaum 2006) – contributors to Wikipedia, for no
financial award? People are motivated by being part of a community and
contributing and sharing with that community. Classrooms are not necessarily
learning communities, but they can be. Students may not like math, but they might
like the learning process if it involves other students.
Strategies to inhibit strategic learning –
Lower the stakes – giving multiple opportunities to show what they know, not having
one giant exam at the end, multiple smaller tests along the way, final assignment is
a paper or poster, opportunity to revise and resubmit, build some slack (can drop
lowest score). BUT we can’t remove the stakes entirely. Not grading on the curve
(Sets up a competitive environment, raises the stakes).
Leverage intrinsic motivators – challenge students but not so much they give up,
giving students a choice in how they earn participation points or the format of
assignments, helping students see the connections between their personal
professional and vocational interests and the course itself, having authentic
audience (explain complex topics to a lay audience, service learning project for
community organizations, having external client for a product in engineering).
Create learning community by giving opportunities to students to learn from each
other.
E.g., Social bookmarking – posting links to articles about cryptography within a
specific context that the students were interested in. (tapped into autonomy and
purpose motivators and also created learning community feel)
MCATS as motivation for introductory physics premed students
Two low stakes assessments are part of participation grade – 1. online warm up
questions, what do you find difficult/hard. They get credit for effort. 2. Clicker
questions.
Premed students are grad motivated. Students don’t know how to learn physics, a
few points on the line to get them to try that helps them learn how to learn physics
Clicker questions set up the expectations
Twitter for birds
Persistence in STEM fields part 2
Contributors to motivation
1. Important to have role models, who look like them, relatable, enthusiastic
2. Quality of instructional experience. Students should feel as though they can
engage, addressing real world learning, collaborative learning.
3. Assessment – important that there is feedback on assessments rather than
grading on a curve. Seeing that many people got C’s, not just you
4. Curriculum – lends relevance
5. Creating environments in department, classroom, and in student groups that
are inclusive and offer variety of perspectives
6. Student investment, students feel as though they have some ownership and
control over what they do and demonstrate what they know
7. Message from instructor and department – that success for all students is a
priority.
8. Increase representation of women and minorities. Reach out to them,
encourage participation, resources available to them, and they have
somewhere to turn when they need help.
WEEK 5 LESSON PLANNING
Dramatization of physics TAs’ first day of class
Have students introduce themselves and say their major, build community, gives
everyone a voice
Stereotype threat – people from communities who know that they’re stereotyped as
not being good in math and science, and performance on a pretest is diagnostic of
ability.
Growth mindset – pretest can be used to determine how to address difficulties and
an opportunity to learn as opposed to whether you’re in the right box. Share your
own failures/experiences/successes
Sonning – both women and men hold low expectations of women or judge other
women unfairly. Just because you’re a member of a minority group, doesn’t exclude
you from being sensitive to inclusiveness
If you make a mistake, apologize.
Students’ accents – encourage them to speak more, conversation circles, ask their
name and make sure they are pronouncing it correctly, apologize for taking so long
to understand the accent, think pair share (allows for practice), ask them to write
down the question (written better than spoken language), acknowledge that the
question is a good question.
Do not single out students.
Spotlighting – students from underrepresented groups are both hypervisible and
invisible.
Do not lump everyone together, say “some of you might…” or “most of you
probably haven’t….” acknowledge room for variation
Interview with STEM faculty and students discussing the social belonging
Use gender as a lens of social analysis. Feminist works toward social change.social
justice.
