ah yes, but that would never work with my students
DESCRIPTION
Keynote lecture for the start of the CTLT Institute at UBC Vancouver Video capture: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=a_4fr6mE98gTRANSCRIPT
“Ah yes, but that would never
work with my students….”
Simon Bates CTLT Institute
May 2013
Overview
I. A framework for learning (and teaching)
II. One such framework: How Learning Works
III. Two principles, expanded
IV. Case study: PHYS101 at UBC
What is known about learning…
• is a process not a product• involves change in knowledge, beliefs,
behaviors, or attitudes• is not something done to students, but rather
something students themselves do
What is known about learning…
Effective teaching has to be rootedin what improves learning
The instructor can advance learning only by influencing what the student does to learn
Implications for the new instructor
• Do NOT do what I did
• Seek out, learn from, incorporate teaching strategies that are:– Theory-grounded– Evidence-based
Finding these in your ‘Goldilocks Zone’ is not always easy
Bridging
• What is needed is a framework that bridges learning research and teaching practice
• Fortunately, such frameworks already exist.
“Ah yes, but that would never
work with my students….”
What HLW is about:
• A bridge between research about learning research and implications for teaching practice :– Why certain teaching approaches are or are not
supporting students’ learning– Teaching approaches that effectively foster
student learning in specific contexts– Transferring and applying these principles
About the 7 principles
• Research in brain science, cognitive, developmental, and social psychology, anthropology, education, and diversity studies
• K-12 and higher education• Domain-independent• Experience-independent• Cross-culturally relevant
7 Principles1. Students prior knowledge can help or hinder
learning2. How students organize knowledge influences
how they learn and apply what they know3. Students’ motivation determines, directs,
and sustains what they do to learn4. To develop mastery, students must acquire
component skills, practice integrating them, and know when to apply what they have learned
7 Principles5. Goal-directed practice coupled with targeted
feedback enhances the quality of students’ learning
6. Students’ current level of development interacts with the social, emotional, and intellectual climate of the course to impact learning
7. To become self-directed learners, students must learn to monitor and adjust their approaches to learning
Knowledge
Structure
Motivation
Mastery
Practice
Climate
Metacognition
Knowledge
Structure
Motivation
Mastery
Practice
Climate
Metacognition
Principle 2: Knowledge Structure and Organization
How students organize knowledge influences how they learn and apply what they know
Principle 2: Knowledge Structure and Organization
How experts and novices structure and organize knowledge
Source HLW Fig 2.1
Principle 2: Knowledge Structure and Organization
Consider the following code key
1
2
3
4
5
6
7
8
9
0
Principle 2: Knowledge Structure and Organization
Write down your phone number in the symbolic code
Principle 2: Knowledge Structure and Organization
Consider the following code key
1
2
3
4
5
6
7
8
9
0
1 2 3
64
98
5
7
What the research shows
• When S are provided with a structure for organizing new info, they learn more and better
• S show better learning gains when given an advance organizer i.e. a set of principles that provide a cognitive structure to guide incorporation of new knowledge
Strategies
• Create a concept map to analyze your own knowledge organization
• Provide S with the organizational structure of the course• Explicitly share the organization of each lecture, lab or
discussion• Explicitly highlight deep features• Make connections among concepts explicit• Ask S to draw a concept map to expose their knowledge
organizations• Monitor S work for problems in their knowledge organizations
Principle 3: Motivation
Students’ motivation generates, directs and sustains what they do to learn
Motivation determined by:1. Subjective value of a goal2. Expectancies or expectations for successful
attainment of that goal
Source HLW Fig 3.1
Value of a goal
• Attainment value: satisfaction from mastery and accomplishment
• Intrinsic value: satisfaction from simply doing the task
• Instrumental value: degree to which an activity or goal helps to achieve another (e.g. praise, financial reward)
Expectancies
• Positive outcome expectancies: People are motivated to pursue goals and outcomes that they believe they can successfully achieve
• Efficacy expectancies: belief that one is capable of identifying, organizing, initiating and executing a course of action that will bring about a desired outcome
Expectancies determined by
• Prior experience • Attribution of success or failure to internal
/controllable causes (more likely to expect future success)
• Attribution of success or failure to external/uncontrollable causes (less likely to expect future success)
• Supportive environment
Strategies to establish value
• Connect the material to S interests• Provide authentic, real-world tasks• Share relevance to S current academic lives• Demonstrate the relevance of higher-level
skills to S future professional lives• Identify and reward what you value• Show your own passion and enthusiasm for
the discipline
Strategies that help build positive expectancies
• Ensure alignment of objectives, assessments and instructional strategies
• Create assignments that provide the approp. level of challenge
• Provide early success opportunities• Articulate your expectations• Provide rubrics• Provide targeted feedback• Describe effective study strategies
A case study PeerWise in PHAS 101
• Web-based Multiple Choice Question repository built by students
• Students:– develop new questions with
associated explanations– answer existing questions and rate
them for quality and difficulty– take part in discussions– can follow other authors
peerwise.cs.auckland.ac.nz
>100,000student contributors
>500,000unique questions
>10,000,000answers
38
As a question author…..
