CTD Sp14 Weekly Workshop: Alternatives to Lecture

Alternatives to Lecture 1

What do you notice?

What do you wonder?

impaled by Yersinia on flickr CC-BY-NC-SA

CTD Weekly Workshop: Alternatives to Lecture

Stephanie Carmac

Ph.D. candidate, Psychology

resources: ctd.ucsd.edu/programs/weekly-workshops-spring-2014/

April 23, 2014 12:00 – 12:50 pm Center Hall, Rm 316

Unless otherwise noted, content

is licensed under a Creative Commons

Attribution-Non Commercial 3.0 License.

CTD WEEKLY WORKSHOP:

ALTERNATIVES

TO LECTURE please sign in

Scholarly approach to teaching:

Learning Outcomes 3

Carl Wieman

Science Education Initiative

cwsei.ubc.ca

What should

students

learn?

What are

students

learning?

What instructional

approaches

help students

learn?

learning

outcomes

(Apr 16)

assessment

(Apr 30)

alt to lecture

(Apr 23)

peer instruction,

(May 7, 14)

Key Finding 1


Students come to the classroom with preconceptions about how the world works. If their initial understanding is not engaged, they may fail to grasp the new concepts and information that are taught, or they may learn them for the purposes of a test but revert to their preconceptions outside of the classroom.

(How People Learn [1], p. 14)

Instructors must

draw out students’

pre-existing

understandings.

Instruction must be

student-centered.

Key Finding 2


To develop competence in an area, students must:

a) have a deep foundation of factual knowledge,

b) understand facts and ideas in the context of a conceptual framework, and

c) organize knowledge in ways that facilitate retrieval and application.


These are

characteristics of

expertize

Instructors need to

give students

opportunities to be

more expert-like.

Key Finding 3


A “metacognitive” approach to instruction can help students learn to take control of their own learning by defining learning goals and monitoring their progress in achieving them.


Instructors need to

provide opportunities

for students to practice

being metacognitive

Metacognition:

that voice in your

head that checks

if you understand

Constructivist theory of learning


Students need to construct their own understanding of

the concepts, where

each student assimilates new material into his/her

own framework of initial understanding and

preconception

each student confronts his/her (mis)understanding of

the concepts

A traditional, one-way lecture doesn’t give students an

opportunity to “try, fail, receive feedback and try

again, before facing a summative evaluation.” [2]


student-centered instruction traditional lecture

Alternatives to Lecture


peer instruction with clickers

interactive demonstrations

surveys of opinions

reading quizzes

whiteboards

worksheets

discussions

videos

What do you notice? What do you wonder?

student-centered instruction

Clicker Question

10

The molecules making up the dry mass of wood that

forms during the growth of a tree largely come from

A) sunlight.

B) the air.

C) the seed.

D) the soil.

Question credit: Bill Wood


Typical Episode of Peer Instruction


1. Instructor poses a conceptually-challenging

multiple-choice question.

2. Students think about question on their own and vote

using clickers, colored ABCD cards, smartphones,…

3. The instructor asks students to turn to their neighbors

and “convince them you’re right.”

4. After that “peer instruction”, the students vote again

and the instructor leads a class-wide discussion

concluding with why the right answer(s) is right and

the wrong answers are wrong.

In effective peer instruction


students teach each other while

they may still hold or remember

their novice preconceptions

students discuss the concepts in their

own (novice) language

each student finds out what s/he does(n’t) know

the instructor finds out what the students know (and

don’t know) and reacts, building on their initial

understanding and preconceptions.

students learn

and practice

how to think,

communicate

like experts

Effective peer instruction requires

How (you can help) People Learn (using peer instruction) 13

1. identifying key concepts, misconceptions

2. creating multiple-choice questions that

require deeper thinking and learning

3. facilitating peer instruction episodes that

spark and support student discussion

4. leading a class-wide discussion to clarify

the concept, resolve the misconception

5. reflecting on the question: note how they

voted, curious conversations you overheard

so next year’s question will be better

before

class

during

class

after

class

Effective peer instruction requires


1. identifying key concepts, misconceptions

2. creating multiple-choice questions that

require deeper thinking and learning

3. facilitating peer instruction episodes that

spark student discussion

4. resolving the misconceptions

before

class

during

class

14

Upcoming Weekly Workshops at the CTD:

To register, look for the

Teaching and Learning Weekly Workshops

at ctd.ucsd.edu

To learn more about peer instruction


May 7 Peer Instruction 1: Writing Good Peer Instruction (“Clicker”)

Questions A good episode of peer instruction requires a good

question. In this session, we’ll see a variety of questions and contrast

good vs bad questions, that you can adapt to your discipline

May 14 Peer Instruction 2: Best Practices for Running Peer Instruction with

Clickers In this session, we’ll discuss best practices for choreographing

an episode of peer instruction in your class including how to pose the

question, when to open and close the poll, how many votes, and how

to get the most out of the class-wide discussion.





surveys of opinions

reading quizzes

whiteboards

worksheets

discussions

videos




Chemistry Day 4 by pennstatenews on flickr CC-BY-NC

In-class demonstrations


1. Instructor (meticulously) sets up the equipment, flicks

a switch, “Taa-daaah!

