April 10, 2012

Strategies for using group work in college classes

Are you interested in using group work but uncertain about how to manage this in a class? The Carl Wieman Science Education Initiative at the University of British Columbia created a short video on the use of group work. The video discusses several types of research-based best practices for group activities, how to manage group work to keep the focus on learning, interviews with instructors and students about their experiences with group work, and demonstrations of different types of group activity in classroom settings.

The 15-minute video can be viewed in two parts on YouTube. The link below also provides access to this video in Flash and QuickTime formats.

An interesting strategy illustrated in the second video is the use of tablet-sized white boards that students use during group work on computational problems. The tablets are 12” x 9” dry-erase boards that are large enough to allow students in a group to share their final diagram, written response, or problem solution with the rest of the class in a pair-share activity. Students can easily erase and revise their solutions to problems while they work together as a group, so they are less hesitant to begin work on problems.

Carl Wieman Science Education Initiative

---

September 20, 2011

Not just fun and games! Structure class demonstrations to reinforce learning goals

Classroom demonstrations that illustrate an important process, phenomenon, or application of a concept can generate interest and engage students with course material. Though students enjoy classroom demonstrations, they sometimes remember the activity but do not remember the course learning goals that instructors want to promote when they design the demonstration. An effective demonstration connects student memories of the classroom experience with the concepts the activity was designed to demonstrate.

Strategies that transform an entertaining demonstration into an effective learning experience

• Identify the learning outcome(s) you intend to promote with the classroom demonstration. For example, a demonstration that illustrates a counterintuitive or surprising outcome can be used to identify assumptions that lead students to make erroneous predictions. Students experience surprise at unexpected results, which motivates curiosity and encourages students to give weight and credibility to disciplinary concepts and models that explain these findings.
• Practice the demonstration to ensure it works properly during class.
• Prepare students for the demonstration. Observations are biased by preconceptions (Bransford & Johnson, 1972). Two observers of the same event will remember it differently if they experience the event with different frameworks and expectations (Holst & Pezdek, 1992). Don’t assume students will notice the details you notice or interpret the demonstration in the same way you do. Begin with an explanation that gives students the framework they need to focus their attention on the most relevant aspects of the demonstration. Remind students about the relation between observations during the demonstration and the course material.
• If possible, make students predict the outcome before you conduct the demonstration.
• After the demonstration is finished, ask students to discuss the outcome and their observations with each other and the class as a whole.
• Reinforce the purpose of the demonstration with a debriefing discussion that identifies and explains the principles demonstrated. Explicitly connect the observations from the demonstration to course content and the learning goals for the activity. Use the curiosity elicited by a surprising outcome to focus attention on disciplinary explanations that are based on valid disciplinary assumptions and models rather than the naïve models students used when they made their initial prediction.
• Ask students to take a minute or two to write a reflection on the demonstration. What did they learn from this experience? What was the purpose of including this activity in the class? Reflective writing will reinforce student learning. These essays will also reveal areas that continue to confuse students, which instructors can use to refine the demonstration for use in future classes.

Bransford, J. D., & Johnson, M. K. (1972). Contextual prerequisites for understanding: Some investigations of comprehension and recall.Journal of Verbal Learning and Verbal Behavior, 11, 717-726.

Holst, V. F., & Pezdek, K. (1992). Scripts for typical crimes and their effects on memory for eyewitness testimony.Applied Cognitive Psychology, 6, 573-587.

Pyper, B. A. (2008).Best practices in physics demonstrations or “Oh, I thought this was just for entertainment.” Power Point slides for a presentation at the AAPT UT/ID section meeting, Boise, ID.

03/15/13 lrg