Investigating New Approaches to Teaching

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Investigating New Approaches to Teaching

• Dr. Diane M. Bunce
• Ms. Kathy Havanki
• Chemistry Department
• The Catholic University of America

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Part I Is There a Need for Change?

• As teachers, we
• Study the material
• Prepare our lectures
• Write or select student activities/homework
• Write tests
• Grade papers, record grades
• Act as cheerleader, mentor, and judge to
  encourage students to learn
• So why dont students learn?

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• Students
• Sometimes dont pay attention in class
• Do assignments quickly just to get them done
• Seldom ask for help with enough advance notice to
  do them some good
• Study for the test the night before
• Complain that the test was too hard/unfair
• Tell teachers they studied but still cant do
  well on their tests

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• Whats going on here?
• Are we two trains passing in the night?
• Is there a mismatch between the way we are
  teaching and how students learn?

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• Lets examine this question
• Lets experience the student side of this
  learning equation.

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A Short Lecture on Density

• Density is the ratio of mass to volume
• Density mass
• volume
• Given two of the three quantities, we can
  calculate the third
• V m m D x V
• D

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• Examples of Density for different substances
• Gold D19.3 g/cm3
• Water 1.00 g/cm3
• Sample Problem
• Given a volume of 250 cm3 of ethyl alcohol. If
  the density is 0.789 g/cm3 (at 20.0oC), how many
  gms of ethyl alcohol do you have?

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• Solution
• m D x V
• m 0.789 g x 250. cm3
• 1 cm3
• 197 g

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• Practical Implications
• In 1984 Bhopal, India, at a chemical company,
  there was an accident resulting in the release of
  toxic methyl isocyanate gas into the air. Some
  gases, when released into the air (such as Helium
  will rise and float away). Since methyl
  isocyanate is more dense than air, it settled
  close to the ground where it was inhaled and
  resulted in the death of several hundred people.

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• During the Valdez incident, some of the spilled
  oil was sucked up from the surface before it
  could do much harm. Explain how the chemical
  concept of density entered into this situation.
• In the winter, lakes freeze from the top down.
  Explain this phenomenon in terms of the
  difference in density between ice and liquid
  water.

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Lets Analyze Our Learning Experience

• How long did you stay engaged?
• Research says that most people cannot stay
  focused in a lecture situation for more than 15
  minutes. (And that is if they are VERY interested
  in the topic)
• How well did you learn the material?
• Can you do it on your own (when the teacher is
  not around)?
• Can you explain it to someone who was not at this
  presentation?
• Did you enjoy the learning experience?
• Will you remember anything from the lecture?
• Activity Write down what you remember from the
  lecture

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Lets revisit this topic with a different
teaching approach

• Advance Organizer on the Board at the beginning
  of the presentation
• Density Definition
• Macroscopic
• Particulate
• Symbolic
• Understanding of units
• How does density affect whether something will
  float or sink?
• How is density affected by temperature?

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Teaching Techniques

• Demonstration
• Interactive Discussion
• Prediction and Verification
• ConcepTests
• One minute papers
• Directed Paraphrase

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Revisit Questions

• During the Valdez incident, some of the spilled
  oil was sucked up from the surface before it
  could do much harm. Explain how the chemical
  concept of density entered into this situation.
• In the winter, lakes freeze from the top down.
  Explain this phenomenon in terms of the
  difference in density between ice and liquid
  water.

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Part II Teaching Approach Alternatives

• Continuum of Change
• Small Change
• Start with small changes that dont require a
  complete overhaul of your teaching style
• Medium Change
• Youve tried some teaching alternatives and have
  had some success. You would like to expand your
  involvement.
• Large Change
• Youre convinced that this is the way to teach
  and are no longer happy with the old standby of
  lecturing from notes. You want to make your
  entire teaching style consistent with your newly
  developed teaching philosophy.

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Where are you on the Continuum?

• If you are still thinking about whether it is
  worth a change,
• Consider instituting a small change in your
  teaching approach and examine the results in your
  students.

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Where are you on the Continuum?

• If you have tried some new approaches and have
  been happy with them,
• Take the next step to make more of the students
  experiences consistent with your new found
  philosophy.
• You are starting to think about Constructivism
  which says that learning takes place within the
  mind of the learner.
• The teachers role is help facilitate that
  learning by creating experiences for the learner.

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Where are you on the Continuum?

• If you are convinced that this is the way to go
  but have not yet had time to rethink your course
  so that it is internally consistent, then
• Now is the time to do your planning!
• Ernest von Glaserfeld calls this stage Radical
  Constructivism
• You are convinced this is the right way to teach
  and there is no turning back.
• According to von Glaserfeld, if you become
  convinced that the learner should be in charge of
  his own learning then everything you think about
  how teaching and learning takes place will
  change.