2. Students

don’t know where to look

don’t know when to look, miss “the moment”

don’t recognize the significance of the event amongst

too many distractions

To engage students and focus their attention on the key

event, get students to make a prediction (using clickers,

for example)

Clicker question


A ball is rolling around

the inside of a circular

track. The ball

leaves the track

at point P.

Which path

does the ball

follow?

P

A

B C

D

E

(Mazur)

Interactive Lecture Demos (ILD) [3]


By making a prediction, each student

cares about the outcome (“Did I get it right?”)

knows when to look (can anticipate phenomenon)

knows where to look (sees phenomenon occur)

gets immediate feedback about his/her

understanding of the concept

is prepared for your explanation





surveys of opinions

reading quizzes

whiteboards

worksheets

discussions

videos




What do you notice?

What do you wonder?

impaled by Yersinia on flickr CC-BY-NC-SA

Start teaching before the bell rings


Students arrive, ready to engage with you, your content:

Project a picture related to today’s lesson

Add prompts:

“What do you notice? What do you wonder?” [4]

Spend first few minutes leading a discussion:

every student can contribute

you learn their pre-existing knowledge

activates concepts in their memories

Don’t let their enthusiasm slip away!





surveys of opinions

reading quizzes

whiteboards

worksheets

discussions

videos



What do you see?


A) old lady

B) young woman

If you’re studying human

behavior, let your students

generate authentic data

Clickers can be set to

“anonymous”





surveys of opinions

reading quizzes

whiteboards

worksheets

discussions

videos



Showing video in class


There are times when a video is the perfect resource.

Archimedes’ Principle

In today’s Physics class, we’re

going to study buoyancy and

Archimedes’ Principle.

http://tinyurl.com/TCCdemo

(Paul Hewitt video)

(Image: Wikimedia Commons – public domain)

Videos in class


Unlike you, the students do not

select the video

check it contains key events

anticipate key events

recognize key events

interpret key events

relate key events to

class concepts

instructor does this

before class

instructor does this unconsciously,

the “curse” of expertise

This is what you want to do in class!

Anticipate & recognize are

pre-requisites.

Videos: implications for instructors


Coach the students how to watch the video like an

expert:

As you watch this video, try to…

watch for when the A starts to B.

count how often the C does D.

watch the needles on the scales as water drains.

Don’t “give away” the key event (Notice the buoyant

force is equal to the weight of the fluid displaced.)

That’s what the follow-up discussion is for: help the

students get prepared for that discussion.

Is Lecture Dead?


No! There is still a time and place for lecture. You can

lecture (for 10-15 minutes) when the students are

prepared to learn:

the alt-to-lecture activities have activated the

concepts in their memories

they’ve tried, failed, received feedback, tried again

and are waiting for confirmation

they’re prepared to intellectually appreciate the

expertise you’re about to share with them





surveys of opinions

reading quizzes

whiteboards

worksheets

discussions

videos


To enhance students learning and

retention, some instruction must be interactive and student-centered.

That’s how people learn.

Scholarly approach to teaching:

Learning Outcomes 32

Carl Wieman

Science Education Initiative

cwsei.ubc.ca

What should

students

learn?

What are

students

learning?

What instructional

approaches

help students

learn?

learning

outcomes

(Apr 16)

assessment

(Apr 30)

this room

alt to lecture

(Apr 23)

peer instruction,

(May 7, 14)

References


1. National Research Council (2000). How People Learn: Brain,

Mind, Experience, and School: Expanded Edition. J.D.

Bransford, A.L Brown & R.R. Cocking (Eds.),Washington, DC:

The National Academies Press.

2. Bain, K (2004). What the best college teachers do.

Cambridge, MA: Harvard University Press.

3. Get the full story of interactive lecture demos (ILDs) at

serc.carleton.edu/introgeo/demonstrations/index.html

4. Read more about “What do you notice? What do you

wonder” at ctd.ucsd.edu/2013/08/you-dont-have-to-wait-

for-the-clock-to-strike-to-start-teaching/

CTD Sp14 Weekly Workshop: Alternatives to Lecture

Education

Transcript of CTD Sp14 Weekly Workshop: Alternatives to Lecture