MS4 level being good citizen -imperative- (1) (1).pdf
Bates interactive lectures Pietermaritzburg UKZN
1. Interactive Engagement techniques
for large class lectures
Simon Bates
Dean of Learning and Teaching Professor of Physics Education
College of Science and Engineering School of Physics & Astronomy
s.p.bates@ed.ac.uk UKZN May 2011 1
Sunday, 22 May 2011
2. or
‘Inverting your classroom’
Simon Bates
Dean of Learning and Teaching Professor of Physics Education
College of Science and Engineering School of Physics & Astronomy
s.p.bates@ed.ac.uk 2
Sunday, 22 May 2011
3. or
‘Rousing the Dead’:
getting students to come to, stay awake and participate in
large class lectures
Simon Bates
Dean of Learning and Teaching Professor of Physics Education
College of Science and Engineering School of Physics & Astronomy
s.p.bates@ed.ac.uk 3
Sunday, 22 May 2011
4. Learning in phases
Acquisition
- reading, listening, lectures etc.
Assimilation
- making meaning, connections, practice,
discussion, integrating ….
4
Sunday, 22 May 2011
7. There are 2 problems:
• We spend much class
contact time in
activities towards the
bottom
• We provide most
access to expert help
and guidance during
class hours
7
Sunday, 22 May 2011
8. Consequences:
• Lack of engagement
• Strategic / shallow
learning, geared totally
towards passing exam
• Helplessness, general
despair.
8
Sunday, 22 May 2011
9. ‘Inverting the classroom’…
Is about making more time for more
cognitively demanding tasks in class hours
And / or
About finding new ways to engage
participants outside class hours.
9
Sunday, 22 May 2011
11. “Despite the changes in the learning
environment, teaching methods do not
appear to have changed considerably.
Initial findings from research suggest
that many staff still see teaching
primarily in terms of transmission of
information, mainly through lectures.”
Dearing, National Committee of Enquiry into Higher Education: Dept. for Education 1997
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Sunday, 22 May 2011
12. Teaching is the art
of leading students
into a situation from
which they can only
escape by thinking
Sunday, 22 May 2011
13. “Lectures (in physics) can be
incredibly passive experiences
for students, particularly dangerous for those
who believe that if they follow the professor,
they’ve mastered the material”
Van Heuvelen “Learning to think like a Physicist”
Am J Phys 59(10) 1991 891-897
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Sunday, 22 May 2011
21. ATHERTON J S (2010) Learning and
Teaching; Lectures [On-line] UK: Available:
http://www.learningandteaching.info/teaching/
lecture.htm
Sunday, 22 May 2011
22. “ The complex cognitive skills required to
understand Physics cannot be
developed by listening to lectures…
… any more than one can learn to play
tennis by watching tennis matches.”
Hestenes, D. Am. J. Phys., 66, 465-7 (1998)
Sunday, 22 May 2011
23. • A “clicker”, a.k.a.
– An Electronic Voting
System
– A Personal Response
System
– An Audience Response
System
Sunday, 22 May 2011
27. Underpinned College Learning
and Teaching strategy
‘Loanership’ of 3000 handsets
Wide range of disciplines
Science, Eng,Vet. Med.
Sunday, 22 May 2011
28. “Although multiple choice questions may seem
limiting, they can be surprisingly good at
generating the desired student engagement and
guiding student thinking.
They work particularly well if the possible answers
embody common confusions or difficult ideas.”
Wieman, C. and Perkins K., Physics Today (2005) 36-42.
Sunday, 22 May 2011
29. • What makes a
good question?
– Concept-testing
– Where known
misconceptions live
– Spread of answers
expected
Sunday, 22 May 2011
30. • What if you don’t know what
misconceptions exist?
– Get students to tell you; the “1 minute
paper”
– Feedback loop from end-of-course
assessment
Sunday, 22 May 2011
31. “Electronic classroom response systems....are
merely tools, not a 'magic bullet'.
To significantly impact student learning (they)
must be employed with skill in the service of a
sound, coherent pedagogy.
This is not easy.”
Beatty, I.D., Gerace, W.J., Leonard, W.J., Dufresne, R.J., Am. J. Phys 2006
Sunday, 22 May 2011
32. • The “friendly” question
– “ What is your background study
of subject X? ”
– Useful as a test-how-it-works question early
on
– Can address attention span limit in lectures
Sunday, 22 May 2011
33. • The recap question
– “ In the last lecture we covered Y; let’s see
what you can recall ”
– Can be useful at the start of a lecture to
engage
– Use to reinforce key concepts.
Sunday, 22 May 2011
36. • Peer Instruction
– Question
– Individual poll
– Students discuss
– Repoll
Sunday, 22 May 2011
37. Reproduced from Eric Mazur
(search “Confessions of a converted lecturer” on YouTube)
Sunday, 22 May 2011
38. • The reduction in coverage
– Departure from the A-Z content
transmission
– The A-Z must be elsewhere (book, web,
tutorial…)
– The students must buy-in to “the learning
contract”
Sunday, 22 May 2011
39. • The first lecture is crucial
– Why we are doing this
– What we expect of them
– Practice use with friendly questions
• There is a learning curve
– This is not an “out of the box” solution
– Whole-team buy-in
Sunday, 22 May 2011
40. • What makes a good question ?
• How many to have each lecture ?
• Where to place it / them ?
• Beware shoe-horning content in
Sunday, 22 May 2011
47. Summary
• There are effective, evidenced,
research-based strategies out there
• Adoption takes time
• It’s a slippery slope…..
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Sunday, 22 May 2011
48. EdPER group website
http://bit.ly/EdPER
s.p.bates@ed.ac.uk
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Sunday, 22 May 2011