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Examples of some new approaches

• Book
• Classroom Assessment Techniques, A Handbook
  for College Teachers, 2nd Edition
• by Angelo and Cross
• How to plan and implement teaching techniques
• Collection of different teaching techniques to
  use in the classroom according to what you want
  to test
• Prior knowledge, recall, understanding
• Analysis and Critical Thinking
• Application and performance
• Description, Purpose, Suggestions for Use, Step
  by Step Procedure, Collecting Data to see if it
  worked, Ideas for Adapting the Approach,
  Estimates of time and energy required.

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Small Change

• One minute papers p. 148
• Purpose To check how well students are learning
• Procedures
• Stop class two minutes early
• Ask students to write on index card or half sheet
  of paper
• What was the most important thing you learned
  during this class?
• What important questions still remain unanswered?
• Before the next class, review the sheets and
  respond to the often asked questions as recorded
  on the sheet

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Medium Change

• Word Journals p. 188
• Purpose Focus on student ability to read
  carefully and deeply. Assesses skill and
  creativity at summarizing what has been read.
  Assesses student skill at explaining and
  defending their logic in choice of a summary word
• Procedure
• Student reads a short section of book or reviews
  a days notes
• Student selects one word to summarize the topic
• Student writes a paragraph to explain why he/she
  chose that word to summarize the text.

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Medium Change

• Invented Dialogues p. 203
• Purpose Students synthesize their knowledge of
  issues, personalities, and historical periods
  into a carefully constructed conversation.

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Medium Change Invented Dialogues

• Procedure
• Have students work in pairs.
• Select a controversial issue.
• Develop a handout that includes
• A short dialogue (about 20 exchanges long) to use
  as an example.
• Instructions to help students get started
  including
• topic,
• time and
• length guidelines,
• your expectations in regards to citations,
• list of criteria for a successful dialogue.

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Medium Change Invented Dialogues

• Object is to create an original, lively,
  persuasive, natural sounding and self-contained
  dialogue.

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Medium Change

• Mathematical problem solving
• Identifying problem type p. 214
• Purpose Assess how well students can recognize
  problem types (first step in successfully solving
  problems)

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Medium Change Mathematical Problem Solving

• Procedures
• Provide students with several different but
  related problems on the same topic.
• Students then categorize problems by type
• Ex. Boyles Law, Charles Law, etc.

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Medium Change

• Directed Paraphrase
• Purpose Practice translating technical
  information into everyday language.

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Medium Change Directed Paraphrase

• Procedures
• Select a topic with real world implications.
• Ex. Bhopal chemical spill, Valdez oil spill,
  etc.
• Select a realistic but challenging audience as
  the target
• Ex. Readership of a local newspaper, Senior
  Citizens center, Borders Book Club, Youth group
  at Church, an older relative like a grandparent,
  or a younger sibling.
• Provide students with the following information
• Who their intended audience is
• What their purpose is in teaching the topic to
  this audience
• Limit on length of written paraphrase
• Have students write out an explanation of the
  topic for this audience

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Medium Change

• Application cards
• Purpose Students generate real world example of
  principle they are studying.

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Medium Change Application Cards

• Procedures
• Select a topic
• Put students in groups
• Hand out index cards
• Have students develop their own fresh
  applications of the topic.
• This application cannot be a rehashing of
  something they have seen or read in class.
• Example another example of how the concept of
  density is used in cosmetics, medicine, food
  products, drug enforcement, etc.
• If there is classroom access to the Internet,
  this will provide a rich source of information
• If students searching skills are not highly
  developed, this could also result in a lot of
  wasted time.
• In that case, provide books or bookmarked
  websites.

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Large Change

• Student-generated Test Questions
• Purpose Investigate what students consider the
  important points, what constitute fair and useful
  test questions, and how well they can answer
  these questions.

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Large change Student generated Test Questions

• Procedures
• Focus on test that is at least 3 weeks away
• Put students in groups of four.
• Write specifications regarding the kinds of
  questions you want
• Ex. A question to test whether someone
  understands the principle behind a concept such
  as the Gas Law-- PVk
• Have students write test questions.
• Have students exchange questions with another
  group
• Can that group solve the problem?
• How does the second group think the question
  could be improved?
• Second group writes a constructive and specific
  critique.
• Critiques are returned to original group for
  implementation.
• Original group incorporates or defends not
  incorporating changes and generates a detailed
  answer key.
• The edited question(s) are presented to the
  class, assigned to the class for homework, and/or
  graded.

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Part II Small Groups

• For the next 45 minutes, assemble in your
  departmental groups and then subdivide into
  smaller groups of 3-4
• Pick a common lesson or concept
• Complete the worksheet
• Describe how you currently teach the subconcepts
  of this particular concept
• Select at least one alternative teaching approach
  and describe how you would use it to teach the
  subconcepts of your lesson.
• Reassemble here ready to make a one minute report
  on your new implementation.