Catherine H. Crouch

ConcepTests in Introductory Physics: What Do Students Get Out of Them?, at American Association of Physics Teachers Winter 2000 Meeting (Kissimmee, FL), Tuesday, January 18, 2000:
ConcepTests (conceptual questions asked during class) are designed to allow the students to think about material that has just been presented, as well as to help the instructor assess students' understanding. Ideally, roughly half of the class answers a ConcepTest correctly on their own; after next discussing their answers with their fellow students, many more agree on the correct answer. We report on students' ability, long after a ConcepTest is asked in class, to explain the answer to a free-response exam question different from the ConcepTest, but involving the same underlying ideas.... Read more about ConcepTests in Introductory Physics: What Do Students Get Out of Them?
How To Get to Know 200 Students (Almost) Overnight, at American Association of Physics Teachers Winter 2000 Meeting (Kissimmee, FL), Monday, January 17, 2000:
Direct interaction between students and teacher is essential to effective teaching. Unfortunately, it is often lacking in large classes. We have developed a system which facilitates efficient asynchronous communication between teacher and students. Students' questions are stored in a database, and the contents of the database are accessed via the Web in various forms. For example, the teacher can review all student questions on a particular topic, prepare a single answer to a common question, and store the answer in the database. Students' grades and pictures are stored with their questions (... Read more about How To Get to Know 200 Students (Almost) Overnight
Peer Instruction: Turning a Lecture Into a Seminar, at Physics Colloquium, Indiana University of Pennsylvania (Indiana, PA), Wednesday, July 21, 1999:
Education is more than just transfer of information, yet that is mostly what happens in large introductory courses – instructors present material (even though this material might be readily available in printed form) and students take down as many notes as they can. This format tends to reinforce the idea that learning is about acquiring information rather than gaining new ways of thinking. In fields such as physics, in which learning consists primarily of developing new thinking skills, this is disastrous. Students get frustrated because their study strategies are inappropriate, and thus... Read more about Peer Instruction: Turning a Lecture Into a Seminar
Peer Instruction: Turning a Lecture Into a Seminar, at NSF Engineering Education Scholars Workshop, Carnegie-Mellon University (Pittsburgh, PA), Tuesday, July 20, 1999:
Education is more than just transfer of information, yet that is what is mostly done in large introductory courses -- instructors present material (even though this material might be readily available in printed form) and students take down as many notes as they can. This lecture format tends to reinforce the idea that learning is about acquiring information rather than gaining a new way of thinking. In fields such as physics, in which learning does consist primarily of developing new thinking skills, this is disastrous. Students get frustrated because they are not succeding, in large part... Read more about Peer Instruction: Turning a Lecture Into a Seminar
Peer Instruction: Turning a Lecture Into a Seminar, at Forum on Education, Optical Society of America Annual Meeting (Baltimore, MD), Thursday, October 8, 1998
With Peer Instruction, the instructor of a large lecture class periodically poses conceptual questions to the students. Students answer these questions individually and then discuss them in small groups. A student described this method as ""turning a lecture into a seminar."" This approach enhances student learning by confronting and correcting student misconceptions and generates student enthusiasm in the process.
Gauging What Students Understand -- In Class, at American Association of Physics Teachers Winter Meeting (New Orleans, LA), Monday, January 5, 1998
In Peer Instruction, the instructor of a large lecture class periodically poses questions to the students; the students think about these questions individually and then discuss them in small groups. A student described this method as ""turning a large lecture into a seminar."" For Peer Instruction to be successful, the instructor needs a way to gauge the students' understanding of a particular question. Instructors around the country have used a show of hands, flash cards, and electronic techniques to learn students¹ answers. We will present our latest findings on the implementation of Peer... Read more about Gauging What Students Understand -- In Class

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