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THE CHANGING LANDSCAPE OF TEACHING@SPS 4500 , APRIL 25TH, 2014

DR. JEFF LOATSDEPARTMENT 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."

~1/4 → Agree that teaching quality is essentially innate

~3/4 → Improvement is a matter of desire, effort and time spent.

WARM-UP: BORN VS. MADE

“There are always ways to improve teaching quality, and no one is a hopeless case. With enough determination and the right instruction any teacher can improve his or her teaching performance.”

“I would respond that I do agree that other people may be naturally better or more comfortable with teaching than others, however I believe that new teaching methods can make someone become a better teacher. I feel that most bad teachers did not learn new or better teaching techniques while in school or- more frequently- do not care so much about putting in the necessary effort or are stubborn to change.”

DWECK: FIXED VS. GROWTH MINDSET

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DWECK: FIXED VS. GROWTH MINDSET

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DWECK: FIXED VS. GROWTH MINDSET

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DWECK: FIXED VS. GROWTH MINDSET

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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?

You Others

0% - 19%

20% - 39%

40% - 59% 1

60% - 79% 1

80% - 100% 2

2%10%13%38%37%

WARM-UP: BIGGEST “TAKE AWAY”

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

~4/4 → Engagement is key andLecture performs poorly

~1/4 → Difference was dramatic!

~1/4 → Research can give better teaching

~1/4 → Students enjoy interactive methods

~1/4 → Students less resistant than faculty

WARM-UP: BIGGEST “TAKE AWAY”“Traditional lecture style is not the most effective teaching method. When more interactive methods are used within large classrooms, student performance and attendance greatly improved. Furthermore, students seem to enjoy the non-traditional style.”

“I think it was the drastic difference in the scores from the different groups. I know people learn differently, but I didn't realize it had that much of an impact.”

ASIDE: LEARNING STYLES

Do you have a learning style?In short: The evidence that learning styles actually exist is very thin and "What this means for instructors, Mr. Pashler says, is that they should not waste any time or energy trying to determine the composition of learning styles in their classrooms."References:• “Matching Teaching Style to Learning Style

May Not Help Students” article by David Glenn

• YouTube: Learning Styles Don’t Exist• Scholarly review: “Learning styles:

Concepts and evidence”, Pashler et al, 2008

THE EVIDENCE STANDARD12

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

13PHYSICS EDUCATION REVOLUTIONEric Mazur, Physicist at Harvard:

14“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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20%45%11%7%

18%(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. ROBOCATPredict which one will win the race, and explain why you think so.

~1/4 → Robocat!

~0/4 → Robodog!

~3/4 → 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.”

“The cat.... To be honest, I used the resources I have and asked my colleague who is a physics major.”

WARM-UP: ROBODOG VS. ROBOCAT“They tie. The are both running half of the course and walking the other half. If the racing time has been predetermined (wouldn't you have to, to get half of it?) then running half of it and walking half of it would be the same as running half of the course and walking half of the course. (I kept changing my mind, still not sure, but my 10 minutes has been up for some time!)”

WARM-UP: ROBODOG VS. ROBOCAT“The robot cat will win the race because by running for half of its race time the cat will cover a lot of distance allowing the robot cat to cover twice the distance. The robot dog can only run for a fixed amount of space.”

WARM-UP: ROBODOG VS. ROBOCAT“The robot cat will win. My reasoning for this is:

-the dog will run for half the distance, but then walk the rest, which means he will be walking the same amount of distance but that also means that will take him longer to do the last half of the race.

-the cat will run, no matter what, half the time, so her walking time is definitely less than the dogs walking time”

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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25%35%21%14%6%(others)

STUDENT FEEDBACK315 students in 7 classes over 4 terms (roughly ±6%)

The WarmUps have…Agreed or Strongly Agreed

…helped me to be more prepared for class than I would otherwise be.

70%

…helped me to be more engaged in class than I would otherwise be. 

80%

…helped me to learn the material better than I otherwise would

64%

…been worth the time they required to complete 57%

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MORE ON JITT?

Much more information to be had:• Theoretical basis for effectiveness• Empirical evidence for effectiveness• Writing good questions• Best and worst implementation tools• Practical questions and pitfalls

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MAZUR AFTER 1 YEAR

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ELSEWHERE?

MY SUMMARY31

JiTT may be among the easiest research-based instructional strategies that you can consistently integrate into your teaching.

From an evidence-based perspective, JiTT addresses often-neglected areas.

We must be prepared to find that students know less than we might hope. (Perhaps freeing?)

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 & RESOURCES

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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