39
40
43
As a question answerer …..
44
45
46
47
Timeline
2010-11: UoE pilot study
2011-12: Multi-institution, multi-course
2012-13: UBC PHYS 101
Coursera MOOC
48
Previous research
• Good engagement and participation beyond the minimum requirements
• Correlation between use and end-of-course outcome
• Replication study in 3 institutions, 5 courses,3 disciplines
1st year Physics N=172University of Edinburgh
0%
5%
10%
15%
20%
25%
30%
35%
40%
45%
50%
1 2 3 4 5 6
Taxonomic Category
Per
cen
tag
e o
f S
ub
mit
ted
Qu
esti
on
s
Previous research
• Question quality: mapped onto levels in cognitive domain of Bloom’s taxonomy
• Surprisingly high overall quality, evenfrom ‘novices’
First semester N = 350
Second semester N = 252
Implementation in PHAS 101
2012 W2 3 sections
N=791
51
1 2 3 4 5 6 7 X 8 9 10 11 12 13
T 1 1 2 2 3 X 3 4 - 5 5
L 1 2 2 3 3 4 X 4 - ex 5 5
M M
PW @ @ ! @ !
Assessment requirements
As a minimum:
• Write one question• Answer 5• Comment on & rate 3
Contributed ~3% to course assessment
(mostly participation, small bonus for performance)
52
We were deliberately
hands off.
• No moderation• No corrections• No interventions at all
But we did observe…..
53
Scaffolding in tutorials
54
Scaffolding in tutorials
55
Engagement
First assessment exercise:
• 664 active students (out of 790!) • 1340 Q, 11000 A, 5000 C• x1.75, x17, x7 minimum requirements
Engagement
Score
Examples
60
61
How this case study exemplifies HLW
Knowledge structures and organization
• S challenged to think about gaps / broken links• Explicit opportunity to build better / repair
structures• Taps into ‘What?’ and ‘Why?’• Scaffolded to combine multiple concepts /
ideas / topic areas
How this case study exemplifies HLW
Motivation
• Diverse reasons for taking course• Explicit mention of higher order skills
development • Low floor / high ceiling• Their space: control and flexibility• Rewarding what you value: participation credit• Community: peer interaction, scores, badging
Knowledge
Structure
Motivation
Mastery
Practice
Climate
Metacognition
Acknowledgements
• HLW slides - Naureen Madhani • PHAS 101 – Georg Rieger, Firas Moosvi, Emily
Altiere
• UoE Physics Education Research Group• Universities of Glasgow, Nottingham, Auckland
Resources - HLW
• http://www.cmu.edu/teaching/principles/index.html
• Brent, R. & Felder, R. (2011). Random thoughts… how learning works. Chemical Engineering Education 45(4). 257-8. Available at: http://www4.ncsu.edu/unity/lockers/users/f/felder/public/Columns/Ambrose.pdf
• Coming soon – 5 page summary of HLW
Resources - PeerWiseCommunity: http://www.PeerWise-Community.org
JISC-funded multi institution study:https://www.wiki.ed.ac.uk/display/SGC4L/Home
UoE Physics Pilot Study: AIP Conf. Proc. 1413, 359 http://dx.doi.org/10.1063/1.3680069
RSC overview articlehttp://www.rsc.org/Education/EiC/issues/2013January/student-generated-assessment.asp
UoE Physics scaffolding resources http://www2.ph.ed.ac.uk/elearning/projects/peerwise/
Image / Icon credits
• Figures from How Learning Works, Ambrose et al. Chaps 2 and 3
• Icons: – Stack of Books designed by Jeremy J Bristol from The Noun
Project– Mesh Network designed by Lance Weisser from The Noun
Project– Excited designed by Austin Condiff from The Noun Project– Components designed by Iris Q. Li from The Noun Project– Group designed by Alexandra Coscovelnita from The Noun
Project– Brain designed by Martha Ormiston from The Noun Project