Atlantic Physics Day: Reflective Reading Journals - Powerful, Effective, not so Airy-fairy as you Might Think
- 1. Reflective Reading Journals – Powerful, Effective, not so Airy-fairy as you Might Think Dr. Geoffrey Lee-Dadswell (“Geoff”) First of all...DON'T PANIC! This is not a music class, although I will use some material from music theory to illustrate a teaching technique. About 80% of this session will be spent discussing pedagogy and the other 20% will be spent practicing it using music. To start, while you wait for everyone to be ready: 1. Fill out the Getting to Know You survey and hand it in 2. Read the brief “Quick Reading” 3. Flip over the Quick Reading and follow the instructions 1 for reflective journaling
- 2. An Example 2
- 3. What's This All About? Taking measures (with marks attached) to ensure that students read − − marks are necessary to hold students accountable for the reading allows us to skip using class time to present simple material Overall strategy is to get students to practice using ideas in class, instead of having the ideas delivered in class − part of teaching approach often referred to as “active engagement”. Part of this is increasingly called the “flipped classroom” approach 3
- 4. Why Not Just Do a Reading Quiz? What advantages/disadvantages might journaling have compared with online quizzes? Why get students to do the initial marking of each others' journals? 4
- 5. Journaling as an Alternative to Reading Quizzes virtually impossible for a student to write a good journal entry if they have not done the reading marking rubric can be used to push students towards deeper reading teaches deep reading skills, as well as the subject matter that the students are reading reflective journaling is intended to foster “metacognition” 5
- 6. Getting Students to Journal Effectively Reflective journaling is probably unlike any task your students have ever had to do in a course − − will only start to do it effectively if they do it frequently − will need to be trained to do it need to see examples of good journals Rubric needs to push students to reflection and connection − no marks for simply summarizing content of the reading − students must be allowed to write things in their journals that are “wrong” with no penalty − emphasize/reward asking of questions − but also push them to attempt to answer own questions 6
- 7. Marking Strategies Calvin Kalman (Concordia U.) suggests − − Have TAs quickly mark journals on a very easy rubric (e.g. 100% as long as writing is “on task”) If prof. marks then have students condense journal entries down to single page “preview sheet” which must be handed in with journal I suggest − Have students do a pre-marking of peer's work then hand in for quick grading − Use rubric where reflection and connection are explicitly being looked for 7
- 8. Reflective Reading Journals “Marking” each others' journals: Look for reflection. Mark any reflective statement/question with an “R”. Also look for connection, such as to things that the journaler knows from elsewhere. Mark any connections with a “C”. 8
- 9. Use of Class Time Make explicit deadlines for journaling on specific chapters in text. Never fall behind what the students are reading. Where does reading and journaling fit into Kolb's model of experiential learning? Kolb's model of experiential learning. Within Kolb's model, what is the role of class time in a flipped classroom? 9
- 10. First 2 Minutes of Music Theory Class (clicker question...) The A-major scale consists of the sequence of notes: a) A B C D E F G A b) A B C# D E F# G# A c) A B C D♭ E♭ F G A d) A B D♭ D E G♭ A♭ A e) None of the above 10
- 11. What Was the Pedagogical Purpose of that Particular Clicker Question? Why was that question intended for the very beginning of class? What must the professor (no matter how tempting it is) NOT do before displaying that clicker question? Similarly, how might we start a class in (roughly) week 4 of an intro. mechanics course? 11
- 12. Use of Class Time Focus on getting students to test implications and engage in concrete experience in-class group activities to apply concepts No need to “cover all material in class” but verify that key concepts have been learned (e.g. use clicker questions) focus on common conceptual difficulties Readings completed ensures more equal contributions to in-class group work 12
- 13. A Group Activity (jigsaw) You have now definitely seen the following major scales: C-major CDEFGABC E-major E F# G# A B C# D# E A-major A B C# D E F # G # A Step 1: In your groups build the following scales Curie Marconi # C -major (use sharps) F-major (use flats) ♭ D-major (sharps) G -major (flats) # D -major (sharps) G-major (sharps) Salam A -major (use flats) B♭-major (flats) B-major (sharps) ♭ Step 2: In your supergroup (colour) Now you have all of the major scales written down. Put your scales in the order: Largest number of flats decreasing flats All naturals increasing sharps Largest number of sharps Step 3: Back in your groups Find the pattern where, given a scale with N sharps how do you quickly find the scale 13 with N+1 sharps
- 14. Challenge In your group Design a jigsaw activity (individual → small group or small group → large group) for any physics course you choose. Question for discussion: Would it be a good use of class time to do this jigsaw activity if you could not be sure that the majority of students had done the assigned reading? Would it be a good use of class time if you could be sure they had done the reading? 14
- 15. A Bit More on Groups Many practitioners of active engagement methods (e.g. N. Carolina State SCALE-UP project, MIT TEAL project) strongly recommend assigning students to groups. Specific criteria are often recommended in constructing groups − Infer what criteria I used to form your groups 15
- 16. Some Research Questions Research on reflective journals in physics courses has already demonstrated that they can be effective (Kalman, Science and Education, 20, 159-172, (2011).) But research on this is still in its infancy, and so far is entirely qualitative, compared with other active learning strategies − Can measures of engagement with the reflective journaling process be correlated with conceptual gains from individual readings? − Are there measurable differences in outcome between motivating students to do the readings with journals vs. using reading quizzes? − What insight could detailed studies of students' journals give us into students' processes of conceptual change? 16
Editor's Notes
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