CTD Fa14 Weekly Workshop: Alternatives to lecture

Alternatives to Lecture
1
Train wreck at Montparnasse Station, Paris, France, 1895 (Image: Wikimedia Commons)
What do you notice?
What do you wonder?

CTD Weekly Workshops: Alternatives to Lecture
Unless otherwise noted, content is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution- Non Commercial 3.0 License.
Peter Newbury, Ph.D. Center for Teaching Development, University of California, San Diego
pnewbury@ucsd.edu @polarisdotca #ctducsd ctd.ucsd.edu
resources: ctd.ucsd.edu/programs/weekly-workshops-fall-2014/
please sign in
October 29, 2014

Scholarly approach to teaching:
3
Carl Wieman Science Education Initiative cwsei.ubc.ca
What should students learn?
learning
outcomes (goals, objectives)
assessment (Nov 5)
alt to lecture (Oct 29) peer instruction, (Nov 19 & 26)
What students learn?
What are students learning?
What instructional approaches help students learn?

Prediction
4
Ice cubes are floating in a glass of water that is filled to the brim.
As the ice cubes melt, what happens to the water level?
A)it stays the same
B)it rises and spills water over the brim
C)it falls to a level below the brim.

Key Finding 1
5
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
6
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
7
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
8
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]

9
student-centered instruction
traditional instruction

10
peer instruction with clickers
interactive demonstrations
What do you notice? What do you wonder?
surveys of opinions
reading quizzes
worksheets
discussions
videos

(Question: Sujatha Raghu from Braincandy via LearningCatalytics)
(Image: CIM9926 by number657 on flickr CC)
Discussion (peer instruction)
Melt chocolate over low heat. Remove the chocolate from the heat. What will happen to the chocolate?
A)It will condense.
B)It will evaporate.
C)It will freeze.
11

Typical Episode of Peer Instruction
12
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”, students may vote again.
5.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
13
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 practice how to think, communicate like experts

To learn more about peer instruction
14
Upcoming Weekly Workshops at the CTD:
To register, look for the
Teaching and Learning Weekly Workshops
at ctd.ucsd.edu
Nov 19
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
Nov 26
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.

15
surveys of opinions
reading quizzes
worksheets
discussions
videos

16
Chemistry Day 4 by pennstatenews on flickr CC-BY-NC

In-class demonstrations
17
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)

Prediction
18
Ice cubes are floating in a glass of water that is filled to the brim.
As the ice cubes melt, what happens to the water level?
A)it stays the same
B)it rises and spills water over the brim
C)it falls to a level below the brim.

Interactive Lecture Demos (ILD) [3]
19
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

20
surveys of opinions
reading quizzes
worksheets
discussions
videos

21
Train wreck at Montparnasse Station, Paris, France, 1895 (Image: Wikimedia Commons)

Start teaching before the bell rings
22
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?” [8]
Spend first few minutes leading a discussion:
oevery student can contribute because everyone can wonder
oyou learn their pre-existing knowledge
oactivates concepts in their memories
Don’t let their enthusiasm slip away!

23
surveys of opinions
reading quizzes
worksheets
discussions
videos

What do you see?
24
A)old lady
B)young woman
If you’re studying human behavior, let your students generate authentic data
For sensitive issues, clickers can be set to “anonymous”

25
surveys of opinions
reading quizzes
worksheets
discussions
videos

Showing video in class
26
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)

Showing video in class
27
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 and recognize are necessary for rich discussion/analysis.

Videos: implications for instructors
28
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?
29
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

30
surveys of opinions
reading quizzes
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:
31
Carl Wieman Science Education Initiative cwsei.ubc.ca
What should students learn?
learning
outcomes (goals, objectives)
assessment (Nov 5)
alt to lecture (Oct 29) peer instruction, (Nov 19 & 26)
What students learn?
What are students learning?
What instructional approaches help students learn?

References
32
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 Fa14 Weekly Workshop: Alternatives to lecture

More Related Content

What's hot (20)

Viewers also liked (6)

Similar to CTD Fa14 Weekly Workshop: Alternatives to lecture (20)

More from Peter Newbury (20)

Recently uploaded (20)

CTD Fa14 Weekly Workshop: Alternatives to lecture