college classroom week 7 - not dumb, different

The College ClassroomFebruary 20, 2013

Week 7:They’re not dumb, they’re different.

Week 7:They’re not dumb, they’re different.

Beth Simon, Ph.D.Computer Science and EngineeringDirector, Center for Teaching Development

Stacey Brydges, Ph.D.Department of Chemistry and Biochemistry

Matthew T. Herbst, Ph.D.Director, Making of the Modern World Program,Eleanor Roosevelt College

Today…3

how

people

learn

development of expertise le

arni

ng o

utco

mes

assessmentco

operativ

e learn

ing

fixed and growth mindset

collegeclassroom.ucsd.edu #tccucsd

Discussion Directed from Quotes


4

Sources:They’re Not Dumb, They’re Different (Eric’s story)UCSD TA and Instructor comments from course The History of Women

Discussion procedure5

1. The person with the ball will give the first comment. (Hang onto the ball until the next slide.)

2. After that, everyone is welcome to comment.3. When we advance to the next slide, pass the ball

to your right.

Today, you are instructors, not students.Start your comments with “When I’m the instructor…” “If this was *my* class…”


The Eric Experiment [1] 6

I still get the feeling that unlike a humanities course, here the professor is the keeper of the information, the one who knows all the answers. This does little to propagate discussion or dissent.

(p. 21)


Assessment, Expertise Development, How People Learn,Learning Outcomes, Cooperative Learning, Fixed/Growth Mindset


There was a Hispanic woman who sits next to me who is already having trouble with the material. She tells me she spends seven hours a night on homework and needs to get an “A” to receive an ROTC scholarship next year.

(p. 22)




The lack of community, together with the lack of interchange between the professor and the students combines to produce a totally passive classroom experience.

(p. 25)What is not as well understood are the various ways in which this already hard subject [science] is made even harder and more frustrating by the pedagogy itself.

(p.29)




If you find you do not understand something from the last chapter, you must wait until after class to see wither the professor or the teaching assistant. The professor’s office hour is busy and there is not much time for in-depth help. The teaching assistant, while well-meaning, has problems communicating in English, and is only around on certain days of the week.

(p. 26)




“…the greatest stumbling block to understanding” was the lack of identifiable goals and the absence of linkage between concepts.

(p. 29)



From the teachers…

Implications for teaching11


Eric’s physics professor: [1]12

Students not interested in the physical world have a harder time, since they don’t know and usually don’t care, how things, cars, bodies, weather, the heavens, work.

(p. 30)



Teaching the History of Women [2]

13

For the opportunity to introduce both the Middle East and women’s history to a captive and diverse audience, I am very grateful. But challenges abound, beginning with the time-consuming obstacle of students’ ignorance of even the region’s basic geography…




14

[H]ow, in this tense climate, can we present our students with honest, critical, and nuanced information about contentious topics…



Peer Instruction15

Before class:students read the text, watch online lecturescomplete a reading quiz, online assessment

During class: Periodically, between mini-lectures,1. instructor poses a conceptually challenging

question

2. students vote individually

3. students discuss the concept in groups of 2-3

4. students vote again

5. class-wide discussion led by instructor, ending with the correct answer(s) is confirmed


Halving Fail Rates using Peer Instruction [3]

16

“fail rate” refers to the number of students earning a W (withdraw), D, or F grade out of the total number students passing (A,B,C) or failing (W, D, F).


WHY?

CS1* CS1.5 Theory* Arch* Average*0%

5%

10%

15%

20%

25%

30%

24%

14%

25%

16%

20%

10% 11%

6%3%

7%

Standard Instruction Peer Instruction

Fail R

ate

Comparison in Fail Rates in SI and PI course offerings. Changes marked with a * are statistically significant.

Halving Fail Rates using Peer Instruction [3]

17

By designing a course to better support students in their attainment of learning goals, standards can be preserved while facilitating “easier” learning.


Tobias’ conclusions:18

But as least as important as content…will be changes in the “classroom culture” of physical science

more attention to an intellectual overview more context (even history) in the presentation

of physical models less condescending pedagogy differently challenging examinations more discussion, more “dissent” (even if

artificially constructed) more community in the classroom

([1], p. 31)collegeclassroom.ucsd.edu #tccucsd

Watch for Homework 8 post

Check the teaching statements Google spreadsheet for your peer review

assignments

Next week:Alternatives to Lecture

19


20collegeclassroom.ucsd.edu #tccucsd

Unskilled and Unaware of it [4]

21

When people are incompetent in the strategies they adopt to achieve success and satisfaction, they suffer a dual burden: Not only do they reach erroneous conclusions and make unfortunate choices, but their incompetence robs them of the ability to realize it.

(p. 1121)


Unskilled and Unaware…22


Unskilled and Unaware Conclusions

25

in domains where they have no intuition at all (“translating Slovenian proverbs”, “reconstructing an 8-cylinder engine”) people do not overestimate their ability, rate themselves worse than their peers

when they have a “minimal threshold of knowledge, theory or experience”, people poorly estimate their own abilities and the abilities of their peers

(p. 1132)collegeclassroom.ucsd.edu #tccucsd

References


26

1. Tobias, S. (1990). They’re Not Dumb, They’re Different: Stalking the Second Tier. Tuscon, AZ: Research Corporation.

2. Scalenghe, S. (November, 2012). Teaching the History of Women in the Middle East and North America. Perspectives on History, 50, 8.http://www.historians.org/perspectives/issues/2012/1211/Teaching-Womens-History-Forum_History-of-Women-in-the-Middle-East-and-North-Africa.cfm

3. Porter, L., Bailey-Lee, C., & Simon, B. (2012). Halving fail rates using peer instruction: a study of four computer science courses. Under review.

4. Kruger, J. & Dunning, D. (1999). Unskilled and unaware of it: How difficulties in recognizing one’s own incompetence lead to inflated self-assessments. Journal of Personality and Social Psychology 77, 1121-1134.


What is not as well understood are the various ways in which this already hard subject [science] is made even harder and more frustrating by the pedagogy itself.

(p. 29)



[my classmates] will have had no training in working collectively. In fact, their experience will have taught them to fear cooperation, and that another person’s intellectual achievement will be detrimental their own.

(p. 24)



[F]or the most part, “why” questions are neither asked nor answered. The preference is for “how” questions…[Eric’s] classmates didn’t appreciate his interruptions, however. They seemed to “lose patience” with his “silly ‘why’ questions.” These got in the way of the mechanics of finding the right solution to their assigned problems.

(p. 20-21)



… students in a science class try to identify people who score well and then constantly compare their scores (or time studying or answers on homework) to their own. I have never been in a class before where my grade had any effect, real or perceived, on anyone else.

(p. 23)



If physicists learned to regard every one of those 250,000 introductory physics students – most of them somewhat better than “ordinary” – as having something valuable to contribute and much to gain from science, there might be no science “crisis” at all.

(p. 32)


Eric’s physics professor: [1]32

I assume the students in [introductory physics] are preprofessionals who have already decided on a career in science and are in class to lean problem-solving techniques that will be required of them in their careers.

(p. 30)



33

My experience to date suggests that one of the most effective teaching strategies is to address all topics in comparative global perspective, drawing particular parallels with the history of women in the United States and Western Europe.



The best classes I had were classes in which I was constantly engaged, constantly questioning and pushing the limits of the subject and myself.

(p. 25)


college classroom week 7 - not dumb, different

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